Monthly Archives: December 2015

Best of the Blog, 2015

This is my third annual “Best of the Blog” (BOB, as my wife calls it), a look at some of the most important news stories, historical anniversaries and personal favorite posts of the past year. The items are not numbered, so as to avoid the appearance of rank. Most links are to my own posts, but a few are to outside websites.

Enjoy. Thanks for supporting the blog. And Happy New Year!

  • Four years into the “Decade of Centenaries,” 2015 proved that even as Ireland remembers its past, Ireland is not bound by its past. This was most dramatically demonstrated in May as Irish voters enshrined same-sex marriage rights in the Republic’s constitution, becoming the world’s first nation to give such approval through popular referendum. The outcome prompted Catholic Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin to comment: “The Church needs a reality check right across the board, to look at the things we are doing well and look at the areas where we need to say, have we drifted away completely from young people?”
  • Other long-standing Irish institutions also changed in 2015. Clerys, a landmark department store on O’Connell Street in Dublin, closed in June after 162 years in business. … In August, Aer Lingus was acquired by British Airways owner IAG for €1.5 billion after nearly 80 years of state ownership.
  • The erosion of the Irish language continued at “a faster rate than was predicted” by a 2007 study and “demands urgent intervention,” a government agency reported in an update this year.
  • 2015 was the 150th anniversary of the birth of William Butler Yeats. His poem, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” was celebrated during the year. And, of course, “Easter, 1916.”
  • The Republic’s official remembrance of the Easter Rising began in August with a commemorative re-enactment of the funeral of Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. The original Dublin funeral of the Fenian leader, who died in New York, set the stage for the Rising eight months later. Pádraic Pearse’s oration at Rossa’ graveside became a call to arms that continues to inspire Irish patriots. One of my Kerry relatives kept a copy of an August 1933 reprint of the speech, cut from the pages of The Gaelic American.
  • I also reflected on my copy of a 1953 St. Patrick’s Day greeting from another Kerry relation.
  • In Northern Ireland, the International Fund for Ireland launched a new “Community Consolidation-Peace Consolidation” strategy for 2016-2020 focused on removing some of the more than 100 “peace walls” that separate Catholic and Protestant communities. “We have a role to take risks that governments can’t take,” IFI Chairman Dr. Adrian Johnston said during a September briefing at the Embassy of Ireland in Washington, D.C. … But a new poll showed that support for removing the physical barriers has dropped to 49 percent, compared to 58 percent in 2012.
  • The British and Irish governments announced a new political accord to overcome various crises in the North. … Seventeen years on from the historic 1998 Good Friday Agreement, former U.S. Senator George Mitchell told a Washington audience the peace talks got off to “a very rocky start” due to the long history of mistrust in Northern Ireland and “no habit of listening to the other side.”
  • An RTÉ/BBC poll revealed two-thirds of respondents living in the Republic favor political reunification of the island within their lifetime, while just under one third of those surveyed in the North share the view. … In what was described as a “rogue action,” the Republic’s tricolour flag flew over Stormont for a few hours in June.
  • Irish Minister for Diaspora Affairs Jimmy Deenihan, speaking at the  Embassy of Ireland in Washington, announced “a new strategy to improve Ireland’s connection with the diaspora.”
  • More historical records continued to be made available in 2015 for online inspection, including:

Dublin Metropolitan Police Detective Department’s “Movement of Extremists” reports leading up to the Rising, held at the Irish National Archives;

Long-awaited Catholic parish records, held by the National Library of Ireland; and

Fenian Brotherhood records and O’Donovan Rossa’s personal papers, held by The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

River Shannon by Therea M. Quirk.

Departed in 2015:

  • Six college students, five from Ireland and one holding Irish and U.S. citizenship, were killed 16 June in Berkeley, California, when the fifth floor apartment balcony where they were partying collapsed and plunged them 50 feet to the ground.
  • Dublin-born actress Maureen O’Hara, who co-stared with John Wayne in the 1952 screen hit, “The Quiet Man,” died at 95. … More than three dozen other notable Irish and Irish American deaths from the arts, sports and politics are listed here.

From the Archive:

Books on 1916 Easter Rising filling the shelves

As we approach the new year and the centennial of the 1916 Easter Rising, it’s no surprise that new books about the event are flying off of publishers’ presses, and old books are getting a fresh look. Three recent reviews cover 21 new titles, with only one overlap: Joe Duffy’s Children of the Rising. Two of the reviews also reference previously published titles.

“Books about the Easter Rising fall into three categories: those by people associated with the Rising, those who wrote from personal experience of what happened and historical appraisals,” Peter Costello writes in his overview for The Irish Catholic. It’s a good look at the history of 1916 books and covers seven new publications.

John Spain and Maurice Hayes round up 14 new titles in their review for The Irish Independent. Among them, books from “history heavyweights” Tim Pat Coogan, 1916-The Morning After; Diarmaid Ferriter, A Nation Not a Rabble; and Ronan Fanning, Éamon de Valera: A Will To Power,

Finally, Spiked.com explores the spirit of the Easter Rising with an in-depth review of Who’s Afraid of the Easter Rising? 1916-2016, by James Heartfield and Kevin Rooney.

