Monthly Archives: November 2012

Fighting Irish to play for NCAA Championship

With its win Saturday night, Notre Dame completed a 12-0 regular season that began Sept. 1 with a game in Dublin. The “Fighting Irish” survived two overtime games to remain unbeaten. They will play for the national championship in January against the winner of the SEC championship, either Alabama or Georgia.

The university’s website says the origins of the Fighting Irish nickname are unclear.

The most generally accepted explanation is that the press coined the nickname as a characterization of Notre Dame athletic teams, their never-say-die fighting spirit and the Irish qualities of grit, determination and tenacity. The term likely began as an abusive expression tauntingly directed toward the athletes from the small, private, Catholic institution.

The nickname was officially adopted in 1927.

Ireland’s credit rating to BBB+

Ratings agency Fitch raised its ranking of the Republic’s creditworthiness to a level last seen in December 2010, the month after the EU-International Monetary Fund bailout, the Irish Times reports.

Fitch said the risks surrounding the State’s fiscal adjustment path had “narrowed” and “become more balanced”. The correction in the public finances “remains on track” and “broadly in line” with the EU-IMF targets…Rival agency Moody’s, which has a more pessimistic view of Ireland, said the State still faced a “pretty mixed picture”.

In a separate story in the Times, the government said there will be no extra austerity beyond the €3.5 billion already planned despite a substantial downgrade in the country’s growth outlook.

Another first in cross-border relations

It was not the same attention-grabber as the July handshake between Martin McGuinness and the Queen, or Herself visiting the Republic in May 2011 and laying a wreath at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance.

But Enda Kenny has become the Republic’s first taoiseach to attend Remembrance Sunday commemorations in Northern Ireland. As the Guardian reported, he did so at an event in Enniskillen, where 25 years ago 11 Protestant civilians where killed in an IRA bomb. Eamon Gilmore, Kenny’s deputy, attended an event in Belfast.

Gilmore said people of all traditions on the island of Ireland would be “remembering together” in a “decade of commemorations” that include the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising, the end of the first world war in 1918 and the foundation of the two states in Ireland in 1921.

Their presence is seen as another gesture of reconciliation between the two political traditions on the island, as well as official recognition in Dublin of the thousands of Irish men who served in the British armed forces, particularly during the two world wars.

Reaching Out Ireland/North Kerry

My maternal grandmother and grandfather were both from North Kerry; she from Kilelton townland near Ballylongford; he from Lahardane townland near Ballybunion.

So I was excited to find the North Kerry Reaching Out heritage project, which is affiliated with Ireland Reaching Out.

The national effort is described as “reverse genealogy” and “entails the tracing and recording of all the people who left and seeking out their living descendents worldwide. Those identified or recognised as persons of Irish heritage or affiliation are invited to become part of a new extended Irish society.”

The Kerry effort focuses on people with ties to these villages: Listowel, Ballyduff, Lisselton / Ballydonoghue, Ballybunion, Asdee, Ballylongford, Tarbert, Duagh, Lyreacrompane, Lixnaw, Moyvane/ Newtownsandes, Knockanure, Finuge and Kilflynn.

Here’s the website’s Guide to North Kerry.

As much as I love all of Ireland, there something unique about North Kerry. I get a special feeling whether walking the beach at Ballybunion, hiking to the top of Knockanore Hilll or ambling through the narrow streets and books shops of Listowel. There’s something in my DNA that knows this is home.