HSBC survey says Ireland's a terrible place to live if you're an expat

The International Financial Services Centre in Dublin. One place in Ireland where
expats can be found in sizable numbers.

“There is no such thing as bad publicity” goes the old saying. Well, I'm not sure that holds true for Ireland this week following the publication of HSBC's “Expat Explorer Survey” for 2013.

This marks the first time Ireland has featured in the “Expat Explorer Survey,” now in its seventh year. The views of those expatriates living in Ireland who took part in the HSBC survey must be sending a nervous shudder up the spines of those whose job it is to entice overseas investment to Ireland.

Let's face it: Ireland has done remarkably well attracting FDI (foreign direct investment). Most of that investment comes from America, of course, but HSBC surveyed expatriates from all over the world, living all over the world.

This highlights the greatest issue with this report: HSBC doesn't tell us how they selected the respondents to their survey. How did they find them? How was the survey administered? Are those who took part representative of the expat community that lives in Ireland? How do the views of those who took part in the survey match those of the American business executives whose views would be pretty important to Ireland?

We simply don't know, which makes the survey less useful, but still it cannot be ignored. The Washington Post featured it on the World Views section of their web site. It will probably be picked up elsewhere. And the HSBC imprimatur may not mean much to you, but it may well mean a lot to those executives who are weighing up where to locate their European base.

So what did the report say about Ireland?

Well, nothing good. HSBC broke down the findings into four categories: Expat Economics, Expat Experience, Raising Children Abroad and Expat Expenses. Which ones did Ireland do well in? None.

The first category measured the expats' satisfaction with their earnings and the economy of the host country. Ireland finished 36th out of 37. Only Italy fared worse. Maybe this is to be expected given what has happened to the Irish economy lately, but if this is true then these are not the sort of expats who I would have expected to answer a HSBC survey.

I don't know why HSBC separated out expenses from earnings for the measure of Expat Economics, but Ireland finished 37th out of 37 on this list. Italy jumped up to 34th so we can say with certainty that in terms of standard of living for expats, the HSBC puts Ireland firmly in the bottom: below every other EU country surveyed, below America, Canada and Australia, below Taiwan and Brazil. Heck, Egypt, South Africa, Vietnam and Indonesia were all well above Ireland.

Obviously life for the average person in Egypt, Vietnam and Indonesia is much tougher than for the average person in Ireland. These are the expats' experiences. Still are the expats in Ireland that much different than those in Indonesia? If not, why do they rate Ireland so badly?

Those were the money categories. What about the Expat Experiences and Raising Children Abroad, the so-called “quality of life” factors?

Again, the results are abysmal. Childcare is expensive and overall, expat parents see Ireland as pretty poor for children in terms of education, health and experience. There were only 24 countries in the 'raising children' comparison. Ireland was 23rd, above Qatar, but below Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Mexico.

Then there's Expat Experience: quality of life, ease of setting up and integrating into the local culture. This was where Ireland fared best. Well, least badly. Ireland was ranked 30th of the 37 countries. However, of the seven states listed below Ireland only one could be called “western” - the Netherlands. The others are Indonesia, Vietnam, Kuwait, Oman, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Again, it doesn't seem a scientifically credible survey, but that may not matter. HSBC is a trusted source for many and the Washington Post for many more. With this sort of thing reality matters far less than perception and the perception is Ireland's not that great a place to live.

That's the sort of perception that absolutely cannot be allowed to take root in the boardrooms of corporate America, particularly in the IT and biotech firms that the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) has been successfully targeting for many years. It wouldn't be a bad idea for the IDA to begin working on a counter strategy.

The IDA is probably longing for last six years when Ireland was simply ignored by HSBC. Then it was a case of 'no news is good news.'

Ireland in the hot sun - melting roads, water shortages, but no better place on Earth

Children playing in the Irish Sea. Don't be fooled -
that water is freezing cold.

And the Lord said, "Let there be light," and there was light and quite a bit of heat too. I'm sure God saw that it was good, although he doesn't like to do it too often. 'What's seldom is wonderful' seems to be God's motto when it comes to Ireland and warm summer weather.

