NY Times skips Ireland during Queen's visit

The Queen has now left Ireland. There's no denying that this was a big moment in British-Irish relations, which have been less than ideal for a long time.

It's a big news story, possibly the biggest coming out of Europe these past few days. Britain's Queen in Ireland where she has never been despite the short distance between Britain and Ireland. History said 'No' to such a visit until now.

It wasn't just the Queen who was here either. Prime Minister David Cameron was here for a while and his Foreign Minister William Hague was here for the duration of the Queen's visit. This was a big occasion in the history of both countries.

I would imagine there is no bigger story as far as an American audience is concerned, which explains why I'm so surprised that the New York Times covered the story from London. {I'm willing to concede that the Dominique Strauss-Kahn story is more salacious, but I think less important than the Queen's visit.}

Every story on the Queen's visit to Ireland was filed by Alan Cowell with a dateline London. It seems that neither Cowell nor any other Times reporter actually came to Ireland at any stage to actually report on the events here. I truly find that surprising for America's 'paper of record.'

I know that Cowell can watch events on television and do his reporting from a London office, but that's not really reporting. I mean, that's not really much different than blogging.

It really seems like the Times missed a news story, only passing on the bare bones of what happened this week. No interviews with people involved in the planning or execution of the trip, no quotes from people who could put the trip in a political or historical context, no 'on-the-street' views from people for and against this visit. Nothing, just a summation of what was on television.

I'm not blaming Alan Cowell, for all I know the Times is short-handed in London. I know I didn't see the by-line of regular London correspondent Sarah Lyall.

Still, I can't believe the Times couldn't find someone to report for the paper here in Ireland. The Boston Globe managed it. The Times owns the Globe, but the Globe's correspondent's 'on-the-ground' stories didn't make it into the Times. The Times, the paper of record, apparently just couldn't be bothered.

Irish media's conspiracy of silence on Jihad Jane

Colleen LaRose (aka Jihad Jane) pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a Pennsylvania court. Among the charges LaRose pleaded guilty to are conspiracy to murder a foreign target and conspiracy to support terrorists.

The word conspiracy interests me greatly because conspiracy implies more than one person and every single person she allegedly conspired with was (is?) living in Ireland at the time. LaRose apparently conspired to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Viks, who offended Muslims with his portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed as a dog.

International conspiracy. Jihad. Murder. Guilty. Ireland.

You'd imagine that the Irish media would be all over this one, right? Well, you would be wrong.

The national television and radio service, RTE, has avoided the topic completely, as far as I can tell. I haven't heard it mentioned nor seen it on their web site. The two main newspapers, Irish Independent and Irish Times, have published brief wire service articles about LaRose changing her plea, but with no details on the story's connection to Ireland.

It's almost like there's a conspiracy in the Irish media, a conspiracy of silence on this international terrorist conspiracy based in Ireland.

The story broke in March of last year when seven people were arrested in Counties Waterford and Cork, although five were almost immediately released. Among those five was American Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, who was arrested upon her return to America.

You'd imagine the media might be just a tad interested in this angle. Two American women arrived in this country just as any other tourists from America do, only these two were (allegedly in Paulin-Ramirez's case) intent on meeting up with one or more other people based here with the intent of carrying out a terrorist attack.

LaRose faces life in prison for the crimes for which she's been convicted; Paulin-Ramirez could spend 15 years in prison if she's convicted.

These are serious crimes. Yet the Irish media hasn't mentioned it other than those few sentences that add nothing to what you'd have might have heard on a news bulletin from CNN.

No mention of Paulin-Ramirez's husband, Ali Charaf Damache, alleged contact for LaRose before she left America and who, as far as I can tell, last made the news here back in May when he was "sent forward for trial" in Waterford District Court.

No mention of Waterford or Cork for that matter, despite the fact the original arrests were made there. Also, no further mention of Imam Ali Al-Saleh and his view expressed last spring that Ireland is a hotbed of Islamic extremism.

No mention at all. It's as of it is all just one of those things that happened somewhere else. Only it didn't. It happened here and they came here for a reason, but nobody seems all that interested in understanding why.

Listening to Irish sports announcer a great cultural experience

Ireland's premier sports announcer shocked Irish sports fans when he declared that this Sunday he will broadcast his last All-Ireland Final. Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, who is 80, has been bringing Gaelic games to life for 60 years.

