THIS WEEKEND

IN THE SEATTLE AREA

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT - You are invited to attend Rozarii Lynch's CONNECTIONS Photo Exhibit & Reception this Saturday, July 19, 6 pm - 9 pm at Studio Lucile, Bemis Building, 55 S Atlantic St, Seattle. Photographed exclusively for Irish Week 2014, and exhibited during the Irish Festival at the Seattle Center last March, CONNECTIONS was so well received that it is having a second reception in Seattle before traveling. The exhibit is a collection of abstract images of things found around Seattle, and why they remind and connect us with Ireland. For information, visit rozariiphotography.com.

ROAD BOWLING - The 8th Annual Irish Road Bowling Association Tournament on Vashon Island is this Saturday July 19th at 2 pm, following the 11 am Vashon Island Strawberry Festival Parade. Starting point is at SW 220th St and Old Mill Road, and all attendees are encouraged to participate - islanders, tourists and roadbowling wannabees. For more information, visit the website of the Road Bowling Association of Ireland, read the lighthearted History of Road Bowling on Vashon Island  or contact vashonroadbowling@seanet.com.

PRE-CRUISE CONCERT - The Danny O'Flaherty Irish Folk Music Alaskan Cruise leaves Seattle on Sunday, July 20, and there will be a pre-Cruise Concert at the Owl 'n Thistle, 808 Post Ave (at Columbia) on Saturday evening, July 19. In addition to Seattle's own Jack Geary, performers will include Danny O'Flaherty, Aoife Clancy (daughter of Bobby of the legendary Clancy brothers), Tom Sweeney (grandson of Sarah Makem), Chris Andrews, and more! For details, visit owlnthistle.com.

ANNIVERSARY MASS - This Sunday July 20, at the 10:30 am Mass at Holy Rosary Church in west Seattle (4139 42nd Ave SW), Fr. John Madigan (seen in a 1975 photo) celebrates the 40th anniversary of his Ordination as a priest in 1974. Sunday's Mass will also be a Memorial for his 93-year-old mother, Margaret Madigan, who died in Ireland on May 10. In 1974, Fr. John was the last Irish-born priest to come to the Seattle Archdiocese directly after Ordination and he has been involved in area's Irish community ever since, even playing Gaelic Football with the Seattle Gaels in his younger days. In February 2012, the Irish Bishops and Seattle's Archbishop jointly officially appointed Fr. John as Chaplain to Seattle's Irish Community.

NEXT WEEKEND

IN THE SEATTLE AREA

SEATTLE GAELS AUCTION - The Seattle Gaels annual auction is Friday, July 25 at Fadó Irish Pub & Restaurant, 801 1st Ave, Seattle, starting at 7 pm. The event features live and silent auctions, food, beverage specials, and raffle giveaways, and all the details are on the Gaels Facebook page. The auction helps pay for equipment, practice and game fields, expenses associated with participating in the North American Finals (this year in Boston on the Labor Day weekend), and much more! Also being auctioned by the Gaels on eBay is a hurley stick autographed by all the members of the 2014 Co. Tipperary hurling team - check SeattleGaels.com for more details.

IRISH PICNIC - Seattle's Irish Community Picnic is Noon - 6 pm, Sunday, July 27, at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah (exit # 15 off I-90). Games and fun for the entire family, and all are welcome. Free hot dogs and hamburgers will be provided but bring your own drink and a dessert to be shared. There's a covered picnic area and several BBQ grills if you bring charcoal. Hurling game starts at 1 pm followed by games and fun for the entire family - tug-o-war, sack-races, water balloon toss, etc. For details, email Picnic@irishclub.org or call 425-290-7839.

MORE SEATTLE EVENTS

IRISH MUSIC WEEK - Cascadia Irish Music Week is August 10-16 at Camp Casey Conference Center on Whidbey Island. If you're thinking of registering for this year's camp please don't delay. There's still room in all classes for both children and adults, but we are committed to keeping the class sizes reasonable and will close registration for individual classes when they reach their capacity. This year's teachers include the Mulcahy Family, Randal Bays, Johnny Og Connolly, Sean Gavin, John McEvoy, John Blake, and more. If you're interested in Irish traditional music, Cascadia Irish Week is the place to be this summer. For more information, visit CascadiaIrish.org.