We are in the middle of one of infrequent heat waves. Temperatures have been as high as the mid 80s and we have about 15 hours of sunshine a day. Who could complain?

No one Irish anyway. We may have water shortages and melting roads, but nobody much minds. That's the real beauty of it - this fine weather really lifts the mood. It's such a rarity that the good weather just seems to cheer everyone. In weather like this Ireland can rival the Magic Kingdom for the "happiest place on Earth."

The only people I can imagine who might be slightly disgruntled are American tourists because away from the coasts it is actually pretty warm through the nights and there is no air conditioning anywhere here. Even fans are fairly rare. Hotels and restaurants can actually be uncomfortably warm. When darkness doesn't totally set in until well after 11pm and light starts breaking through around 4:30 sleeplessness can come into play. Whereas Irish people shrug that off at times like this, I would understand if a few tourists are a little grumpy and bleary-eyed with it all.

As for me, well I may be American, but I'm as sun-starved as any of the locals. I'm thrilled to see the sun for such long stretches. My family has been doing as all Irish families have: enjoying the sunshine immensely. We've gone swimming in the frigid Irish Sea, dined in the back yard, gone on excursions without even considering bringing umbrellas or rain jackets. That last one is a rare treat indeed.

On Sunday we went back to County Meath, which is, as advertised, Ireland's "heritage capital." This time we visited the site of the Battle of the Boyne, the Hill of Slane and the birthplace of Irish patriot John Boyle O'Reilly.

The Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre is in a lovely location. A big old house, pretty green fields with some period cannon scattered around, but ultimately the center is disappointing. Maybe there isn't much that can be done when you have no artifacts - a few replicas is about it - and the battle was 323 years ago. Still I left there feeling no wiser just poorer for having gone there.

Churchyard at Slane, Co Meath

If you're in Meath and have to choose between the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre and the Hill of Slane go to the Hill of Slane. The good weather helped, of course, but the Hill of Slane has great views, history and it's free. You have to do your own research to learn of Slane's importance, but just walking in the ancient friary and churchyard can be rewarding enough. I hadn't been there in years and was really glad to visit again on Sunday.

The last stop on our brief tour of the area was one my specialties. I caught a glimpse of a sign advertising a memorial to John Boyle O'Reilly and ignoring the wails from the back of the car I headed off in pursuit. One lucky guess at an unsigned crossroad (follow signs for Dowth) and I was there. The old school his father ran and the tower house he was born in are still there, although they've recently been refurbished.

John Boyle O'Reilly memorial
Dowth, Co Meath
O'Reilly - Irish patriot and
advocate for Catholics
in 19th Century Boston.

O'Reilly is another example of the links between Ireland and America. He was a determined Irish patriot, a Fenian. He was transported to Australia in 1868 after the failed Fenian uprising. From there he escaped to America. He settled in Boston where he argued for Home Rule, helped organize a rescue of his fellow Fenians in an Australian prison and became an advocate for Catholics in his adopted homeland. Oh yeah, and he edited a newspaper and wrote poetry too.

All in all, O'Reilly packed a lot of living into his 46 years. He is remembered with a memorial near Fenway Park in Boston, which I've never seen but I assume is much easier to find then the one at his birthplace. Finding that was the perfect end to a perfect day in sun-drenched Ireland. Hurry over before it goes, unless you prefer it damp and cool. If you do, just wait a week and I'm sure you'll be satisfied.

Will Ireland's emigrants catch a break on property tax?

Ireland's Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan,
introduced the new property tax.

In all the time I have lived in Ireland there has never been a property tax. That is all about to change as the government is rolling out a tax on residential property this year.

Irish homeowners will start to see the bills for tax owed on their homes from next month. As you can imagine, no one's all that happy about this.

The biggest losers of course are all those struggling homeowners, the people who took out huge mortgages to  family homes during the boom, have taken substantial pay cuts or even lost their jobs and are now faced with a new tax that will cost them hundreds each year.

