Monthly Archives: March 2016

Ireland sells its first 100-year bonds

In a week when Ireland marked the centennial of the 1916 Easter Rising, it also sold its first 100-year bonds, a reflection of the country’s financial turnaround and positive long-term outlook.

The €100 million ($113 million) sale at a 2.35 percent yield is “a testament to the restored confidence markets have in Ireland’s creditworthiness,” Owen Callan, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald in Dublin, told Bloomberg. Just a few years ago Ireland needed an international bailout. Then, Irish 10-year bonds hit the 15 percent level.

The National Treasury Management Agency issued the new notes.

Such financial instruments also were around in the 19th century. The latest issue of Irish America contains this story about a collector-owned Fenian bond dating from 1866. The bonds had a 6 percent compounded interest per-annum.

euros.jpg (617×410)

Roundup of Easter Rising remembrances

Centennial commemorations of the 1916 Easter Rising are now in full swing with the arrival of the Christian holy day, though the actually 100th anniversary of the rebellion and subsequent execution of its leaders doesn’t begin until next month. Their are plenty of opinions and interpretations of these now century-old events: in Ireland, the U.K., the U.S. and throughout the world. Below is a sampling of what’s being said, which I’ll add to over the coming week. Blog subscribers should check back periodically, as such updates do not generate a new email. And please let me know if you come across a good piece that’s worth sharing. MH

Home rule could have led peacefully to independence

Former Taoiseach John Bruton writes that the limited political of home rule, passed in 1914, “could have led this part of Ireland (excluding Ulster) peacefully to the same fully independent position Canada enjoys today, had it not been derailed by the 1916 Rebellion, its aftermath, and the 1918 election result. … As a rule, compromise is good, killing is bad. Negotiation is better than coercion.”

100th anniversary of Easter 1916 rising 

The Seattle-based Socialist Alternative says, “Contrary to the mythology purported by today’s political establishment and mainstream historians, the “revolutionary period” of 1916 to 1922 did not give way to a positive outcome for working class people. What was created were two oppressive, sectarian states that failed to deliver for the needs of working class people, and still do to this day.”

The Irish Rebellion That Resonated in Harlem

Black intellectuals in the U.S. expressed solidarity with the rebellion against British rule, Matthew Pratt Guter writes in the New Republic. “The Irish in Ireland may well have been white, and their offspring in the New World might well be racist, but they were nevertheless engaged in the same struggle for human dignity, and their struggle might have meaningful consequences for the fight against Jim Crow at home and empire in Africa.”

Celebrating a nation’s birth, and praying for a rebirth in the church

Micheal Kelly, editor of The Irish Catholic, suggests that as the Irish commemorate “one of the major birth pangs of the Irish State, Catholics will be celebrating the resurrection of Christ and praying for a rebirth in the Church. Not a return to Christendom Irish-style – but a return to an attentive following of Christ … “

The Easter Rising, 100 years later

“The terrible history of the North of Ireland in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s must be acknowledged, and its connections to the violence of the Easter Rising are irrefutable,” Jennifer Keating and Colin MacCabe write in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “But we should also consider the contemporary phenomenon of Islamist ideology that plays on a public display of violence and which cast a chilling new perspective last week in Brussels.”

Martyrs With Guns and the Easter Rising

Lawrence Downes also makes the connection to contemporary terrorism in his piece for The New York Times. “To watch old footage of the shattered city of 1916 is to be thrown, inescapably, into the present day, when martyr-armies, bombed rubble and bystander corpses are sickeningly abundant. Every new attack — every Paris, Istanbul, Brussels — makes it harder to feel anything but remorse about urban holy warfare.”

Easter Rising 1916: A noble act of revolt against tyranny that inspired world

“Critics have dismissed the Rising as an anti-democratic, violent event, condemned by the political class in Ireland at the time, and an action that gave succour to subsequent violent attempts to establish a sovereign Irish republic. That ignores the reality that British involvement in Ireland already lacked democratic legitimacy,” Chris Donnelly writes in the Belfast Telegraph. “…The Rising struck a blow against the idea of empire and imperialism, beginning a pattern repeated across the British Empire as the 20th century progressed.”

Ireland’s history lesson for Britain

An editorial in The Guardian says “the rising must also be seen as a watershed event in the history of Britain as well as Ireland. Irish independence in 1922 was the first body blow in the 20th-century break-up of the British empire, even if Ireland was always something of a special imperial case. Meanwhile, a century on, the rising can also now be seen as a precursor of the modern fracturing of the United Kingdom’s internal cohesion.”

