Tag Archives: Jimmy Deenihan

Healy-Rae brothers top Kerry polling; Deenihan, Spring ousted

Independent brothers Michael and Danny Healy-Rae have taken the top two of five seats in the redrawn Kerry constituency. Their late father Jackie Healy-Rae also was in independent TD from Kerry from 1997-2011.

The polling ousted Fine Gael Minister of Diaspora Jimmy Deenihan from the Dáil, as well as Labour’s Arthur J Spring, nephew of former party leader Dick Spring.

Brendan Griffin of Fine Gael and Martin Ferris of Sinn Féin retained their seats. Newcomer John Brassil of Fianna Fáil took the fifth seat. The constituency for this election was merged from two, three-seat districts: Kerry South and Kerry North-Limerick West.

Full Kerry results here.

Deenihan told The Irish Independent that he believes a new election will be called soon, but he stopped short of saying whether he would run again.

First elected to the Dáil in 1987, Deenihan won re-election five times. He blamed his defeat on being targeted by people who were not happy with the Government, and on a feeling that got out that he was “safe.”

(I first met Deenihan at the Lartigue Monorail and Museum in Listowel in 2012; then again at an Irish Network DC event in 2015.)

With 94 percent of seats decided by late 28 February, independents had won 20 seats. Like Kerry, independents also won the top two places in Roscommon-Galway and Tipperary constituencies.

TheJournal.ie has a story about the Healy-Rae brothers joining a “long line of siblings” who have represented Irish constituencies in the Dáil, and before independence. But their list misses Irish nationalist MPs Edward and Timothy Harrington in the 1880s.

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:

Irish Network USA adds Dublin chapter

Irish Network USA is opening its first chapter … in Ireland.

At chapters in 19 American cities, more than 3,500 IN members connect with their peers to develop business, cultural, sports and social relationships. I belong to Irish Network – DC.

The new Dublin chapter “will provide access for all of its members in Ireland to the larger IN network across the U.S.,” according to a release. “Through mentoring programs, networking, cultural and social events, we will provide a means by which the Irish diaspora are supported while they are living and working in the U.S. and as they return home to Ireland.”

Irish Minister for Diaspora Affairs Jimmy Deenihan, and Deputy Chief of Mission from the U.S. Embassy in Dublin Stuart Dwyer, were to open the new chapter 14 April, according to Irish Central. Deenihan spoke at an IN-DC event earlier this year.

Deenihan addresses Washington’s Irish community

Irish Minister for Diaspora Affairs Jimmy Deenihan says he is within weeks of issuing “a new strategy to improve Ireland’s connection with the diaspora.”

The policy paper is part of the government’s review of its relationship with Ireland’s scattered sons and daughters. It has been in the works since Deenihan, a Fine Gael TD from north Kerry, was appointed to the new ministerial post in July and is based on interviews with individuals and submissions from Irish organizations from around the world.

Deenihan is a on a four-day visit to Washington, D.C. and Boston. He addressed the annual meeting and reception of Irish Network-DC at the Embassy of Ireland in Washington on 22 January. (Full disclosure: I am a member of Irish Network-DC.)

Kerry T.D. Jimmy Deenihan at the Embassy of Ireland in Washington on Jan. 22.

Kerry T.D. Jimmy Deenihan at the Embassy of Ireland in Washington on Jan. 22.

Deenihan noted how the Irish diaspora maintained a strong relationship with the homeland through the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. But new measures are needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century, especially engaging the younger generation of Irish emigrants, he said.

The global Irish diaspora is estimated at 70 million people, including about half in the U.S. Some 156,000 people born in the Republic of Ireland were living in America at the start of the 21st century, with an estimated 50,000 Irish currently living in the country illegally.

Deenihan told The Irish Times he doesn’t think the new Republican majority in Congress can stop President Obama from sparing four million illegal immigrants of various nationalities from deportation. He said undocumented Irish should start preparing the paperwork required for temporary relief from deportation under Obama’s executive order.

Deenihan was less specific about immigrant issues in his talk at the Embassy. He mentioned meeting with Congressman Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, and other members of the new majority “because they are the ones in power.” But he suggested Republicans “will work together” with Congressional Democrats on Ireland’s behalf.

As for the forthcoming policy paper and improving relations with the diaspora, Deenihan said groups such as Irish Network-DC and 18 other chapters under the umbrella Irish Network USA organization are critical.

He also said his office would begin reaching out to alumni of Irish universities, regardless of where they were born, who can help Ireland with economic development and other opportunities. Tech companies working in Ireland such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google are also being asked to help build connections.

“That should suit the Irish diaspora quite well because we are spread so wide,” Deenihan said.

Irish art exhibit to open in Chicago

Deenihan announced that he will open a major exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. “Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690 – 1840” will feature more than 300 objects from public and private collections.

An exhibition of 18th century decorative and fine arts from Ireland has never been undertaken on either side of the Atlantic, according to AIC. The exhibit opens on St. Patrick’s Day and continues through June 7.

Kerry’s Deenihan named first minister for diaspora

Kerry T.D. Jimmy Deenihan has been named Ireland’s first Minister of State for the Diaspora.

The Irish Times calls the post “a huge boost for the Irish abroad, marking the first significant official gesture towards political representation for Irish people living outside the country.”

One of his first duties will be exploring whether Irish citizens living outside the Republic are given the right to vote in presidential elections.

Deenihan was Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Earlier in his career he helped in the effort to restore the Lartigue monorail. My wife and I met him briefly at the Listowel museum in 2012. His full bio is here. 

The appointment was part of a larger shakeup in the Irish government.