I know if you live in America your initial reaction will be something like, "What are they moaning about? I pay $4000 per year." And you'd have a point. However, the American system has a series of taxes - Federal, state, local, - the sum total of which can be substantial, but probably not on a par with what the average Irish person is paying. For example, does anyone in America pay a 23% sales tax? I don't think so.
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It is always difficult comparing tax rates in different countries because there are so many different taxes and what those taxes are supposed to provide is different too. Take my word for it: Irish people pay a lot in taxes, this is a new one and they're not happy about it.

Right now many people are saying they "are not going to pay." Sure many of them are blustering, but the Household Charge that was introduced last year was seen as a precursor to this year's full property tax was ignored by a large percentage of households. Maybe the government will someday catch up with those who refused to pay the Household Charge, but the fact is at the end of December nearly 30% of householders had not paid the tax. No matter how you slice it, that's a significant level of non-compliance.

Unless the government ups its game they can expect at least the same level of non-compliance. So far all we've heard is that they're upping their threats. The head of the Revenue Commissioners recently noted that they had the power to take the money from any non-payer's salary or pension or even bank account. In other words they have you. Unless ...

When I heard those comments the other day the thought struck me that there's one group of homeowners who might slip through the Revenue Commissioners' net: emigrants. I don't know how many there are, but anecdotally there are quite a few. Families, couples and singles who have bought homes have had to leave Ireland and their homes (rented, if they're lucky). There's a good possibility I'm missing something, but from the looks of it right now emigrants might owe the property tax, but it doesn't look like the Revenue Commissioners have any way to force them to pay.

I'd like to think that emigrants will catch a break here. I'd really like to believe the government would waive the property tax for those who have had to leave Ireland due to the dire economic conditions, but if there is one group the government doesn't really care about (ignore those crocodile tears) it is emigrants because they cannot vote. Thanks to that and thanks to the fact that most of them had to leave due to circumstances not of their making I hope they can avoid the property tax. It's the least they deserve.

Ireland and the debt deal - 24 hours of farce and high drama

Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank.

The end is nigh; the sky is falling. We're all doomed, doomed I tell ya. That was Wednesday night in Ireland. It was as if the end-times had arrived.

It was a very strange 24-hours from Wednesday afternoon to yesterday afternoon. It all started with breathless reports on banking and Ireland's national debts from Irish reporters in Frankfurt. There were leaks and rumors: the Irish government had secured a deal on the bank debts that the state had absorbed. What that deal was, nobody could say exactly, but we had "a deal."

Part of the deal involved the liquidation of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), which was established by the government in 2011 as something of a banking hospice for the brokist, most bankrupt bank on the planet - Anglo-Irish Bank - and its little brother, another broke institution, the Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS). Anglo is the Bank that Broke Ireland.

So far, so good you might think. Well, maybe not for the 800 people employed by IBRC, but given how hated Anglo-Irish was there didn't seem to be a whole lot of sympathy for those people.
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As Wednesday evening turned into night that's when things started getting strange. The details of the deal were not forthcoming and then the noises from reporters with contacts "in Frankfurt" (that is, the European Central Bank - ECB) began to sound ominously like there was no deal after all.

That's when the mood of television and radio reporters went from baffled to aghast as they found there were no answers to their questions. That's also when Irish tweeters went bananas.

There was nothing on the debts, but the IBRC liquidation was going ahead. That required government involvement because everything had to be finished by 7am Thursday morning, although we weren't told why. In order to get that done the Dáil and Seanad (Ireland's lower and upper houses of parliament) would have to have a late, possibly all-night, session. We were also told that the President was cutting short his state visit to Italy so he could return to sign the bill into law on Thursday morning.

It may not sound like the makings of a high drama, but it really was. All the frantic confusion evident in the government's rushing to get 50 pages of legislation drafted and passed by 7am Thursday sent Irish tweeters over the edge. In 140 characters Irish economists and banking experts - those who weren't pronouncing on our impending doom on television and radio - were conveying their skepticism and fatalism in equal measure. The rest of Ireland's tweeters joined in, often adding humor to the fatalism.