GAELIC HEADSTONE - On Friday evening, August 15, at 4:30 pm, Irish musicians will gather for a tune in Sunnyside Cemetery in Coupeville at the 1860s Maylor headstone that carries an inscription in old Irish Gaelic script. When Máire Maylor, a native of Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, died on Whidbey Isalnd in 1861, her husband had the headstone engraved in Ireland and brought it back to Whidbey Island where it was erected in 1863. Musicians and others are invited to meet at the headstone on August 15 at 4:30 pm and for dinner afterwards at Camp Casey before the Friday evening Irish Music Camp Concert. However, advance dinner reservations are required. For more information, visit IrishClub.org/headstone.

BECKETT FESTIVAL - From August through November, almost 20 theatre companies in Seattle will produce a Seattle Beckett Festival celebrating the works of Samuel Beckett, an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director and poet, who was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature. Beckett's work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humor. The festival will feature performances of Beckett's plays (such as Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Act Without Words parts I & II, Krapps Last Tape with Irish actor Sean Griffin at Seattle University, etc.), along with readings of his poetry and prose, film screenings, master classes on Beckett, and much more. Organized by Seattle Shakespeare Company & Theatre Puget Sound, performances will be held in various Seattle venues! Visit seattlebeckettfest.org for details.

OTHER SEATTLE NEWS

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray & Irish Ambassador Anne Anderson

AMBASSADORIAL VISIT - Anne Anderson, Ireland's first woman Ambassador to the United States, made a short visit to Seattle arriving on June 23 and leaving the next day. While in Seattle, she spoke at a business breakfast, at a noon Irish community luncheon and visited the Irish Glass Exhibit at Tacoma's Museum of Glass. She also attended the June 23 swearing-in ceremony of her friend Kathleen O'Toole as Seattle's new Police Chief.

LEADERSHIP BREAKFAST - Ambassador Anderson was the guest speaker at a Women in Business Leadership Initiative breakfast at the Rainier Club that was cosponsored by Irish Network Seattle and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. The event attracted over 160 attendees, the vast majority of whom were businesswomen, and Anderson's anecdotes, advice and words of encouragement captivated the crowd. Speaking to the challenges that women face while maintaining a work-life balance, Anderson also shared personal stories of her own life. For photos from the breakfast, visit the Seattle Chamber's website.

Clay model of the statue

ST. PATRICK STATUE -The 6-ft tall granite statue of St. Patrick has been ordered and work will begin later this year to have it erected on a 2½ foot granite base at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Kent. Members of the Irish community and of the Knights of Columbus have already donated the funds needed to fund the project. Founded in 1880 by Richard O'Connell from Co. Limerick, St. Patrick Cemetery, at Orillia Rd and S 204th St in Kent, is the Seattle area's only Irish Pioneer cemetery. For more information, visit Statue.pdf.

POLICE CHIEF - The appointment of Kathleen O'Toole as Seattle's first woman Police Chief was approved by Seattle City Council on June 23. O'Toole lived in Ireland from 2006-2012 when she served as Chief Inspector of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, a body responsible for bringing reform, best practice and accountability to Ireland's 17,000 member police force. The Seattle Police Force numbers about 1,820 members. O'Toole's grandparents were born in Athlone, Co. Westmeath and her husband's grandparents were from Cong, Co. Mayo.

WATCH #11 - 21 year old Aaron Kovar, son of Dubliner Bernie Creaven, recently made his Seattle Sounders FC debut after signing in January as a home grown player. Aaron was named 'Man of the Match' after assisting in two goals in the game against PSA Elite helping the Sounders advance to the fifth round of the Open Cup. In the past he has played for the U-18 National Team before being named Washington State Gatorade Player of the Year. Now the big question is, as a dual Irish-US citizen, will he declare for Ireland or the USA?

CONGRATULATIONS - To Fr. William Treacy, the Seattle area's senior Irish-born priest who recently celebrated his 95th birthday and the 70th anniversary of his ordination as a priest in Ireland. Best known for the hugely popular interfaith TV program, "Challenge" on KOMO-TV from 1960-1974, Treacy and Rabbi Raphael Levine in 1967 founded Camp Brotherhood near Mount Vernon (today called Cascadia Center at Camp Brotherhood). Born in Borris-on-Ossory, Co. Laois, Treacy came to the Seattle area from Ireland in 1945.

STATISTICS EXPERT - Professor Adrian E. Raftery, Professor of Statistics at the University of Washington, recently presented the inaugural Gosset Lecture in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. Identified as the world's most cited researcher in mathematics for an entire decade (1995-2005), Dubliner Adrian was also inducted as a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He is currently on leave from the UW and is serving as a Visiting Professor at the School of Mathematical Sciences, University College Dublin.