Ó Muircheartaigh (Moriarty in English) is Ireland's answer to Vin Scully. Only, whereas Scully is often described as lyrical, Ó Muircheartaigh is musical. Listening to Ó Muircheartaigh {photo} describe the action in a Gaelic football or hurling game is very like listening to traditional Irish music.

I can remember the first time I ever heard Ó Muircheartaigh. It was the 1980s and I just stumbled onto WFUV's live broadcast of the All-Ireland football final. I knew nothing about the game and, in truth, I had trouble following the details of what Ó Muircheartaigh was saying, but the sound of his voice was magical.

I was captivated as he called the play on the field without interruption: his voice rising and falling as the excitement waxed and waned. Occasionally, randomly and without warning he switched to his native Irish (Gaelic), which only enhanced my enjoyment. Whenever the players took a breather he'd take the opportunity to tell us something about one of the 30 athletes: what he did for a living, his hometown, his parents, brothers, sisters and, even grandparents. You got the idea that Ó Muircheartaigh knew everyone in the country (and he probably does).

Having lived here a long time I can now follow the action when Ó Muircheartaigh is calling it, except during those snippets of Irish, which I still enjoy. In fact, as has been said by others this week, listening to Ó Muircheartaigh on the radio is often superior to watching as he had that ability to make a pedestrian contest sound like an event you'd dearly have loved to have witnessed personally.

Oh, and that's another thing about Ó Muircheartaigh. He's strictly radio. Like Scully, Ó Muircheartaigh learned his trade in the days before TV. I don't know if he ever tried his hand at a television broadcast, but I can't imagine that would have worked. His words and the sound of his voice could transport you and seeing the image on a television set would only distract you and ruin the experience.

It's a sad day for fans of Gaelic games, but if you have never heard Ó Muircheartaigh you can listen tomorrow at 10:30EDT through rte.ie (& on WFUV and probably other stations across America). It will be more than worthwhile.

Gerry Ryan's pro-America view will be missed

Gerry Ryan was a giant on Irish radio and there's no doubt that people here are shocked by his sudden death last week. I still find it hard to believe that he won't ever again fill three hours daily on the national airwaves.

To be honest, I wasn't a big fan. Often his show ventured from earthy to bawdy to crude. I usually bailed at earthy.

Other times he dealt with stuff I simply had no interest in - the everyday little things that are important when they happen to you. He'd take calls from people who were having trouble getting a passport or dealing with noisy neighbors or a cheating auto mechanic. I know a lot of people liked his personal approach to radio - it was like a one to one conversation with 300,000 people - but it's just that when I listen to the radio I prefer a discussion on politics or economics or sports.

Having said all that, there was one aspect of Gerry Ryan's persona - and, therefore, his radio show - that I really liked: Ryan was no anti-American. In fact, I'd say that Ryan was the most pro-American radio or television personality in Ireland. For that reason, I'm going to miss his presence.

He wasn't a ra-ra, 'Yay America' guy, but Ryan didn't take his cue from those sneering arbiters of correctness who seem to like nothing better than taking a shot at America. Sure he could be critical, but you were never in doubt that Ryan perceived America as a force for good in the world. If there's someone who can replace Ryan in that regard I haven't heard him or her yet.

NY Times goes all tabloid on the Pope

Okay, hold on. I was going to write about the Pope's recent letter to Ireland's Catholics, but instead I want to talk about the story on the front page of the NY Times on March 25. Just because so many of the Bishops have made some grotesque errors in judgment doesn't mean that the NY Times should take leave of its editorial senses and adopt the sensationalist policies of a British tabloid.

The story the Times tells is another one about a priest who violated his vows, the innocence of children and the trust of their parents. Fr. Lawrence Murphy was an Assistant Director, Director and eventually Principal at St. John's School for the Deaf, a residential school in Milwaukee, from 1950 – 1974.

During that time Fr. Murphy sexually molested dozens of boys, perhaps even as many as 200. It's a horrific tale, made worse by the fact that Fr. Murphy preyed on deaf children for whom communicating what was happening to them was that much more difficult.