#PromNight was soon trending in Ireland, a reference to the Anglo-Irish Bank promissory notes at the center of the whole national debt crisis. The sense that we were coming to an apocalypse was thanks to the similarity between Wednesday night and the night back in late 2008 when the parliament stayed late to approve the bank guarantee scheme that has led us to national bankruptcy and the loss of national sovereignty.

Announcements from Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny were pushed back a few minutes. Then another few minutes. The whole thing had the feeling of a farce or, as people here presumed, a national tragedy. Eventually, around 11pm, Kenny and his government made their way to the Dáil where they expected to have a vote on the legislation - 50 pages of it - despite the fact nobody had yet read it. A short period of shambolic parliamentary proceedings ensued as the opposition parties sought some time to consider the bill.

At this point cool economic discussion and political analysis on TV and radio was replaced with something akin to a desperate moment of national prayer. "Please God, don't let them make things any worse." The tweeting was even more desperate.

When the discussion of the legislation finally got going - around midnight - it was a welcome relief. The endless droning of politicians didn't make anyone feel better, but at least they put us to sleep. We'd have to wait til morning to find out if the verdict was death. Or worse.

Thursday morning things were calmer. Maybe it was simply that the sun had risen on a new day that provided that glimmer of hope, but the fact that we learned that the bill was passed by both houses and signed by the President after his mad dash home from Italy was at least certainty.

That calm gave way to even more hope as rumors of an ECB deal again began to circulate. The strangeness returned around lunchtime when Mario Draghi, head of the ECB was asked about the deal during his regular press conference. His response: We "took note" of the Irish actions. "Took note." And with that commentators were baffled again and twitter was aflame. A collective "I knew it! We are screwed" was the general theme. A few other journalists at the press conference asked for more clarity, but Draghi remained indecipherable.

We only had a short while to wait, however. At 2:30 the Taoiseach rose again in the Dáil to announce that we did, in fact, have a deal with the ECB. Amen.

Calm has been restored, although nobody seems too clear as to whether (a) the legislation rushed through on Wednesday night is actually constitutional or (b) the deal on the debts that we got was all that great. For many people the fact that we have removed any doubt about whether the state was going to repay Anglo's debts makes this deal a bad one. I have sympathy with that view, but that ship sailed a long time ago. There are virtually no bondholders left. The debt now is to the ECB and there was no way we were going to renege on that.

The deal may not be great, but it's better than we had. The total debt will not be paid off til 2053, which makes it more like war reparations than bank debt, but so be it. The state wrongly guaranteed those loans and now we have to pay.

The new deal makes it a bit more affordable and pushes back the pain enough so that we can at least hope that with a bit of luck and a bit of inflation and economic growth the debt will seem less significant than it was last week. We're still sick, but it's a chronic rather than terminal illness. That's progress.

New York Times paints a picture of a mythical 'green' Ireland

Electric car charging point - they're not hard to find in Ireland,
but you're more likely to see a unicorn than to see someone
using one of these.

Perhaps over Christmas you came across a NY Times article about Ireland and carbon tax. The article essentially claimed that the Irish people had swallowed Al Gore's Kool Aid en masse and have experienced an environmental and economic miracle thanks to our new found environmentalism.

If you did happen to see that article you were hopefully asking yourself one key question: is any of this true? The answer, in a word, is 'no.'

Ireland may well be "40 Shades of Green", but that sort of 'green' is not among them. Granted Irish people are wary of messing with their beautiful green land and that sometimes frustrates me, but they are far removed from the picture of a nation of environmental devotees that the Times' Elisabeth Rosenthal painted. In fact, most of Rosenthal's article is a complete nonsense. I'm not sure it even qualifies as journalism.

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Rosenthal interviewed one politician for the piece - former Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan. Ryan was one of six Green Party TD's (MP's) in the last Dáil (Parliament). His Green Party was the junior partner in the last government, which brought in the carbon tax. That government is also widely blamed for the bank guarantee that has bankrupted the nation, destroyed our economy and (temporarily we all hope) ended Ireland's 90 year experiment with sovereignty.