LAW FELLOW - Eamon Maguire, a native of Belfast who has attended Trinity College Dublin, the Dublin Institute of Technology and Manchester University of Law, is the 2014 Thomas Addis Emmet Fellow in International Public Interest Law and is spending two months working in public-interest law with Seattle's Appleseed Foundation. Founded in 1997, the law fellowship program is named for a hero of Ireland's 1798 United Irishmen rebellion. Sponsored by the UW and Ireland's Free Legal Advice Centers, the fellowship program is supported by Seattle's Irish Heritage Club. 

IRISH ENTREPRENEURS - About 110 Irish Entrepreneurs were in Seattle and Vancouver, BC, the week of May 25-30 as part of a program promoting entrepreneurship across Ireland and empowering entrepreneurs to grow their businesses both in Ireland and around the world. The group was accompanied by an Irish Times reporter and also by an RTE TV crew. See photos of the Entrepreneurs' visit to Seattle and Vancouver.

LIAM THE MOTIVATOR - Liam Griffin conducted a hurling clinic for the Seattle Gaels in May when he was in Seattle to speak to the Irish Entrepreneurs, and RTE later broadcast a piece on Irish TV about the Seattle Gaels and the hurling clinic. Griffin is known as a wonderful motivator and in 1996 he managed the Wexford hurling team to an All-Ireland Hurling title, the county's first title in 28 years. Here is a link to a transcript of his speech to the team before the Leinster final that year where Wexford defeated Offaly by 8 points.

GALWAY MAYOR - Councilor Donal Lyons has been elected Mayor of Galway, Seattle's Irish sister city. Now an Independent councilor, Donal was formerly a Progressive Democrat and served as Mayor of Galway from 2001-2002 during which time he visited Seattle.

MISCELLANEOUS 

•  Good luck to Irish Heritage Club President Justin McMahon who is a candidate for State Representative in the 21st District (Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mukilteo area) in the primary election on August 5.
• The Irish Book Club meets on August 25 in north Seattle - email hudit@comcast.net for details.
• All GAA Hurling and Football games are telecast live from Ireland at Fadó Irish Pub, 1st and Columbia, downtown Seattle. Visit fadoirishpub.com for details.
• The City of Yelm near Olympia has had a sister city relationship with Ferns, Co. Wexford, since 1996
• Congratulations to Mícheál Keane's significant other, Melissa Ryan, who was recently profiled as a 2014 Rising Star by Campaigns & Elections, the preeminent journal of the political consulting profession.
• Save The Date: the 2014 Irish Reels Film Festival is October 24-26.

ECONOMIC NEWS 

FROM IRELAND

CREDIT UPGRADE - Standard & Poor's has restored an A rating to Irish sovereign debt, the first major rating agency to do so since the country's return to the international bond markets. In a significant boost, the agency raised Ireland's credit rating by one notch to A- from BBB+, with a positive outlook. It cited an improved outlook for growth and more signs of recovery in the domestic economy as the rationale for its upgrade.

GOOD REPORTS - A Forbes.com article says:"Headlines were made earlier today as Ireland's ten year borrowing costs dropped below the UK's for the first time in six years. Given that it only recently exited a bailout program and not long ago was mired in the worst crisis in a generation, this is a pretty astonishing turnaround."

WEXFORD COMPANY - In a profile of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford-based tech firm Sonru.com, Forbes.com also writes about "How An Irish Tech Entrepreneur Is Giving Global Recruiters The Edge". The name Sonru.com originates from the Irish phrase 'Bí le sonrú' which means to "stand out".

COMPETITIVE IRELAND - The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2014 ranks Ireland 15th in overall competitiveness compared to 59 other countries. The US was ranked # 1 with the UK just behind Ireland in 16th place. Ireland was in 17th place last year. The report measures how countries manage economic and human resources to increase prosperity based on statistical criteria and a survey of 4,300 international executives. Ireland was in 10th position in terms of competitiveness when ranked against countries with populations of fewer than 20 million people.

INVEST HERE - Saying that "Capital investors only invest where they are confident they will earn a meaningful return, and these locations deliver that confidence", the sixth Global 'Best to Invest Report' lists Ireland as the best Western European country to invest in. In the Top 10 list of the best metropolitan areas to invest in, the list has Dublin in third place with Limerick ninth. The report was compiled by Site Selection, an international magazine focusing on corporate real estate strategy and area economic development.