BONUS: Here’s an RTÉ Radio One “History Show” broadcast on 1916 books with a focus on works dealing with specific places and battles; first-hand accounts and stories about individuals; as well as the human legacy of Easter Week. Broadcast time: 50 minutes.

There’s sure to be more books about 1916 in 2016. We’ll be sure to keep you posted.

New content added to previous posts

I’ve updated three posts from earlier this year. Circle back to see the fresh content, or read them for the first time:

  • Former Irish President Mary McAleese on the disappearing Irish language.
  • Support for removing Northern Ireland’s peace walls has dropped to 49 percent, compared to 58 percent in 2012.
  • Unesco wants to add the Irish sport of hurling to its list of the “world’s intangible cultural heritage.”

I’ve also updated a 2013 post on Skelling Michael with a few links about the uproar over using the heritage site in the filming of the new “Star Wars” movie.

And on the winter solstice, this image of the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, from the Aran island of Inis Oírr.  Photo by Cormac Coyne, from The Irish Times.

The aurora borealis as seen from Inis Oírr, Aran Islands. Photograph: Cormac Coyne

Poles top list of foreigners living in Ireland

Nearly 12 percent of Ireland’s population comes from abroad, the sixth highest proportion of foreign nationals in a European nation.

Poles made up the largest group of non-nationals in Ireland at 22 percent; followed by British, 21 percent; Lithuanians, 7 percent; and Latvians and Nigerians, each at 4 percent.

The Jan. 1, 2014 snapshot from Eurostat, released Dec. 18, shows only the top five groups of foreigners living in each European country. The percentage of Americans in Ireland is unclear.

The 11.8 percent foreign citizen rate in Ireland is about the same as when I wrote this story for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2009.

Philly’s Friendly Sons to welcome women

America’s oldest Irish society, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, has agreed to admit female members for the first time when it marks its 245th anniversary in March, reports Simon Carswell of The Irish Times.

Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Anne Anderson will be inducted, but the group has no plans to change its name to include “and Daughters.”

“Let’s not get hung up on the name. It is our brand,” said Joseph Heenan, the group’s president.

Here’s the organization’s mission statement, updated in January 2015. And here’s a summary of its long history, including building the Irish Memorial at Penn’s Landing.

Celtic comeback? Ireland’s economic rebound

Ireland’s real GDP is now 7 percent above the late 2007 peak of the Celtic Tiger.

“The economy might not be able to sustain its recent blistering pace,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “Even so, Ireland is set to remain the Eurozone’s growth star.”

The Irish stock market is up 28.6 percent this year. The Street suggests three Irish stocks.

But the Financial Times warns the last CT boom “made the Irish a bit cynical about official economic pronouncements, especially a few weeks before the next general election.”

Two opportunities to write about Ireland

I’ve recently come across two opportunities to write about Ireland and Irish America:

  • the Global Irish Media Fund, sponsored by the Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and
  • the Tiny Plays for Ireland and America Playwriting Challenge, a collaboration between the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and Fishamble, The New Play Company in Dublin.

The Global Irish Media Fund will provide grants to news organizations and journalists to tell stories from, and about, the Irish abroad and the impact of emigration on those at home.

“The successes and the challenges of our emigrants, both recent and distant, are of interest to Irish people and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wishes to facilitate more reporting of these stories,” Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Jimmy Deenihan TD, said in a release.

The maximum amount of funding available to any applicant is €10,000. The deadline for applications is Jan. 15, 2016. Details and application.

***

The Tiny Plays Challenge is part of the approaching 100th birthday celebration of President Kennedy, May 29, 2017, and IRELAND 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts and Culture, a series of 2016 events at the Kennedy Center tied to the Easter Rising centennial. Kennedy was America’s first Irish-Catholic president from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.

Plays must demonstrate how Kennedy’s legacy lives on in America today, and responding to the call, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”  Submissions must be 500 words or less, in English, with no more than three actors.

Selected plays will be performed in May 2016 at the Kennedy Center and at the Irish Arts Center in New York. Winning playwrights also receive a $500 honorarium.

The deadline to apply is Feb. 19, 2016. Details and application.

Biopharma leading another revolution in Ireland

Sure, they still make wonderful sweaters, tasty dairy products and popular adult beverages in Ireland.

But by the 1990s one-third of the Pentium chips manufactured to meet global PC demand were produced in Ireland. Now, the biopharmaceutical industry in Ireland is making products so valuable that they could eclipse even the Pentium chip’s impact on the march of history, reports the Dublin-based siliconrepublic.com.

A few details:

  • Ireland is now the 7th largest exporter of medicine and pharmaceutical products in the world.
  • Nine of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies have substantial operations in Ireland and more than 25,000 people are employed in the industry.
  • There are 90 biopharma plants in Ireland, of which 33 are approved by the Federal Drugs Administration to export products for consumption in the U.S.

Read the full story.