In the election that followed our economic collapse not a single Green Party TD managed to be elected. The party barely exists now, but Rosenthal tracked down Ryan to get a positive assessment of the carbon tax. If the carbon tax was the blessing Rosenthal claims how is it she couldn't find a single current government minister or even elected official to sing the carbon tax's praises? None of the remaining Fianna Fáil TD's was willing to speak in favor of the carbon tax despite representing the senior partners in the government that brought it in. Odd if the carbon tax is all Rosenthal claims it to be.

Rosenthal's economic claims were even more laughable. What little good news Ireland had in 2011 was entirely due to the Irish operations of large US technology and pharmaceutical companies. The domestic economy declined in 2011.

Rosenthal's entire article is a sham. Carbon taxes were introduced just as the economy was going into free fall. The sharp decrease in emissions is ENTIRELY due to the fall in economic activity. So many companies have gone to the wall that production has decreased sharply. Unemployment has sky-rocketed so fewer people are driving to work and emigration has taken off again so there are actually fewer people here burning oil and gas. That's the real carbon emissions story. Everything else is a green fiction.

The carbon tax is just another tax. Taxes have risen across the board. Our VAT rate (sales tax) is now 23.5%. All sorts of other new charges have been introduced, often with little or no protest because we all know the government is broke and we all know that our European masters love all these new charges. So they come in, we moan and then we pay them. That's what happened with the carbon tax.

Rosenthal ties in charging people for their garbage collection service with the carbon tax. That's a completely different issue. Ireland has limited landfill space and it's filling up fast. Garbage collection was getting too expensive for local governments so they sold off the routes and now we have to pay. I don't think this situation would be unfamiliar to many Americans.

My absolutely favorite part of Rosenthal's fairytale was the accompanying photograph of an electric car recharging its battery. The picture was taken at a car dealership. Funny that, considering there are hundreds of these electric charge points all over Dublin. You know why she didn't get a picture of someone charging their car at one of those curb-side charging points? Yup, you guessed it, NOBODY uses them because NOBODY has an electric car.

I was in California two weeks ago. In first the ten minutes I was in Pasadena I saw more electric cars charging their batteries than I have in the two years since the Irish government began rolling out the unused infrastructure for the non-existent national fleet of electric cars.

The Ireland I live in is not the one Rosenthal wrote about. The one I live in is still bankrupt, still hemorrhaging young people, still awaiting further tax hikes, still governed by people sensible enough to know that the average Irish person is still unconcerned by 'climate change.' The Ireland she described is a mythical green land experiencing an environmental-policy-led economic turn-around. You can probably find the 'Little People' running Rosenthal's Ireland.

If the Irish are going to fawn over a foreign leader it should be China's Xi rather than Obama

China's new leader, Xi Jinping at the Cliffs of Moher in
County Clare during his visit to Ireland last February.
Pat Hayes, Mayor of Clare is with him.
{Photo: MaxPix.ie}

Last week's announcement that the next year's G8 summit will be in Northern Ireland set heart afluttering south of the border. 'Do you think ... Could he ... Would he?' A little shutter of excitement at the thought that maybe, just maybe President Obama will come amongst us again.

Memories of his triumphant 12-hour 2011 'homecoming' visit are still fresh, but oh, how the Irish people would love to have even fresher memories. Now, thanks to the G8 summit, there is real hope.

Forgive me if I'm a tad cynical about the Irish hero-worship of President Obama, but his role in Irish affairs thus far has consisted of (a) having a pint of Guinness in a town he'd never heard of celebrating roots he never knew he had and  (b) denigrating Ireland as a tax haven.

I regularly hear that "Obama loves the Irish." Hmm. I'm sure he loves being loved by the Irish, but that's not quite the same thing. If you tell me that President Clinton loves the Irish I'd probably buy that. But President Obama? I don't think so.
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If we want to prostrate ourselves before a foreign leader it would be far better to do so in the full knowledge that we're doing so cynically in the hope that we will get something out of it. That would be preferable to having grown men and women slobber adoringly over a man who is, after all, a politician while seeking nothing in return other than that he accept our adulation.