DUBLIN SUBURB - Bloomberg News reports that a site for a new suburb south of Dublin near Carrickmines is being offered for sale with an asking price of more than $300 million. The buyer of the 400-acre site at Cherrywood can build 407,000 square feet of stores, more than 3,800 homes and about 235,000 square feet of office buildings. The project, covering an area larger than London's Hyde Park, still needs local government approval.

ECONOMIC NEWS 

FROM IRELAND

CREDIT UPGRADE - Standard & Poor's has restored an A rating to Irish sovereign debt, the first major rating agency to do so since the country's return to the international bond markets. In a significant boost, the agency raised Ireland's credit rating by one notch to A- from BBB+, with a positive outlook. It cited an improved outlook for growth and more signs of recovery in the domestic economy as the rationale for its upgrade.

GOOD REPORTS - A Forbes.com article says:"Headlines were made earlier today as Ireland's ten year borrowing costs dropped below the UK's for the first time in six years. Given that it only recently exited a bailout program and not long ago was mired in the worst crisis in a generation, this is a pretty astonishing turnaround."

WEXFORD COMPANY - In a profile of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford-based tech firm Sonru.com, Forbes.com also writes about "How An Irish Tech Entrepreneur Is Giving Global Recruiters The Edge". The name Sonru.com originates from the Irish phrase 'Bí le sonrú' which means to "stand out".

COMPETITIVE IRELAND - The IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2014 ranks Ireland 15th in overall competitiveness compared to 59 other countries. The US was ranked # 1 with the UK just behind Ireland in 16th place. Ireland was in 17th place last year. The report measures how countries manage economic and human resources to increase prosperity based on statistical criteria and a survey of 4,300 international executives. Ireland was in 10th position in terms of competitiveness when ranked against countries with populations of fewer than 20 million people.

INVEST HERE - Saying that "Capital investors only invest where they are confident they will earn a meaningful return, and these locations deliver that confidence", the sixth Global 'Best to Invest Report' lists Ireland as the best Western European country to invest in. In the Top 10 list of the best metropolitan areas to invest in, the list has Dublin in third place with Limerick ninth. The report was compiled by Site Selection, an international magazine focusing on corporate real estate strategy and area economic development.

DUBLIN SUBURB - Bloomberg News reports that a site for a new suburb south of Dublin near Carrickmines is being offered for sale with an asking price of more than $300 million. The buyer of the 400-acre site at Cherrywood can build 407,000 square feet of stores, more than 3,800 homes and about 235,000 square feet of office buildings. The project, covering an area larger than London's Hyde Park, still needs local government approval.

OTHER NEWS

FROM IRELAND

DIASPORA MINISTER - In a cabinet reshuffle, Ireland's Taoiseach (PM) Enda Kenny has appointed Kerryman Jimmy Deenihan as Minister of State for the Diaspora. This first time ever ministerial appointment is official acknowledgement of the numbers of Irish people living outside Ireland where it is estimated that 70 million people claim Irish heritage. US census figures from 2012 show approximately 36 million Irish Americans, down from 39 million as recently as 2000. Among the issues the new Minister will face is how to help the estimated 50,000 undocumented Irish living in the US and the Constitutional Convention recommendation that Irish citizens living abroad be permitted to vote in the next Irish presidential election.

NEW TÁNAISTE - Joan Burton is the new leader of Ireland's Labor Party and as such is Ireland's new Tánaiste (deputy PM). Following elections held in 2011, the Labor Party and the Fine Gael Party headed by Taoiseach (PM) Enda Kenny, formed a Coalition government to run the country until the next Irish general election which must take place no later than 3 April 2016. Since Fine Gael is the larger of the two parties, its leader also becomes Taoiseach. Burton replaces Eamon Gilmore who resigned in May as Labor Leader.

#1 "GOODEST" - Ireland is the 'goodest' country in the world in 2013 as listed in the Good Country Index measuring 125 nations to determine how much each country contributes to the planet and to the human race. The Index analyses 35 different types of data and countries are then ranked according to their contribution to science and technology, culture, international peace and security, world order, the planet and climate, prosperity and equality, and the health and well-being of humanity.

BROOKS CANCELLATION - After a week of controversy, country music singer Garth Brook cancelled his Irish concerts scheduled for later this month for which 400,000 tickets were already sold. Brooks was starting his new world tour with five dates in Ireland, but local authorities would not grant permits for five nightly shows in a row at Dublin's Croke Park. The cancellation is expected to result in a loss of almost $340 million for Dublin, and will disrupt travel plans for thousands of fans who had already booked flights, hotels and tours. An estimated 70,000 people from overseas had planned to attend the concerts.