1916/2016: A Proclamation for our age

The Irish Times has revised the 1916 proclamation for a new century for “all of those who love and identify with Ireland, from wherever they have come and wherever they may now live. We recognize that the history and future of Ireland belong to citizens who adhere to different political, spiritual and intellectual traditions.”

No Easter Rising without the Irish in America

There would have been no 1916 Easter Rising without Irish America.

That’s a frequent theme in the research and writings of New York University Professor Joe Lee. He lectured on the topic 24 March for Irish Network-DC.

Lee noted that home rule champion John Redmond’s 20 September 1914 speech at Woodenbridge, County Wicklow, “stuck in the craw” of John Devoy and other Fenians in America.

Redmond supported Britain in the Great War, infamously expressed by his urging Irish soldiers to go “wherever the fighting line extends.” This created a backlash in still neutral America, Lee said, that shifted opinion away from home rule and toward militant Irish nationalism.

Support came immediately in the form of “a colossal amount of money” to fund an Irish rebellion, most of it raised in New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

“Irish America was ahead of Ireland,” Lee said.

The Proclamation of an Irish Republic read outside the General Post Office on Easter Monday 1916 noted that Ireland was “supported by her exiled children in America.” But Lee said this “grossly understates American contributions” to Irish freedom.

Lee engaged in a little speculation about what what might have happened if the Irish rebels had been able to last longer against British troops, generating more attention in America heading into the 1916 presidential campaign. Home rule, passed by Parliament in 1914 but suspended at the outbreak of World War I, was still on the table, Lee noted. Devoy and his followers might have been able to exert more pressure on Woodrow Wilson to make a deal for Irish independence as Britain worked to bring America into the war.

It didn’t work out that way, of course, just as the plans for the Rising didn’t unfold according to plan. Here’s a recent piece by Lee in the Irish Examiner about what might have happened in April 1916 if they had.

 

FactCheckNI launching April 7 in Belfast

UPDATE: Alexios Mantzarlis filed this piece about the fact-checking startup for Poynter.org, based on his recent trip to Northern Ireland.

By providing objective, fact-based analyses devoid of partisanship, the nascent initiative aims to be a dispassionate arbiter in a landscape traditionally fractured along ideological lines. …

As with many fact-checking organizations, FactCheckNI hopes to spur corrections but also foster a culture of critical thinking that transcends political preferences.

ORIGINAL POST:

FactCheckNI, an independent organization to check political statements and other key issues in Northern Ireland, has announced a 7 April launch. The Belfast kickoff event will feature Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, and Will Moy, director of Full Fact.

The journalism service couldn’t come at a better time, with the historic Brexit vote in June on top of the usual mash of Northern politics.

Contact the organization at info@factcheckni.org.

Logo

U.S.-Irish relations, from tin teapots to smart phones

U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Kevin F. O’Malley says he is fond of the 2013 book “A History of Ireland in 100 Objects.” He received a copy upon being named to the post in the fall of 2014.

Ambassador Kevin O'Malley

Ambassador Kevin O’Malley

To O’Malley, a descendant of County Mayo emigrants, the most poignant object in the book is the “Emigrant’s Teapot,” a symbol of Ireland’s massive one-way migration from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, and an enduring reminder of home.

But this is the age of the smart phone, a smaller, more powerful object than the tin teapots once carried across the Atlantic. The owners of these modern objects can video chat with each other from either side of the ocean.

Likewise, the U.S.-Ireland relationship also has evolved from its historical roots, O’Malley told the St. Patrick’s Day gathering of Irish Network-DC.

One big example: more Americans now work for about 250 Irish companies in the U.S. than Irish employed by 700 American companies in Ireland, O’Malley said.

Another example: nearly one in six people living in Ireland today has non-Irish parents, just as many U.S. residents are the children of immigrants. Demographics are changing rapidly in both countries.

“We will look different in the future. Ireland will look different,” O’Malley said. “We need to connect to the young people, the next generations.”

To create new economic links between the U.S. and Ireland, O’Malley launched the Creative Minds Series. The monthly programs invite prominent U.S. artists, writers, filmmakers, digital culture innovators, and musicians to share their experience with young Irish audiences.

“The changes of today are much better than in the past,” O’Malley said. “We want to continue to benefit from the same close relationship.”

Then–and who could avoid doing this on 17 March–he sipped some well steeped Irish-American sentimentality.

“All of us have our own teapot,” he said. “We carry it within us. It is something special; something not necessarily definable.”

Irish Design_Car 1.jpg (414×234)

From ‘Ireland in 100 Objects,’  this teapot is in the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Turlough Park House, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.