So if we're going to restrict ourselves to only cynical and hypocritical boot-licking then the question is: Who to woo? Angela Merkel is the obvious choice since she holds our future in her hands, but something tells me false fawning will get us nowhere with her. Vladimir Putin? That would require too much debasement on our part. We have to be able to draw the line somewhere. Prime Minister Harper of Canada would be an intriguing choice because so many Irish people are heading to Canada these days, but we should be able to find plenty of common ground with him without being untrue to ourselves.

No, for me there is only one choice: China's new leader Xi Jinping. We should set our sights on Xi because China is an increasingly powerful player in the global economy, China's government plays a big role in the country's economy and because we have already made a good start with him.

Xi spent a few days in Ireland back in February and by all accounts the visit was a success (aren't they all?). Skepticism aside, the Wall Street Journal's recent long profile article about Xi  was accompanied by only one photograph of him: a  picture of Xi kicking a Gaelic football at Croke Park in Dublin. The picture emphasized Xi's political skills, but also the success of the Irish in entertaining the future leader of the world's largest nation.

At the time of his visit Xi was only in line to be China's next leader, but now it has been confirmed that Xi will be at the top of the Chinese government for the next ten years. He was important then; he's more important now.

During Xi's time in Ireland the NY Times commented on the fact that Ireland's transformation from a poor, agricultural nation into a rich, high-tech one "fascinates Chinese officials." Xi too, apparently, as he spliced in technology and education deals with the Irish government when he wasn't charming the Irish and being charmed by them.

Those few days in February may well turn out to be the most important visit by any current foreign leader, including President Barack Obama's. Xi's visit to Ireland was longer, lower key and much more substantive.

Next year Xi will be in Northern Ireland for the G8 summit. It would be a real coup to lure him south for more "getting to know you" time. More pictures of Xi in romantic Irish settings will do no harm for the exploding Chinese tourist trade. Barack Obama may have hold of Irish heartstrings and Angela Merkel Irish purse strings, but Xi controls both Chinese heartstrings and purse strings and that makes him the most attractive candidate for Irish pandering. Let's get to it.

Coming soon to County Cork 'Dallas' - Oil industry could change Ireland forever

Josh Henderson, who plays John Ross Ewing III on Dallas.
{Photo: International Business Times}

Oil has been found under the seabed off the coast of Cork in Ireland and the company that found the oil says the field "should yield 280m barrels of oil."

280 MILLION barrels of oil and at $100 a barrel that is ... wait ... hold on ... oh forget it - a whole pile of cash.

Ohhh, there's going be to some wealth kicking around Cork all right. There'll be a lot of rich people. Rich Cork people. Dubliners will be sick.

I can see it all now. Cork will soon be dominated by huge, ugly, glass skyscrapers where in the top floors oil millionaires named John Joe will chase even more millions and young female minions. These same men will also snap up Cork's grand old estates of the landed gentry so that they can carry on the hard work of greed and lust in an 18th century manor house surrounded by a few hundred acres of lush pasture land. It'll be great!

They'll insist on displaying their love for Irish culture by giving their estates fake Gaelic names like Áibhéalín - meaningless in Irish - but they'll pronounce it as Abilene as in Texas and they'll feel good about themselves for spelling it as if it's a native Irish word.

These new Hibernian oil barons will be known as Oilbernians. It won't be a case of the Celtic Tiger reborn. It will be far worse than that.
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Without a doubt Hollywood get wind of this and will jump at this story of all this new found money in the old world. The idea of the misbehaving Oilbernian will be too good to pass up.

It could be a movie. I'm sure you could do justice to the story in a movie, but I'm hoping for television. Not just any old television either, but the show that I believe will be used a model by the Oilbernians - Dallas.

Dallas should come to Cork. Dallas will come to Cork. I'm sure of it. Just think about it: the Ewings in Cork.

Dallas was massively popular in Ireland in its heyday in the 80s. I don't know if the new show is or will be as popular, but, regardless, when the film crews and, especially, the actors arrive the people of Ireland will go gaga. The show's makers won't be able to resist that kind of pull.