THE TWELFTH - For the first time in recent years, the 12th of July celebrations in Northern Ireland, particularly in north Belfast, passed off without any major incidents. The Grand Master of the Orange Lodge of Ireland has also publicly invited Irish President Michael D. Higgins to take part in the organization's only annual parade in the Republic of Ireland, a parade of 7-10,000 Orange Order followers annually held in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal during the week prior to the Twelfth. He says the invite was prompted by the "momentous State visit" by Queen Elizabeth to the Republic in 2011.

SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE - Millions will go to the polls in Scotland on September 18 to decide whether Scotland will become an independent country for the first time in 300 years. The result could have a major effect on Ireland, especially in Northern Ireland. The Chicago Tribune says that Northern Ireland's Loyalists are worried about the effect a Scottish vote for independence would have, saying "A Scottish exit would be a huge psychological blow". The Irish government says only that a Scottish exit from the UK would "insert profound uncertainty into Anglo-Irish relations".

TUAM BABIES - Records uncovered by Irish historian Catherine Corless showed 796 newborns and older infants died at a Tuam, Co. Galway, mother-and-baby home from 1925-1961, an average of 22 per year. However, despite worldwide reports, she claims she never said to anyone  that 800 bodies were dumped in a septic tank. The building and land had been in use as a workhouse and mother and baby home since the 1840s, but it is not established when the buried bodies date from, or if any precede the operation of the home from 1925. Because of the reports, there is growing pressure on the Irish government to hold a full historical inquiry into the deaths and circumstances of the babies' burial.

SEPTIC TANK BURIALS - In the middle of all the sensational stories and headlines, Forbes carried a story headlined: That Story About Irish Babies In A Septic Tank: Here's Why It's A Hoax. The story starts by saying "recent reports about the bones of 796 babies being found in the septic tank of an Irish orphanage betray a degree of cynicism and irresponsibility rarely surpassed by allegedly reputable news organizations." After outlining the facts of the situation, the article concludes that 'The one "fact" that turned all this from a disturbing national story to a screaming global sensation is one that is almost certainly false.'

INFANT MORTALITY - The infant mortality rate in Ireland in 1950 was 41.42 per 1,000 births, while today it's 3.85 per 1,000 births. In the USA, the 1950 infant mortality rate was 30.46 per 1,000 births while today its 5.2 per 1,000 births. Over the first half of the 1900s, thousands of children died from ailments like typhus, measles, TB, whooping cough, influenza, bronchitis, meningitis and malnutrition, among other illnesses.

US AMBASSADOR - President Obama has nominated Missouri lawyer Kevin O'Malley to be the next US ambassador to Ireland. A well-known trial lawyer with a long record of public service, O'Malley is a second-generation Irish American whose grandfather came from Co Mayo. He will fill the role vacated almost 18 months ago by Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney.

EU AMBASSADOR - Irishman David O'Sullivan has been appointed EU Ambassador to the US, seen as a coup for Ireland coming less than five years after former Taoiseach John Bruton completed his term as EU ambassador in Washington. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, O'Sullivan will replace current Ambassador Joao Vale de Almeida in September.

ROBINSON ENVOY - Former Irish President Mary Robinson is to become the UN's special envoy for climate change. She will focus on her new role in the run-up to a climate summit at the UN's New York headquarters in late-September. A former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, her latest UN mandate will run until the crucial Paris climate summit in December next year, at which a comprehensive agreement on how to tackle global warming is expected to be reached.

JOYCE LETTERS - Letters written by James Joyce are among the many Joyce items that you can now be read on the National Library of Ireland's website. Included are 90 letters Joyce wrote to his family, 42 of which relate to his last work, Finnegans Wake. There are also 21 documents of drafts, fair copies and typescripts of poems. The NLI also houses a large collection of Joycean material, including Copy No 1 of Ulysses, the first copy of the first edition of the novel that was published in 1922.

ART EXHIBIT - A new exhibition at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle displays works of art never before seen in public. The A - Z: from Amulet to Zodiac exhibition offers an alphabetical tour of precious objects chosen to explore links between Western, Islamic and East Asian culture. The items on display include French Revolutionary Tribunal records of Marie Antoinette's trial and execution, jade snuff bottles, and medieval Books of Hours which were produced for private religious devotion. The library is named for Alfred Chester Beatty who was born in New York in 1875 and made his fortune in mining before relocating to London and pursuing his interests in collecting minerals, rare books, manuscripts and paintings. He moved to Ireland in 1950 and his collection was entrusted to the Irish people upon his death in 1968.