 

U.S.-Irish relations at St. Patrick’s Day: 1916-2016 (P5)

This blog series focuses on U.S.- Irish relations at St. Patrick’s Day over the past 100 years. Since this is the centennial of the Easter Rising, I’m looking at 1916 and each 25 years afterward: 1941, 1966 and 1991. I’m also writing a post on St. Patrick’s Day 1976, the year of the American bicentennial.

Part 5: The Troubles & the Rising’s 75th anniversary

St. Patrick’s Day 1991 arrived some 20 years into the Troubles. The Irish Republic was taking a cautious approach to the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Rising.

“Officials say at a time when talks are soon to open over the future of Northern Ireland, they do not want to be seen celebrating an event that could be exploited by the outlawed Irish Republican Army as justification for its own violent campaign to oust British rule from the province,” The Washington Post reported after the holiday and before the anniversary.

A government spokesman said “the right note has to be struck-dignified and low-key, without in any way allowing it to be misrepresented.” But with the IRA planning their own parades and other events, critics charged the government’s inaction effectively allowed “radicals to hijack the Rising,” the Post said.

Irish stamp issued in 1991 for 75th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

Irish stamp issued in 1991 for 75th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

U.S. papers also published reviews of “Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916,” by Peter De Rosa. Critics blasted the author’s blending of fact and fiction. Under the headline, “A Terrible Mess Was Born,” The New York Times said, “He has taken a magnificent if oft-told tale, and transformed it into a puppet show whose figures move jerkily across the stage and are made to speak in eerie and uncouth tongues.”

In Washington, President George H.W. Bush was winding down the Gulf War. He met with Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs Gerard Collins on March 13, 1991, a few days after issuing generic remarks for St. Patrick’s Day: “Serving in our Nation’s War for Independence and later helping to build its railroads, canals, and industries, Irish Americans have long demonstrated a capacity for hard work, as well as a strong penchant for full, spirited, and upright living.”

Bush flew to Hamilton, Bermuda, to confer with British Prime Minister John Major on St. Patrick’s Day, two days after Major met with the main Unionist parties in London. As Easter 1991 approached, the Good Friday Agreement was still seven years in the future.

 

U.S.-Irish relations at St. Patrick’s Day: 1916-2016 (P4)

This blog series focuses on U.S.- Irish relations at St. Patrick’s Day over the past 100 years. Since this is the centennial of the Easter Rising, I’m looking at 1916 and each 25 years afterward: 1941, 1966 and 1991. I’m also writing a post on St. Patrick’s Day 1976, the year of the American bicentennial.

Part 4: The Spirit of 1776 & Troubles in the North

We know that America played a key role in Ireland’s strike for independence in 1916. How about Ireland’s contribution to American independence in 1776?

On St. Patrick’s Day 1976, President Gerald Ford expressed “the appreciation of the American people to the people of Ireland” for their participation in the founding and growth of the United States. He voiced these to Taoiseach Liam M. Cosgrave in morning welcoming remarks and an evening state dinner toast.

Ford said:

Throughout our history–beginning with the many Irish-Americans who fought for freedom in 1776 and the 11 who signed the Declaration of Independence–men and women from your country have brought Irish courage, Irish energy, Irish strength, Irish devotion, and Irish genius to the United States of America.

I’m not sure what 11 signers Ford had in mind. Most other sources put the figure at nine men, with four born in Ireland.

Cosgrave said:

We are indeed greatly honored to have been invited here during your Bicentennial Year, a year which highlights the remarkable achievements of this truly great Nation. We are proud that throughout American history the Irish people have been closely identified with your endeavors.

He noted that in 1928, his father, W. T. Cosgrave, then head of the Irish government, visited the U.S. accompanied by his Minister for Defense Desmond Fitzgerald. His son, Foreign Minister Dr. Garrett Fitzgerald, joined the 1976 delegation to Washington.

Liam Cosgrave pins a shamrock to the lapel of Gerald Ford.

Liam Cosgrave pins a shamrock to the lapel of Gerald Ford.

Between the morning remarks and the evening dinner, Cosgrave and Fitzgerald met privately in the Oval Office with Ford, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and other officials.  (Here’s the Memorandum of Conversation, with handwritten notes.) They talked about trade, but also discussed the situation in Northern Ireland, which erupted into sectarian violence four years earlier. (That very day, four Catholic civilians were killed by a bomb planted by the Ulster Volunteer Force in Dungannon, County Tyrone.)

Cosgrave worried about money being sent to Ulster. “Much of it goes under the shelter of humanitarian aid,” he said. “They [the record doesn’t identify who] are starting terrorist attacks again and seem to be focusing on trains. We have been able to cut down their supply of explosives, which has helped.”

