Dates set for 2013 Listowel Writer’s Week

The Listowel Writer’s Week has announced the 42nd annual event will take place May 29 to June 2, 2013. Here’s what Irish President Michael D. Higgins says about the event:

“Here in Listowel every year the Nobel Laureate and bestselling author is celebrated, the emerging voice of the poet reading in public for the first time is applauded, the draft novels and stories are discussed and encouraged.  Here the writer gets to realise that he is part of a group, part of a family composed of creative individuals interested in and anxious to support each other’s gift and talent.” 

My wife and I enjoyed this year’s literary festival, especially a reading by poet Paul Durcan. Afterward, I stood in line for nearly an hour to get a book of his poems autographed for her while she and my Irish cousins enjoyed their pints in the bar of the Listowel Arms Hotel.

That’s love. That’s Ireland.

Book of Kells app

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“Christ Enthroned” from the The Book of Kells.

The Book of Kells is now available as an iPad app.

It’s the latest technological iteration of the 9th century calf-skin copy of the four gospels, originally hand-produced by Irish monks.

The colorful, intricate images of the illuminated manuscript have been reproduced for many years in conventional books and more recently on CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs.

“The Book of Kells for iPad was designed and developed by X Communications in partnership with Trinity College Library Dublin,” according to a release. “The images used for the iPad app were digitised by The Digital Resources & Imaging Services in Trinity College Library from transparencies provided by Faksimile-Verlag Luzern who published a facsimile of the manuscript in 1990.”

The app, which costs $12.99, allows the user to scroll through all 680 pages of the manuscript.

A nice feature indeed. But still no substitute for visiting Trinity College and working your way through the permanent The Book of Kells exhibit, finally reaching the glass case and peering onto the manuscript itself.

Ireland begins constitutional convention

Ireland has launched a year-long constitutional convention. A group of 100 elected officials and private citizens will review the 1937 constitution with an eye toward considering changes in these key areas:

  • Reduction of the Presidential term of office to five years and the alignment with local and European elections;
  • Reduction of the voting age to 17;
  • Review of the Dáil electoral system;
  • Irish citizens’ right to vote at Irish Embassies in Presidential elections;
  • Provisions for same-sex marriage;
  • Amendment to the clause on the role of women in the home and encouraging greater participation of women in public life;
  • Increasing the participation of women in politics; and
  • Removal of the offence of Blasphemy from the Constitution.

The endeavor is drawing criticism for allowing the 66 private citizen delegates to remain anonymous, ostensibly to protect them from being lobbied by special interests and hounded by media. The Irish Voice has editorialized the panel does not include any members of the Irish diaspora.

The panel does included members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, though representatives of the two largest unionist parties have declined to attend.

The consideration of same-sex marriage, changes in the role of women and removal of blasphemy make clear the Roman Catholic Church will not have same impact on this convention as in 1937. Here’s the homepage for the constitutional convention.

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.

Adams seeks to redefine Irish republicanism

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is redefining Irish republicanism to be relevant for the post-conflict future, the Irish Times reports.

“It’s worth reminding ourselves that this isn’t 1798. This isn’t 1916. This isn’t 1981. The men and women of those generations took the core principles of republicanism and modernised them and made them relevant to their own times,” he said. “That’s what we have to do – we have to take the core values of our political ethos and make them relevant to our time, and in our place of activism, whether that is in the community, in local government, in the Assembly or in the Dáil.”

Adams also wants a referendum on whether to continue partition of the six counties in the north of Ireland. The issue is getting fresh attention with Britain allowing Scotland to have a 2014 vote on whether to remain in the union. Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said it’s too soon to consider having such a referendum.

Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State were created in 1921.image

Saving Moore Street

The proposed redevelopment of Dublin’s historic Moore Street is getting increased scrutiny after an Irish television documentary alleged the Dublin City Council made secret deals with the builder.

“Sometimes called the ‘Alamo of Ireland,’ the laneways and streets surrounding Moore Street are some of the most historic in the nation,” Robin Mary Heaney blogged on Irish America magazine’s website. “They are among the last remnants of battlefield Dublin from the Easter Rising of 1916.”

Here is the doorstep where republican patriot The O’Rahilly of Ballylongford, Co. Kerry, wrote a letter to his wife as he bled to death from a gunshot wound:

Darling Nancy I was shot leading a rush up Moore Street and took refuge in a doorway. While I was there I heard the men pointing out where I was and made a bolt for the laneway I am in now. I got more [than] one bullet I think. Tons and tons of love dearie to you and the boys and to Nell and Anna. It was a good fight anyhow.

Now elected officials in the Dublin council and the national government are fighting over who should have the authority to investigate allegations of “backstairs deals” with the developer, The Irish Times reports.


“Malarkey”

Google reports that searches of the word “malarkey” soared after Vice President Joe Biden used the term in his debate with Congressman Paul Ryan.

“With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey,” Biden said after Ryan suggested the administration’s foreign policy “projects weakness.”

The term resurfaced a few minutes later. Here’s the exchange, taken from CNN’s transcript:

BIDEN: This is a bunch of stuff. Look, here’s the deal.

[Debate Moderator Martha] RADDATZ: What does that mean, a bunch of stuff?

BIDEN: Well, it means it’s simply inaccurate.

RYAN: It’s Irish.

BIDEN: It – it is.

(LAUGHTER)

We Irish call it malarkey.

RADDATZ: Thanks for the translation.

On a more serious note, the two Catholic politicians were asked how their faith influences their views on abortion. Their answers reflect not only that hot-button issue, but also Catholic social doctrine and church-related lawsuits over Obamacare.

Search the word “Catholic” in the transcript to read their full reply.