POOLBEG STACKS - It has been proposed that Dublin's iconic twin chimney stacks at the Poolbeg power generating plant in Dublin Bay could be transformed into a major tourist attraction by wrapping them in spiral ramps and creating a "sky bridge" between the two towers. The candy-striped chimneys, which are 680 feet high, have dominated the Dublin skyline since they were built more than 30 years ago, but the generating plant on Dublin Bay was closed in 2010.

BRITISH OPEN - The British Open Golf Championship will return to Ireland for the first time since 1951, with Co. Antrim's Royal Portrush expected to host the tournament as early as 2019. The R&A's decision follows Portrush's successful staging of the Irish Open in 2012. 63 years ago Max Faulkner won the British Open at Royal Portrush, the only British Open to be staged outside England and Scotland.

McILROY IRISH - Golfer Rory McIlroy has confirmed he will represent Ireland in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. Born in Northern Ireland, McIlroy could have played for Great Britain, but he says "For me it is the right decision to play for Ireland." McIlroy won a European Team Championship with Ireland as an amateur and played all of his amateur golf under the auspices of the Golfing Union of Ireland. Although McIlroy is Catholic, two other top Northern Ireland golfers, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell, are Protestants who have also declared for Ireland.

SMOKING BAN - The NY Times writes about the 10th anniversary of Ireland's ban on smoking in pubs and other businesses, and says "studies in 2013 show a 26% post-ban reduction in heart disease throughout Ireland and a 32% decline in strokes, suggesting that over a decade the smoking ban may have saved more than 3,700 lives."

BLOOMSDAY - June 16, 2014 marked the 110th anniversary of the events featured in James Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses. The novel is celebrated each year around the world on June 16, a date known as Bloomsday after the main character, Leopold Bloom. Traditional celebrations in Ireland include readings from Ulysses and re-enacting the events of Leopold Bloom's day, from his breakfast of pork kidneys to his visits to various Dublin establishments and Glasnevin Cemetery - in full period costume! Bloomsday was also celebrated in Seattle where The Wild Geese Players did a reading at the Seattle Central Library.

SENIORS CONNECTION - Irish Senior Connect has launched in Chicago, building on the successful implementation of the program in Boston. The program is dedicated to providing seniors with a listening ear and a response that conveys empathy and respect, alleviating feelings of isolation and loneliness within the senior community through telephone contact, well-being calls and community referrals. Sponsored by the Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers, funding is provided in part by the Irish government. The phone number for Chicago Irish Senior Connect is 855-249-5146.

GUILFORD4 DEATH - Gerry Conlon, who spent 15 years in a British jail in one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in British legal history, has died in Belfast at the age of 60. Conlon was one of four Irishmen, the Guildford Four, who were jailed for life for an IRA bombing in 1974. The judge told the four that, had capital punishment been available, he would have had them all executed. But in 1989 Britain's Court of Appeal quashed all the sentences after concluding that police had fabricated confessions and other evidence. In 2005, British Prime Minister Tony Blair publicly apologized to them, saying "That is why I am making this apology today - they deserve to be completely and publicly exonerated".

PRISON TREATMENT - In a 2009 article, Conlon wrote about his treatment in prison "They would urinate in our food, defecate in it, put glass in it. Our cell doors would be left open for us to be beaten and they would come in with batteries in socks to beat us over the head." Conlon was portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis in the 1993 film In the Name Of the Father which was based on Conlon's autobiography. Conlon's father, who died in prison in 1980, was also found to have been wrongly imprisoned as a member of the group known as the Maguire Seven. In 1991, another six Irishmen, known as the Birmingham Six, were also exonerated by a British Count of Appeal.

DUBLIN BOMBINGS - Forty years ago this past May 17, three no-warning bombs ripped through Dublin, and an hour later, another bomb exploded in the town of Monaghan, killing 33 people and injuring more than 300. While there are credible allegations that elements of the British army helped a loyalist paramilitary group from Northern Ireland carry out the bombings, nobody has ever been charged. On the anniversary, the New York Times said that although problems still exist, "a whole generation has grown up without the daily litany of violence".

IRISH STAMPS - The Irish Harp and Bodhrán will feature on two new stamps issued by An Post (Irish Post Office) in recognition of Ireland's contribution to music, and the development of musical instruments. The Bodhrán on the 60c stamp actually belonged to noted Irish Wildlife film maker and traditional Irish musician, Éamon de Buitléar, the late father of Róisín de Buitléar who was Honorary Grand Marshal of this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade in Seattle.