When in 1974 the Archdiocese of Milwaukee was told by the boys what had happened to them Fr. Murphy was relieved of his duties at St. John's and basically ordered to go back and live with his mother in a different part of Wisconsin, in a different diocese. The Times says at the time the police and prosecutors "ignored reports" from Fr. Murphy's victims, so there doesn't seem to be the same cover-up concerns that are a feature of most of these stories. Murphy's abuse of children seems to have stopped with his removal from St. John's in 1974.

That story, however, has already been told by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel back in March 2006 and is told in detail at BishopAccountability.org. The Times connects the story to Pope Benedict, which is why it was on the front page.

The Times reveals that in January 1998 while the Church was proceeding with the process to laicize Fr. Murphy, he wrote to Cardinal Ratzinger appealing to him to stop this process on the grounds that (a) it was outside the norms of Church law (time limits) and (b) he was in poor health, having just "suffered another stroke." Three months later Ratzinger's secretary asked Milwaukee to drop the case. Four months after that Fr. Murphy was dead.

So there's the crux of the scandal that the Times saw fit to blaze on its front page. No legal cover-up, simply an old sinner's appeal for mercy and, apparently, a positive response from Cardinal Ratzinger.

Now I wish Cardinal Ratzinger hadn't done that. I'd rather have seen Fr. Murphy suffer, but I'm not a priest nor a bishop. I'm not in the business of forgiveness or mercy, but I can accept that this is a core function for a priest.

I'd like to be happy that the Times is so hard-line on the application of justice, but anyone who reads the paper regularly knows that not to be true. I'm still waiting for their editorial condemning the Scots for releasing Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who was convicted of murdering 270 people over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988 and who was released last year for dubious medical reasons.

No the truth is the Times picked up on an old, terrible story and used a thin connection to tie it to the Pope in an attempt to discredit him. That's it. The British tabloids would be proud of the Times' efforts.

Lee leaves Fine Gael looking like losers

Big doings here today, if you're one of those who is obsessed by the minutia of Ireland's politics. RTE's former Economics Editor and the nation's favorite merchant of doom, George Lee, announced today that he was quitting politics, quitting the Dáil and quitting the Fine Gael party less than a year after he quit RTE to "get off the fence" and work to "ensure the country got better Government."

That was in May of 2009 and now it looks like Lee (photo - right) will be looking to get back on the fence at RTE.

Undoubtedly this was a tough decision for Lee, but what of his former party and its leader Enda Kenny (photo - holding Lee's arm aloft)?

Fine Gael is Ireland's second biggest political party and was seen as pretty much shoo-ins for victory in the next election, even if that's still two years away. The country is on its knees and the biggest political party, Fianna Fáil, is generally regarded as responsible.

Right now there are over 400,000 unemployed, thousands of small businesses are on the rocks, the banks are still in a vegetative state and will probably need more taxpayer help. Recovery will be slow and painful, which should all but guarantee a mood for big change in the political sphere.

As far as the electorate is concerned Fianna Fáil turned a blind eye (at best) to shady practices in property development and neglected its responsibilities in regulating the banks who loaned the money to the property developers. In other words, this is a golden opportunity for Fine Gael to shine. All they have to do is prove they can manage things better than Fianna Fáil. That's not too much to ask, is it?

But they're Fine Gael.

Being Fine Gael means never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity. It means always a bridesmaid never a bride. It means you can use whatever cliche for LOSER you want to use because Fine Gael are losers.

Now for the most part they're likable losers. I'm sure the Fianna Fáil party loves them because it's always nice to have a loser as your main rival; someone you can count on to do something really stupid at the worst possible time. Or any other time as well. That's Fine Gael.

George Lee is leaving Fine Gael because, he says, he had no influence in shaping the party's economics policies. At the time he quit RTE to join Fine Gael Lee was easily the most well known and respected economist in the country. Having warned us for years that the sky was falling, he was almost a god in people's eyes when it did, in fact, fall.

And how did Fine Gael use this uniquely popular and intelligent and respected resource? Basically as a meet and greet guy, sort of a pretty face for a poster campaign, but not someone whose views you'd actually take seriously. It just seems so stupid that it's beyond comprehension. But they're Fine Gael.

Now Lee's gone, FG's lost their poster boy and, possibly, their best opportunity in a generation to actually win an election, which they haven't managed since 1982. They've managed to look worse than Fianna Fáil and that's hard work. Losers.

