MORE RYANAIR - Writing about the new Ryanair order, the Seattle Times says "The Irish airline's position as a premier Boeing customer is now secured - it is now set to take an average of more than three jets out of Renton every month for the next decade." AtlanticWire.com announced the purchase saying that "Ireland is on a plane-buying spree."
COMPETITIVE IRELAND - Ireland has moved up three places in the global rankings in the World Economic Forum's latest competitiveness survey, The Global Competitiveness Report. Ireland is in 25th position, its highest placing in the index since 2009. The survey assesses countries against 12 "pillars of competitiveness", including macro-economic environment, education and training, labor market efficiency, technological readiness and infrastructure, and attempts to paint a picture of what is driving competitiveness in 144 states.
FREE CREDIT - A September 5 Bloomberg News story is headlined Draghi's Bond Rally Means Bailed-Out Ireland Can Borrow for Free and the story begins "Four years ago, Ireland had to be bailed out by its European Union partners. Today investors are paying to lend it money."
GALWAY RACES ECONOMY - Bloomberg News says that the seven-day Galway Race Festival is "a barometer for the (Irish) economy". The story says that with the collapse of the Irish real estate market and an international bailout, attendances and betting fell away, but the punters are returning, and a crowd of about 140,000 attended the recent week-long Festival "thronging the course and its Laurent Perrier champagne and Guinness tent, serving stout, oysters and smoked salmon".
BETTER ECONOMY - The Washington Post reports the Irish government as saying that Ireland's tax collections are beating targets and have put the country on course to achieve normal deficit levels after six years of austerity. The story says this also means that the next round of spending cuts and tax hikes in the 2015 budget "will be significantly less than forecast."
IRISH EMAILS - A US judge has issued a criminal search warrant for an email account controlled by Microsoft's servers in Dublin. The company argues that the emails belong to its customers and that they are outside of US jurisdiction, but the judge ruled that Microsoft must comply because it is a US firm and controls the data. However, handing over the data would mean the company could be in breach of Irish and European data protection law. For now, Microsoft has agreed to be held in contempt of court so that it can appeal the judge's decision.
UN MISSION - Irish Defense Force members serving with the United Nations mission in Syria last weekend exchanged fire with militants in Syria. The UN mission, which includes about 130 Irish among a multinational force of more than 1,200, is trying to enforce a separation zone between Israel and Syria dating back to a conflict in the 1970s, but there is a real danger today of being sucked into the unrelated bloody civil war.
NEW YORK'S PARADE - The St. Patrick's Day Parade organizers in New York finally conceded to pressure from the Irish government, parade sponsors and business leaders, and is lifting a ban on participation by gay groups, ending a policy that has sparked protests, court battles and bitter debate for decades. Next year, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender support group at NBC will march up Manhattan's Fifth Avenue on March 17 under its own banner. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who will serve as grand marshal for New York's 254th parade in 2015, said "I think the decision is a wise one."
PARADE REACTION - The New York Times applauded the change saying, "Even before the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was drafted, the Irish gathered on the streets of New York to honor St. Patrick, the fifth-century missionary who is the patron saint of Ireland and of the Archdiocese of New York.....The change in policy comes at a time when the tone from the Vatican is also changing." Boston parade organizers still do not allow gays to march as a group, while Seattle's parade always permitted gay groups to march since the first Seattle parade in 1972.
EMIGRATION STATS - Ireland's Central Statistics Office reports that Irish natives accounted for just under 50% of the total 81,900 people who emigrated from Ireland in the year to April 2014, while there were 60,600 immigrants into Ireland over the same period. The majority of those emigrating had jobs or were students, with fewer than 1 in 5 of the emigrants being unemployed. 47% of those emigrating had third level (university) education. Coupled with births (67,700) and deaths (29,800) in the same period, there was an overall increase in the population of the Republic of Ireland to 4,609,600. This brings the total population of the island of Ireland to over 6,420,000.
CEASEFIRE ANNIVERSARY - Twenty years ago on August 31, 1994 the Irish Republican Army announced a "complete cessation of military operations" in Northern Ireland. That IRA ceasefire was followed two months later by a loyalist paramilitary ceasefire. 4 years later the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was signed, which effectively ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Watch the RTE-TV report on August 1994 announcing the ceasefire and read the New York Times story on the ceasefire dated September 1, 1994. Between 1969 when The Troubles started and the 1994 ceasefire, there were about 3,168 conflict-related deaths in Northern Ireland and Britain.