So John-Ross Ewing will come to Ireland to do some deals with a (hopefully) glammed up version of the real-life John Joe. And John Ross will find that Middleton's whiskey and John Joe's niece, Bridget, appeal to him a great deal. It'll all get very messy when John Ross isn't put off any of his pursuits, including Bridget, when everyone discovers that John Ross's great-granddaddy and John Joe's great-granddad were brothers.

Of course an attractive, sexy, greedy, conniving woman will have to have come with John Ross. She'll roam the highways and byways of south Cork looking for Bridget or some dirt that she can use to disgrace her, to separate her from John Ross.

Eventually she'll find Bridget's home is in Youghal and she'll want to go there. And then it will happen. The moment will have arrived. That moment I've been waiting for for so long, a quarter century, since I first heard how Youghal is pronounced.

The woman will be driving along Cork's small, windy roads, getting lost regularly. She'll be wearing next to nothing, well other than a raincoat over a sweater and a shirt or two, long trousers, two pairs of socks and wellington boots - gotta keep it somewhat realistic - when she'll slows down to speak to a local lad of about 19 years of age walking along the road. This besotted, be-spotted young man will stare in utter awe as the Texan beauty slowly and drawly asks him, "Y'all from Youghal?"

I'll leap out of my chair and punch the air. "Y'all from Youghal?" I'll shout it out loud a dozen times or more. I've been waiting so long to hear a Texan to speak those words. I'll laugh and sing it out again and again.

At some point it will pass from vaguely amusing to annoying to worrying to the point where my children are crying and my wife is calling for the men in white coats to come take me away. I'll go happily too - asking each of them in turn if "Y'all from Youghal?"

What of John Ross, John Joe and the two women I hear you ask. I don't know. I can't get past that moment, but it will be great when Cork is rich on oil and Dallas comes to the Rebel County.

* Of course, given the prejudices of Dublin people, I'm sure they'd have a different television show in mind for Cork people and their new found oil riches - The Beverly Hillbillies.

Tough job for Irish police with 35,000 Americans in Dublin for Notre Dame vs Navy

Irish police provided excellent security during the 2011
visits of the Queen and President Obama.

Notre Dame and Navy have arrived in Dublin ahead of Saturday's opener to their college football seasons. Their fans are in town too. The papers say 35,000, but it seems like a lot more than that. There is a great, celebratory atmosphere in Dublin. It's fantastic.

I never doubted that those traveling from America would enjoy themselves in Dublin. It's not hard to entice Irish people to join in when a party arrives on their doorstep. There may not be a million college football fans in Dublin, but everybody here understands pre-game and post-game enjoyment. The Irish are famous in soccer and rugby circles for knowing exactly how to do these things.

The mood couldn't be lighter and I'm certainly not of a mind to dampen down that mood. However I want to spare a thought for the few people in and around Dublin who are probably feeling a lot more tense thanks to the presence of all these Americans, including thousands of United States Navy personnel - those charged with guaranteeing security over this weekend.

Obviously, there'll no real trouble from any of the visiting Americans and no serious trouble from Irish people either. That's one of the key reasons why the atmosphere around Dublin is good. Everybody knows there will be no trouble.

However, Ireland is part of Europe and as easily as the American fans traveled to Ireland so could those twisted few who belong to groups like al Qaeda. Of course, Ireland has had its own, so far thankfully light, brush with al Qaeda terrorism.
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Irish people have great faith in the gardaí and with good reason. Last year's visits of the Queen and President Obama went off without a hitch. Security was tight and effective. I'm sure the gardaí, Ireland's police force, with help from their colleagues in other European police forces have been working on their security arrangements for this weekend since this game was formally announced.

Yet, protecting one very important visitor is a different proposition to protecting thousands of visitors, especially when they're scattered throughout the city. The fact that the Americans will be so easy to identify, especially those in green pants or Navy uniforms, doesn't help the gardaí.