PIGS or PIIGS we all pigged out on debt

PIGS. Have you seen this acronym? It's only in the business pages and if you have seen it used it's because the PIGS are putting pressure on the euro, causing a sharp decline in the value of the European currency in recent days.

So what is or are PIGS? The PIGS are four European nations with severe fiscal problems: Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain. Or maybe not. Some say it stands for Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain.

And now there's some bad feeling over what that "I" stands for.

Michael Casey, former Chief Economist of the Irish Central Bank, says that PIGS includes Italy and that PIGS is simply a new way of referring to the EU members along the Mediterranean, or those that used to be known as the 'Club Med' members, which was another way of saying 'not really sound economically.'

Forbes magazine and others agree with Casey and put Italy and not Ireland in the PIGS group.

The Italians don't see it that way. The Italians say that their economic problems are not as bad as Ireland's and that Ireland, not Italy, is the "I" in PIGS. Citibank agrees with them, possibly because Citibank is more afraid of offending their clients in Italy than those in Ireland.

Casey says Ireland doesn't belong in the PIGS group because despite the seriousness of our current situation we have a better record than Italy, we have fewer long-term structural problems and, with a bit of luck, our economy could rebound quickly.

The earliest mention of this term I can find is from the Wall Street Journal of December of last year. The Journal doesn't claim to have coined the expression, but rather attributes it to traders worried about the "weaker members of the eurozone." However, the Journal said the term was PIIGS, including both Ireland and Italy.

Now it's all a bit rich coming from those "traders" because (a) it was their fellow financial wizards who put us in this mess in the first place and (b) they are most likely based in America or in Britain, two countries hardly in great economic shape themselves. In fact, one analyst says that there are seven big states that may be worse off than the PIGS group. Those states are not small and peripheral but California, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, and New Jersey.

So, let's face it whether Ireland or Italy is the "I" in PIGS or whether it's PIIGS the truth is that we all, including Britain and America, were piggin out at the debt-filled trough and now we're paying the price for that.

Irish media obsessed by America's guns

Irish people are both horrified and fascinated by America's gun laws, or as it's generally put, 'America's love of guns.' Therefore, no Irish journalist who goes to America for any period of time can resist the lure of guns and those who own them.

Generally speaking all of what's known as 'red state America' has this effect on Irish journalists, but the guns are the most attractive.

Case in point: on Monday night Ireland's national television channel, RTE, aired the first part of a two part documentary chronicling their Washington correspondent's first year in DC. During the hour long program Charlie Bird had a number of discussions on guns, including a longish chat with a group of hunters in West Virginia.

These guys were right out of central casting for a program on second amendment devotees. They seemed like nice enough men, rural people with no interest in having the central government dictate to them how they should or could live their lives. Their interests are not mine, but I wasn't shocked by them. Bird (photo - right) looked and sounded incredulous as he spoke to them.

In some ways I can understand it. Irish people are very America-focused. American culture and news from America are a constant.

The gun laws here, however, are very tight, which makes of the lax laws in America of great interest. Very few Irish people own guns and those who do have to obey strict guidelines on where they can store and use their weapon. {Legal} Handguns are unheard of. Just adds to the sense of mystery, that America is a place everyone knows, but nobody understands.

Regardless Charlie Bird's program was good tv. Near the end of his chat with the hunters Bird asked them if they would use their guns to protect their families. The 'Yes' answers were predictable, but when one of the men stopped Bird to ask him if he would use a gun to protect his family Bird hesitated and looked a bit taken aback when he realized the answer was 'Yes.'

{I don't know if the program will play outside Ireland, but I doubt it. Here's the link if you want to try.}

The Treaty Stone of Limerick is not going to Atlantic City

The Treaty Stone is not being sold to an Atlantic City casino, says the Limerick Leader. The Treaty Stone, which is nearly sacred in Limerick, will remain right where it is. And rightly so!

Now I know, but people around Limerick don't seem to know, that other than the most committed Irish enthusiasts in America, nobody there has heard of the Treaty Stone and no casino would want it. It would interest too few and require too much explanation for an American audience.