CEASEFIRE ARCHITECT - The 20th anniversary of the IRA ceasefire saw the death on August 21 of one of the most important of its architects, former Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds who died in Dublin aged 81. Reynolds was Taoiseach from February 1992 to December 1994, and despite his short time as Taoiseach, he played a key role in delivering peace to Northern Ireland. Besides authorizing direct negotiations with the IRA, he convinced British PM John Major to sign the Downing Street declaration of December 15th, 1993, and persuaded President Clinton to issue Gerry Adams with a US visa. That helped orchestrate the IRA ceasefire and the subsequent loyalist ceasefire. Former British PM John Major was among the large crowd that attended Reynold's funeral, but despite all of Reynold's work for peace in Northern Ireland, not one senior unionist leader attended.
NEW PRIMATE - Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Seán Brady as Archbishop of Armagh and Catholic Primate of All Ireland. A native of Cavan, Brady became Archbishop of Armagh in October 1996 following the retirement of Cardinal Cahal Daly, and in November 2007, Brady was made a Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI. The new Archbishop is Msgr. Eamon Martin, a native of Derry who has been Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh since January 2013.
CROKE PARK CLASSIC - On August 30, Penn State won the Croke Park American Football Classic with a 36-yard field goal as time expired, defeating the University of Central Florida 26-24 at Dublin's Croke Park. About 55,000 attended the game including almost 20,000 visitors from the US. The winning field goal wasn't the only excitement as a parachutist who was bringing the game ball to the referee before the game got blown off course, but landed safely on a railway track outside the stadium. Watch a video taken by a parachutist last September when bringing the ball to the referee before the All-Ireland Gaelic Football Final.
KENNEDY LETTERS - 33 letters written by Jackie Kennedy to an Irish priest, Fr Joseph Leonard, in the 1950s and 1960s have been given to the Kennedy family. The letters revealed Jackie's private thoughts about her marriage to JFK, their life in the White House and her reaction to his assassination. Fr Leonard met Jackie in Dublin twice, in 1950 and in 1955, and the letters began when she was aged 21 and he was 73. She wrote to him regularly, pouring out her heart and often remarking how much she valued their friendship. The correspondence ended when Fr Leonard died in 1964.
FAMINE BLAME - Headlined When The Economist blamed Irish peasants for starving to death, a Washington Post story about the London Economist magazine says, "its extraordinary blindness to how real life economic power relations work is reminiscent of the magazine's beginnings in the 19th century, when it fulminated at the very idea that the British government should do anything about the Irish famine that was happening on its doorstep. After all, it was the peasants' own fault that they were starving." During the Famine from 1845 - 1852, over one million Irish people died of starvation in a land area that was less than half the size of Washington State.
NO PHONES - Since May 1, it has been illegal to use a phone while driving in Ireland, even a hands-free unit. Irish law now mandates that drivers caught texting or using cell phones will face a mandatory fine and must appear in court. If a driver is caught texting they could face a fine of up to $1,300 for a first offence, increasing to $2,600 for a second offence with the possibility of a three month jail sentence.
McALEESE SNUB - The Catholic Weekly, an Australian Catholic newspaper, refused to accept an advertisement for an event featuring former Irish President Mary McAleese as a guest speaker because of her reported views on homosexuality and female ordination. After the publicity, about 1,000 people came to Sydney Town Hall to hear her talk where she argued for a greatly increased role for women in the Catholic Church, saying, "The old boys' club is going to have to go." Since leaving the Irish presidency, McAleese has studied theology at the Gregorian University in Rome and published a book on Vatican II's teachings on collegiality and how they have not yet been implemented.
CATHEDRAL ANNIVERSARY - New York 's Cardinal Dolan was in Co. Westmeath last Sunday to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the dedication of Mullingar's Cathedral of Christ the King on September 6, 1936. Also present on Sunday was a Drogheda nun, Sr Mary Bosco Daly, who taught Dolan in grade school in Baldwin, Missouri, one of several Irish nuns who staffed the parish school where Dolan grew up. Following the Mass, more than 2,500 parishioners took part in a street party organized by parish volunteers.