Tomorrow's game would be an obvious target if you were up to no good, but I expect security to be very tight around the stadium. I'm sure the gardaí have that well in hand. Same goes for the area around the USS Fort McHenry, which is in town as part of the Navy's Emerald Isle Classic celebration. Plus, the Navy knows how to protect its ships when in a foreign port.

I'm sure the gardaí are so prepared the they're unworried by either the game or the ship. No, I bet if anything is causing them restlessness it's all those fans wandering around Dublin, with the words "We're Americans" pretty much tattooed on their foreheads.

I expect the eyes under those peaked blue police caps will be keenly focused wherever groups of Americans gather. And come Monday morning I expect no one will be happier to see the American visitors happily on their way than those charged with protecting them this weekend.

{Photo thanks to the Irish Independent.}

Navy war dead in Ireland need some attention from those traveling for Notre Dame game

Headstone in Cobh, Co Cork graveyard
with details on death of 2 American
sailors during WW1.
Photo: thanks to USSWwainwright.org

This was first published at IrishCentral.com.

The other day I wrote that I thought the Navy had flubbed its mission to Ireland, isn't reaching out enough, using soft power to win some points with the Irish people. In particular, I thought the Navy isn't doing enough to highlight the links between Ireland and the US Navy, but rather is leaving the "Irish links" domain entirely to Notre Dame.

Yesterday I learned that the Navy is bringing the USS Fort McHenry to Dublin and they're allowing people to tour the ship. I know my son would absolutely love that so I entered the lottery for tickets to join a tour. Fingers crossed.

That is good, but I still think the Navy could have done so much more. However, there is one thing they can help get done that should be done.

A few years ago I wrote about an unmarked grave containing three American sailors in a graveyard in Cobh (formerly Queenstown), Co Cork. I got that story from a documentary on Ireland's national television station, however I now suspect that story isn't actually accurate.*

However, there are two Americans buried in Cobh's Old Church Cemetery, both of whom died while serving with the Navy during WWI.

One of the two lies in a grave with a headstone (see above) that is in serious need of a cleaning. The stone reads:

Sacred to the memory of our shipmates James H. Bush US Navy born 11/11/1889 at Brockton, Mass. Accidentally drowned Aug. 4th 1917 and William P. Baker U.S. Navy born 9/9/1899 at Branswick, Cal. Lost at sea Oct. 23rd 1917 body not recovered. Erected by the Officers and Crew of the U.S.S. “Wainwright”.
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Read More:

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Notre Dame vs Navy will be security nightmare for Ireland
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The other man lies in a grave nearby. An unmarked grave. Seaman Second Class William H Mansfield, who died of the flu on October 26, 1918 while serving on the USS Utah. Mansfield was from Richmond, KY. {Mansfield's address is given as 133 Estill Avenue and his next of kin as his father William Thomas Mansfield. Interestingly, Willie Thomas Hammons, also a Seaman Second Class, died in a naval hospital in Scotland in October 1918 and he gave his next of kin as his mother Cora Elmore Mansfield, also of 133 Estill Avenue in Richmond, KY. The two men enlisted on the same day in May 1918 in Louisville. They died five days apart. Half brothers? Cousins?}

Mansfield deserves a headstone, a proper military headstone on his grave. That he died of the flu is of no matter. Most of the Navy's casualties during the war were due to the flu.

Thanks to the work of the American Legion Ireland, the Fr Francis Duffy Post, these omissions have been put right often in recent years. Now they have another mission. They could probably use a little help and with all the Navy brass that will be here this weekend for the football game that help his here now.

It would be great if someone from the Navy's traveling delegation to Ireland this weekend were to find out about William Mansfield's unmarked grave and get ball rolling when they get back stateside. A proper military headstone needs to be requisitioned immediately. While they're at it they can organize for the stone on Bush's grave to get a good cleaning and/or maybe request a proper military headstone for that grave too.

* I want to thank Aileen Walsh of Cobh Town Council who took my rumors about the three sailors in an unmarked grave and then spent quite a bit of time going through old registers to turn those rumors into the hard facts on Bush, Baker and Mansfield.