FitzGerald suggested putting something in a communique “about not sending money to Ireland … would help coming from you.” But after an unrecorded and “inclusive” discussion, Cosgrave decided that “it might be counterproductive to make much of it.”

The notes suggest that Ford promised to do more “after the election is out of the way.” He lost to Jimmy Carter eight months later.

U.S.-Irish relations at St. Patrick’s Day: 1916-2016 (P3)

This blog series focuses on U.S.- Irish relations at St. Patrick’s Day over the past 100 years. Since this is the centennial of the Easter Rising, I’m looking at 1916 and each 25 years afterward: 1941, 1966 and 1991. I’m also writing a post on St. Patrick’s Day 1976, the year of the American bicentennial.

Part 3: The Rising’s 50th anniversary & the bowl of shamrocks

The tradition of an Irish government official visiting the White House at St. Patrick’s Day to deliver shamrocks dates to 1952. President Harry Truman was out of town when Irish Ambassador John Joseph Hearne paid the call.

During the Eisenhower years, “the ceremony’s prominence waxed and waned,” according to this 2010 CNN story, “but the shamrock presentation became a full-blown media event when John F. Kennedy, himself an Irish-American, entered the White House.”

Less than three years after Kennedy’s triumphant return to Ireland and his assassination six months later, Lyndon B. Johnson was the U.S. president. According to president’s daily diary for March 17, 1966, LBJ received Ambassador of Ireland H.E. William Fay and Mrs. Fay in the Oval Office shortly after noon.

The president was presented with “fresh shamrocks [redacted] flown in from Ireland. The shamrocks were presented in a large (about 18 inches tall) Waterford crystal vase. The Ambassador and his wife also left the President a book of Irish art for Mrs. Johnson. 

It appears that two words are redacted between “shamrocks” and “flown.” My guess: “and whiskey.”

120513_jfk_lbj_2_ap.jpg (605×328)

JFK and LBJ.

Earlier that St. Patrick’s Day, officials at the British Embassy discovered their gateposts and two plaster lions on a parapet in front of the building had been painted green. The Washington Post reported: “Painted in black letters upon the chests of the seated two-foot-high lions were the fighting words: ‘Up the rebels.’ ”

But the story does not mention the 50th anniversary of the Rising.

The Post’s St. Patrick’s Day roundup also reported that a small park at 24th Street and Massachusetts Avenue near the Irish Embassy would soon become the new home for a 7-foot-tall bronze statue of Robert Emmet. The statue of the early 19th century leader in the fight for independence was commissioned in 1917, the year after the Rising. It had been display the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History, but recently put into storage. An April story notes the statue and park were dedicated for “the 50th anniversary of Irish independence.”

The presidential diary for St. Patrick’s Day shows that Johnson left the Oval Office shortly before 8 p.m., telling aides he was returning to the private residence to change shirts “because I’m going to help the Irish celebrate.”

He was driven to the Statler Hilton Hotel a few blocks from the White House to visit the Washington Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick’s annual dinner. Chapter President Rev. C. Leslie Glenn of the Washington Cathedral draped an honorary membership medal with green ribbons around the president’s neck. Only Presidents George Washington and Theodore Roosevelt had received similar honorary membership, according to the diary notes.

“The president then walked the length of the head table and shook hands with those sitting there,” the diary says. He gave remarks, but the diary does not indicate what he said.

Johnson returned to the Oval Office about 30 minutes later.

Enda Kenny, Irish delegation visit U.S.

I’m taking a break here from my historical series about U.S.-Irish relations at St. Patrick’s Day since the Rising to post updates about “Acting Taoiseach” Enda Kenny’s 15 March visit to the White House, as Irish ministers fan out to other locations. I’ll update through the next few days, with newer posts at the top of the column. And look for my re-tweets of media reports in the column at right.

  • More than a bowl of shamrocks: the Irish Farmers Journal reports all the Irish products in a food and drink hamper that Kenny brought to the White House.
  • “It is Mr. Obama’s last St. Patrick’s Day as U.S. president, and, depending on government formation talks, it could also be Mr. Kenny’s last as taoiseach.” From Donegal Now.
  • Kenny says Ireland will be able to put together a “stable government” during the next “short period ahead,” RTE reports.
  • Here’s the official advance statement from the White House.
  • In a preview piece, The Irish Times said Kenny “would cut short the original two-day program as he was said to be eager to return home for potential discussions on forming a new government.”
Enda Kenny, Barack Obama and a bowl of shamrock in 2013. RTE photo

Enda Kenny, Barack Obama and a bowl of shamrocks in 2013. RTE photo