BRIDGE MUSIC - The Samuel Beckett Bridge spanning the Liffey in Dublin was opened in 2009. Almost 400 feet long and 158 feet high, it swings open to allow ships to pass up and down the river. Supporting it, the bridge also has 31 cable stays that resemble the strings of a great harp, a symbol of Ireland. Structures like the bridge have natural frequencies of oscillation and when struck at different points, various tones are produced. A specially composed musical piece using the tones produced when the heavy stays are hammered was played as the opening act of the Dublin Fringe Festival.
iPHONE U2 - Irish rock band U2 was in Cupertino, California, yesterday to help launch Apple's new iPhone 6. It turns out that a U2 music video being shot on the Samuel Beckett bridge in Dublin a few weeks ago was actually an Apple iPhone 6 ad. There was very tight security during the shoot with banks of umbrellas used to block sightseers. The band's latest studio album Songs Of Innocence was released yesterday and, as part of the promotion, is being offered as a free download to the almost half billion Apple iTunes users around the world. The Washington Post says that Apple has adopted U2 and vice versa.
HORROR DOODLE - Irish horror writer Sheridan Le Fanu was the subject of the August 26 Google Doodle to commemorate the author's 200th birthday. Born in Dublin, Le Fanu was known for writing mystery and horror stories. Although not as well known as fellow Irish horror author, Bram Stoker, who wrote Dracula, Le Fanu was a seminal figure in the development of horror writing with his novella Carmilla pre-dating Dracula by 25 years. The doodle shows Carmilla, a female vampire, hovering over a sleeping woman.
SCOTS VOTE - The vote on Scottish secession takes place a week from Thursday and Orange Order members from Northern Ireland are set to march in Scotland this weekend to demonstrate their support for a No vote in the referendum. The percentage of voters in favor of Scotland breaking from the United Kingdom has risen to 51%, according to a YouGov Plc poll for the London Sunday Times. If the Scots voted to leave the United Kingdom, independence is tentatively scheduled to take effect on March 24, 2016.
VOTE EFFECT - The Baltimore Sun says regarding next week's Scottish vote on Independence, "A Scottish exit would be a huge psychological blow to Northern Ireland's loyalists, .... It would force England and Northern Ireland to reassess their constitutional relationship, whose divisive details helped to fuel 30 years of bloodshed between Protestant loyalists and Catholic republicans who wanted to unite with the Irish Republic to the south." None of Ireland's four main political parties are taking a position on the referendum and an internal Irish government assessment of the vote says, "the outcome of the Scottish referendum on independence could introduce an element of instability into Northern Ireland."
HILLARY PAC- The Ready for Hillary Super PAC hosted a fundraising event at a private home in Dublin on the same weekend as the Croke Park American Football Classic between Penn State and the University of Central Florida. 100 people attended and about $50,000 was raised for the campaign to convince the former Secretary of State to run for the US presidency in 2016. Only US citizens or those with Green cards were eligible to donate.
TRALEE ROSE -The winner of this year's Rose of Tralee contest is Maria Walsh, a native of Boston and the first openly gay woman to win. The Rose of Tralee Festival is one of Ireland's largest and longest running festivals, celebrating 55 years in 2014. The festival also includes street entertainment, carnival, live concerts, theatre, circus, markets, funfair, fireworks and the Rose Parade. The heart of the festival is the Rose of Tralee contest which brings young women of Irish descent from around the world to the town in Co. Kerry made famous by the song "The Rose of Tralee".
IRISH WHISKEY - Sales of Jameson Irish Whiskey in the US have increased by almost 10% in the last year and the US is Jameson's largest market. Overall, 4.7 million cases were sold worldwide 2013/2014 and Jameson is gaining ground in other major markets around the world, especially in South Africa and Russia. Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world but Prohibition in the US greatly damaged the industry. However, it has been the fastest growing spirit in the world every year since 1990.
GAA BIRTHPLACE - Hayes Hotel in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, the birthplace of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), is being sold at auction, with a starting price of about $580,000. On November 1, 1884 seven men met in Hayes Hotel and founded the GAA "for the preservation and cultivation of Ireland's national pastimes". The GAA today has more than 1 million members worldwide, and organizes and promotes the amateur sports of Gaelic football, Hurling, Camogie and Handball. Since its foundation in 1884, the GAA has exerted a major influence in Irish life, promoting the Irish language, traditional Irish dancing, music, song, and other aspects of Irish culture. It also has come to be a focal point for Irish communities outside Ireland. For more information, visit www.gaa.ie.