DUBLINERS ANNIVERSARY - This year marks the centenary of the publication of Dubliners, a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce. Joyce was 23 when he wrote most of the stories which depict Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century. He submitted the book 18 times to 15 different publishers before it was finally published on June 15, 1914. The book's last story, The Dead was adapted into a film by John Huston. 

ULYSSES BIOGRAPHY - A new book about Ulysses is called "The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses". Among the tidbits disclosed is that the 1914 short-story collection "Dubliners" by mid-1917 had earned "exactly two and a half shillings in royalties." The novel's very first review in the London Observer declared Joyce to be a genius, but said the book was "the vilest, according to ordinary standards, in all literature. And yet its very obscenity is somehow beautiful and wrings the soul to pity."

IRISH SOLDIERS' JUSTICE? - A Lebanese man accused of killing two Irish soldiers in 1980 in Lebanon, was arrested Tuesday in Dearborn, Michigan, on an immigration violation charge. He may also finally face charges associated with the torture killings of two Irish soldiers who were assigned to a United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon in 1980. The killings were said to be revenge for the death of the man's younger brother in a skirmish with Irish troops about 10 days earlier. While he now denies being involved, the man boasted about the killings on TV afterwards, two eyewitnesses also say he was the leader of the group that abducted the soldiers, and another Irish soldier who was shot and managed to escape also has identified the man.

SAMANTHA POWER - In a Vanity Fair profile of Samantha Power, the Irish-born US Ambassador to the UN, the magazine says " ... perhaps her Irish roots account for her transparent warmth, a fierce articulate intelligence in support, a certain humor." The article also notes that "She retains a light Irish brogue, though not her Gaelic. ...'When I learned Spanish, that displaced whatever Irish was left ...'"

SECRET SPOTS - Number 5 on Lonely Planet's list of Europe's top 50 secret spots for travelers is Jack's Coastguard Restaurant and the Cromane Peninsula in Co. Kerry, a short detour from the better known Ring of Kerry. "The peninsula's tiny namesake village sits at the base of a narrow shingle spit, with open fields giving way to spectacular water vistas and multihued sunsets". Also on the list of secret spots is Sean Kavanaghs, aka The Gravediggers Pub located beside Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

BAD TRAFFIC? - Dublin is the 10th most congested city in the world, just behind Los Angeles, according to a report which found Dublin is the sixth most congested city in Europe with a congestion of 35% - meaning, on average, travel times in the city were 35% longer than they would be in free-flowing, uncongested, conditions. The situation was even worse at rush hours. In the morning rush-hour, travel times were 74% longer than free-flow traffic, while, in the evening, travel times were nearly as bad at 71%. The most congested day in Dublin in 2013 was Friday, October 18th.

BEST HOTEL - Castlewood House in Dingle, Co. Kerry was voted in sixth place in the world in the 2014 Travellers' Choice Hotels with Exceptional Service awards, while being the number one hotel in Ireland. Overlooking Dingle Bay, the four star Castlewood House is located just a five minute walk from the center of town.

ALL-HALLOWS - Dublin's All Hallows College, which dates to 1842 when it was founded as a college to train priests for foreign missions, is closing. Over the years, as many as 5,000 priests went from All-Hallows to some of the world's major cities including to Seattle. The first recorded Irish priest in the state of Washington was Fr. Michael King from Co. Offaly who was ordained in 1853 at All Hallows for the "Diocese of Nesqualy, Oregon" and who served in Vancouver, Washington. Since 2008, All Hallows has been operating as a college of Dublin City University. The college had recently been at the center of controversy when it offered and later withdrew from auction a cache of letters written by Jackie Kennedy between 1950 and 1964.

WWI MEMORIAL - The city of Waterford recently unveiled a specially commissioned memorial to the youngest recorded casualty on the Allied side in the First World War. Waterford-born Private John Condon died on May 24, 1915 in Flanders Field at the age of 14. As the 'Youngest Known Battle Casualty of the War', Condon's grave is one of the most visited of the war graves at Poelkapelle near Ypres. The new monument is also dedicated to all men and women from Waterford who died in armed conflicts.