The Treaty Stone (photo) is the stone upon which the 1691 treaty was signed between the victorious forces of King William and the defeated army of King James, led by Irishman Patrick Sarsfield. That treaty called for Catholics (gentry only) to be afforded rights to own property and bear arms, but was only honored for two years before anti-Catholic "penal laws" were imposed on Irish Catholics by their English rulers. By that time Sarsfield and thousands of his followers had honored their end of the deal and left Ireland and were fighting for France.

You may wonder why the people of Limerick would hold the Stone in such high regard when its associated with such infamy, but Sarsfield signed the Treaty and he's still a hero here, especially in Limerick. The thought of selling such a piece of Limerick's and Ireland's history is too fantastic to entertain.

{By the way, Sarsfield is a direct ancestor of the Union Army's General Michael Corcoran, who was court-martialed for refusing to lead the NY 69th out to honor the Prince of Wales during a pre-Civil War visit by Queen Victoria's son.}

So from where did this supposed idea to sell the Treaty Stone to a casino in Atlantic City come?

Well, it looks like it's a spoof. Earlier this month someone set up a Facebook page advocating that the Treaty Stone be saved. Nearly 1,700 people have joined the campaign since then.

The Facebook campaign contends that an Atlantic City "casino/Bar" has made "a significant offer" for the Stone and that Limerick City Council "is poised to sell the stone" to raise money. The Leader says there's no substance to the story, which is just as well because I really can't believe anyone in America would be all that interested.

Now, maybe, just maybe, if the people of Blarney were a bit hard up the story might be different. I'm sure someone in Atlantic City or even Vegas would be willing to buy the Blarney Stone, Blarney Castle (photo), the whole shebang and ship it over brick by brick, a la London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, AZ.

Maybe I should start the "Save the Blarney Stone" Facebook page.

'Gutted' by the lack of decent t.v. this Christmas

Posted by TheYank at 12/4/2009 10:04 AM EST



Christmas is really kicking in now. Christmas FM opened for business again the other day. You can listen in no matter where you are and it's quite an education as you soon realize that the number of truly awful Christmas songs or horrific renditions of Christmas favorites is far closer to infinity than you would ever imagine. Christmas FM is a new tradition and it's all done with a light heart and for charity, so much (but not all) is forgiven.

One of my favorite older Irish Christmas customs is the 'There's nothing on over the Christmas' tradition. 'There's nothing on over the Christmas' refers to the television and the paucity of good programming for the two weeks surrounding the big day. Today's Irish Independent got the ball rolling declaring RTE's Christmas schedule to be a "turkey."

But it won't just be cynical newspaper columnists who'll be pronouncing the Christmas television offerings as not up to scratch. Just about anyone and everyone will let you know that 'There's nothing on over the Christmas.'

At some point in Ireland's mythical past - a mythical past with a lot to answer for - Christmas was a time of two weeks of unbroken, spectacular televisual entertainment. This can be discerned easily as you'll often hear people add "this year" to "There's nothing on over the Christmas." The "this year" implies that there must have been some Christmas programming worth watching at one time, probably during the golden age of the Celts when Brian Boru ruled the land.

Regardless, the Christmas edition of the RTE Guide will sell in large numbers as people can't wait to see what's going to disappoint them this year. Many will even plump for the BBC's version (weirdly) known as the Radio Times, even though the RTE Guide provides the listings for all of the British channels too.

It took me a while to get used to just how important t.v. is in Ireland at Christmas time. All the Christmas specials are shown right around Christmas day, which is the opposite of how it works in America. In America, by the time Christmas Day arrives there's absolutely nothing worth watching unless you like the NBA or college football. When I first arrived here I was hard-wired to anticipate seeing Charlie Brown & The Grinch closer to Thanksgiving than Christmas. Here those shows are on right near - even after - Christmas Day. Bizarre, I know.

In addition to all the Christmas specials, the Irish t.v. schedules will be full of blockbuster Hollywood movies (not as good a selection as in previous years, of course) some embarrassingly bad Irish made programming, and depressing, holiday-themed episodes of over exposed (mostly British) soap operas.

Truth be told, I hate - HATE - those soap operas and would much prefer to watch Brian Boru hunt down, capture and gut a live reindeer on t.v. as I licked my fingers clean of my Christmas dinner. Maybe everyone else here feels the same, which would explain the annual disappointment.