CHILDREN'S FAMINE DEATHS - Between 1847 and 1851 during the Irish Famine, child inmates who died at the Kilkenny Union Workhouse were buried in a mass grave within the grounds. Seven years ago, the skeletons of 545 children were found, almost two thirds of whom were under six years old when they died. Research on the bones show that the vast majority had been affected by stunted growth and studies on the teeth revealed that scurvy was rampant. Described as "the most feared and hated institution ever established in Ireland," workhouses were intended for people who could not support themselves, and operated in Ireland from the early 1840s to the early 1920s. After entering a workhouse, children over the age of two would be routinely separated from their parents, resulting in even more severe trauma for the children.
BRAVEHEART ANNIVERSARY - Twenty years ago this summer, the Curragh Camp in Co. Kildare became a movie set for Mel Gibson to film his epic film, 'Braveheart'. About 1,500 members of the Irish Defence Forces were used in the film as extras, playing the part of the Scottish Army in battle. Two videos on YouTube shows shots from behind the scenes as the soldiers get ready for the filming YouTube1 and YouTube2.
1916 ANNIVERSARY - The possibility of a 'Republic Day', a Public Holiday to be held on Monday, April 25, 2016 (100 years and a day after the 1916 Easter Rising) is being discussed as part of the commemorations to be held in Ireland to mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Two years after the Rising in 1918, an independent Irish republic was declared and an Irish government established in Dublin, neither of which actions were recognized by the British. The Irish War of Independence followed from 1919-21 and culminated in the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921 that gave freedom to 26 of Ireland's 32 counties.
RISING CASUALTIES - During the 1916 Easter Rising, a total of 459 persons were killed or missing, with 2,614 injured, almost all in Dublin. The rebels had 64 volunteers killed, British military had 116 killed and 9 missing, and the Irish and Dublin police forces had 16 killed. A total of 254 civilians died, most of whom were killed by the British army. There were at least two instances of British troops deliberately killing civilians. Troops at Portobello Barracks deliberately shot six civilians including the pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, and on North King Street another 15 civilians were deliberately killed.
INISBOFIN - The ruins of a 17th century fort can be seen as the ferry enters the harbor of Inishbofin (Inis Bó Finne meaning 'Island of the White Cow'), a 3½ square mile island located in the Atlantic Ocean off Killary Harbor in Co. Galway. Oliver Cromwell built the fort in the 1650s to be a penal colony for Irish priests, considered dangerous because those who could read and write might foment rebellion. A boulder at the base of the fort is called Bishop's Rock because Cromwell reportedly tied a bishop there and let the tide rise and drown him.
INISHARK - Located beside Inishbofin, Inishark (Inis Airc in Irish) is a small island less than a square mile in size. Inishark was so windy, a priest wrote in 1873 that, "A crow could not land on it when it is blowing". At one time over 300 people lived on the island, but the last 24 inhabitants were evacuated in October 1960. Thomas Lacey, who was considered the island's grandfather, insisted on spending a final night on his own on the island, and before leaving set the kitchen table in his house for two sons who had been lost at sea ten years earlier. Watch a 2007 TG4 documentary called Inishark: Death of an Island.
FIONN mac CUMHAL - The intriguing story of Fionn mac Cumhal is explored in a new Irish mystery thriller by Irish author Brian O'Sullivan. The novel - Beara: Dark Legends - examines the facts behind the legendary Irish warrior, wise man and poet in a manner that's never been done before. Described as 'fascinating' or 'thrilling' but at the same time 'quintessentially Irish - a kind of Irish De Vinci Code for the 2010s'. The first three chapters are freely available at Irishimbasbooks.com. The book itself is available through Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and all good bookshops.
70TH ANNIVERSARY- In addition to celebrating his 95th birthday, Fr. Bill Treacy this year celebrates the 70th anniversary of his ordination as a priest in Ireland, and he will be recognized at our Irish Seniors' Luncheon this Saturday, September 13. Fr. Bill came to Seattle from Co. Laois shortly after being ordained in 1944, and among his early official appointments was as Chaplain to Seattle's Irish Club, then called the Gaelic Club. In addition to his parish work and later as Diocesan Chancellor, as panelist on the Challenge TV show, and as founder of Camp Brotherhood in Mount Vernon, being Irish Club Chaplain meant he also helped organize Irish Communion Breakfasts, Irish weddings, baptisms, funerals, arranged jobs, references and schools, mediated disputes and provided counseling and other assistance when needed. To join us at this Saturday's luncheon, call 425-290-7839 or email 