WWII BODY - The body of Col. Eugene Smith, a native of Lavey, Co Cavan, was among the recently recovered remains of US service members who perished in a 1952 military plane crash in Southcentral Alaska. Smith will be buried later this month in Wilmington beside the grave of his parents. Smith emigrated from Ireland as a child and in 1942 was commissioned in the US military police. His crowning glory came in 1946 when he brought court martial proceedings against three US officers who had stolen more than $30m worth of jewels and gold in the robbery known as the Hesse jewel heist. 17 service members were killed in the 1952 air disaster when the plane crashed into Mount Gannett during bad weather.

DRUGS, SHE WROTE- Veteran actress Angela Lansbury, the star of Murder, She Wrote whose mother was born in Belfast, said in a Daily Mail interview she is convinced both her children would have died from drug overdoses if the family had not moved to Ireland in 1970. Living in California in the 1960s, her son got hooked on heroin and cocaine and her daughter became close to the Manson Family cult. In a desperate bid to rescue them, Lansbury and her husband moved the family to Co. Cork. The move worked and both children were successfully freed from drugs. Lansbury still has the house in Cork and visits at least once a year.

CLIFF DIVING - Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands, last month hosted the first European stop on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2014. Inis Mór is home to the legendary Serpent's Lair -- 'Poll na Peist' in Irish -- a naturally rectangular 'blowhole' which spurts out water each day as high tide approaches. The divers this year had unexpectedly warm weather and a completely different high-diving experience compared to two years ago, when the divers dealt with the typically Irish weather of four seasons in one day.

STUDENT SURVEY - A survey of 4,631 students in Ireland found that, among the respondents, 74% have no student debt while 13% have debts of over $1,350. 58% have never sampled any illicit drugs, while the vast majority does not smoke. Over 90% say they consume alcohol, but of those who have tried illegal drugs, 27% have tried marijuana, 7.5% ecstasy while just three respondents admitted to dabbling in heroin use. 76% of the responding students are considering emigration from Ireland following graduation.

HURLING HISTORY - Hurling is arguably the fastest field sport in the world and quite possibly the oldest. It has been a distinct Irish pastime for at least 2000 years. There are many references to the game of hurling in the centuries before the birth of Christ and there is evidence that hurling was an essential part of life for young men preparing to be warriors. The most famous warrior of all was Cuchulainn who, as the boy Setanta, engaged in great deeds of hurling. Played by mythical heroes, noblemen and warriors, the earliest reference to hurling appears to be about 1272 BC at the battle of Moytura, near Cong in County Mayo. The Firbolgs were rulers of Ireland and while preparing for battle against the invading Tuatha de Danaan, the Firbolgs challenged the invaders to a hurling contest in which teams of 27-a-side took part. The Firbolgs won the contest but lost the ensuing battle!

BREHON HURLING LAWS - The Brehon Laws, Ireland's own indigenous system of law dating from Celtic times until the 17th century, had laws providing for compensation for injuries arising out of participation in hurling. It was a punishable crime under the Brehon Laws to deliberately strike another with a burley. Brehon law also listed hurling as a way to settle disputes between villages and covered compensation for the families of anyone killed during one of these games. In 1336 in an attempt to assert English culture in Ireland, hurling was banned and again in 1537, but with little effect. Today the game is controlled by the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) and there are over 2,500 affiliated GAA clubs in Ireland and around the world.

HURLING RULES - One of the basic skills of the Irish game of hurling is to be able to hit the sliotar (ball) with the center of the bas, the wide curved area at the bottom of a hurley stick. To strengthen the bas, which is vulnerable in clashes with other hurleys during a game, a thin, light metal band is usually tacked in place around the base of the hurl. Brehon laws decreed that only a king's son was entitled to use a bronze band.

IRISH HANDBALL - The game of Handball has been popular in Ireland since the mid-1500s and was usually played on outdoor courts called handball alleys. Starting about the 1950s the game has moved indoor and is now played almost exclusively on indoor courts. But there remain about 700 outside handball courts around Ireland that have been mostly abandoned. The New York Times carries photos of 20 of them. 

FIRST PARLIAMENT - Last month was the 750th anniversary of the first known Irish parliament which met on June 18, 1264 in the then important administrative and religious center of Castledermot, Co Kildare. There is a written record of the meeting in the register of the diocesan archives of Dublin and Glendalough which are normally on display in the crypt of Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral. The parliament in Castledermot was convened to try to mediate ongoing feuds between the Geraldines (FitzGerald dynasty) and De Burghs (House of Burke).

Seanfhocal - Proverb

An sean madra don bhóthar chruaidh

The old dog for the hard road

(i.e., age and experience matter)

Slán go fóillín, Goodbye for now!

John Keane