25 years and a recession can take a toll

I was on the DART - Dublin Area Rapid Transit - last week when I thought it was sad sign of how bad things have gotten here. I don't ride the train all that often, but I was shocked by the state of the train I was on: broken seats, graffiti and filth. I've seen one of those on a DART train before, but this was the first time all three seemed to be riding so comfortably together.

It was a far cry from my first ride on the DART back in 1985. Back then it was brand new and I, a student from New York, couldn't get over the difference between the DART and the broken down, graffiti-covered, filthy Subway. And even though the DART showed signs of age it never looked neglected. Until now.

On Friday evening I headed back into Dublin, but this time on the Luas - Dublin's light rail system - with my family. What a difference. The Luas is today what the DART was back in the mid 1980s. At least, I hope so because I saw the Luas as a sign that things would get better, that there is hope still. I felt a bit better after the Luas journey.

Later on Friday, we ate at Captain America's, which is older than the DART, but shows no signs of neglect. I've only been there twice before: in 1973 and during my student days during the mid 1980s.

Yup, 1973. We traveled to Ireland to visit my mother's family. A few weeks on the family farm in County Kildare. Great time.

One day during my stay my aunt took me into Dublin to see the sights. We finished with a burger at Captain America's. One of those great childhood memories, which probably explains why I've returned so rarely - didn't want to spoil the memory of that day.

Well, on Friday a spur of the moment decision found me back in Captain America's. I'm sure it's changed since the early 70s, but it wasn't much different than I'd remembered. And, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the experience.

The food was better than most places that serve a similar menu and the rock-n-roll memorabilia is great. Despite the name, I think Captain America's has a genuinely Dublin feel, unlike a similarly themed near-by restaurant that is part of a vast international chain.

Next time you're in Dublin ride the Luas and the DART - still has great views - and then go to Captain America's for a bite and skip the Hard Rock Café.

{Top picture is me behind a DART train (clears throat and mutters - inaudible) ** years ago.}

World War I dead reburied

Today in Fromelles, France a joint Australian-British ceremony marked the occasion of the last burial of the 250 men from the Australian and British World War I armies whose bodies were recently found in a mass grave near the battle site. This follows last week's ceremony at Arlington when American soldier and Irishman Thomas Costello was buried with full military honors following the recent discovery of his body in eastern France.

The Australians who have been buried at Fromelles were killed 94 years ago today, in what was the worst day in Australian military history. July 19, 1916 was the first day that Australians fought on the western front and by the morning of the 20th nearly 2,000 were dead and another 3,000 were missing. More than 200 of those who were found in the grave were Australian.

The bodies of those who died were behind the German lines when the action ceased and the Germans buried them in a mass grave*, where they remained until the grave was found in 2007. The exhumation, identification and reburial process carried out by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission culminated in today's ceremony.

Many descendants and other family members from Australia and Britain traveled to France for today's events and there's great media interest in both countries.

Relevant to this site is the question of whether any of those who fought in the British or Australian forces were Irish? That's unclear, but there are Irish names among the 96 Australians whose bodies have been identified. There were no Irish regiments involved in the action, but it would hardly be a surprise to learn that some of those Australian or British soldiers were Irish immigrants or - even more likely - children of immigrants.

The British and Australian authorities are still trying to identify those soldiers who have not yet been identified and are still seeking DNA samples from people who believe that a family member was killed in the battle.

There are still hundreds presumed buried in other mass graves in the area. I heard one historian say on the news this morning that in the past few weeks another mass grave had been located meaning more bodies will be exhumed and identified, if possible.

Although interest in the Irish involvement in World War I is pretty low, it has been increasing in recent years. Yesterday Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness encouraged Irish nationalists and republicans to remember those who fought in the war. I hope many are encouraged to do so and that we have a better national memory of those Irish who suffered in the trenches.

I'd also like to think that this national remembering will include those who fought in the Austalian or New Zealand or Canadian or, like Thomas Costello and my grandfather, in the American army. It would be great to think of people here offering up DNA samples to help identify a forgotten family member lost in the trenches nearly a century ago.

{* The bodies weren't just dumped in a big pit by the Germans. Each body was wrapped individually in a blanket. The Germans often buried their own dead this way. There are 25,000 German soldiers buried in a mass grave in Langemark Cemetery near Ieper in Belgium.}

Steinbrenner won but with no class

George Steinbrenner is dead and Yankee fans should say a little prayer of thanks for all he did and they might want to throw in a few prayers asking one or two saints to intercede on his behalf and ask God to overlook many of the things he did.

I'm a Met fan and hate the Yankees. It warms my heart when they lose or even just do something stupid.

Most Met fans, including me, enjoyed the fact that George turned the Yankees into a circus. Before Steinbrenner the Yankees were supposedly all about class and professionalism, but once Steinbrenner got involved all of that went out the window.

Oh, he made the right noises, but George wasn't a classy guy. He didn't hire classy guys. Unfortunately, he did hire winners.

I never understood why Yankee fans hated Steinbrenner. In 1973 he bought a team mired in mediocrity and in a few years turned them into champions. Sure, Steinbrenner's Yankees might not have been the same as (the mostly mythological) cool professionals of the past, but they won.

Unlike other baseball owners, Steinbrenner didn't fear free agency when it came in the mid 1970s. He threw himself - and his checkbook - into building a winning team. In 1976 he had his first pennant, but that wasn't enough and following the loss to Cincinnati in the World Series Steinbrenner brought Reggie Jackson to New York to play for manager Billy Martin.

That year the Yankees romped home in the American League and won the World Series. Reggie Jackson lived up to his big contract and his own bragging and delivered when it mattered. Across town the Mets' cheapskate owners were dismantling the team and off-loaded the franchise player - Tom Seaver - because they were determinedly refusing to join baseball's new era.

It was the darkest of times as the Mets found a new long term home in last place. Meanwhile the Yankees won again despite the George & Reggie & Billy circus act.

However, George's interfering ways caught up with him in the 80s and the Yankees stopped winning. They weren't terrible, but they were never quite good enough. And what was more, the Mets were better. Those were the glory days. The Mets dominated New York, the Yankees played second fiddle and we Met fans were all able to fully enjoy Steinbrenner's show because we all knew the Mets' success was killing him.

Then came the 90s. Steinbrenner was exiled from active involvement in the Yankees for paying a gambler to try to get dirt on Dave Winfield, a big money signing who Steinbrenner derided as a bust. George became an obscure figure, unfortunately the Mets became an obscenity so Met fans couldn't enjoy Steinbrenner's discomfort as much as we would have otherwise.

Then something terrible happened. Steinbrenner returned, chastened. And he seemed to have learned his lesson. He still wanted to win, but he just wrote the checks and let his baseball people run the show. Just like that it was the 1950s all over again as the Damn Yankees won and won and won even beat the Mets in the World Series. Oh yeah, and the team was full of classy professionals. Sickening.

I think it was around that time - the late 90s - that Yankee fans mellowed on Steinbrenner.

In recent years Steinbrenner has been less and less involved in running the Yankees, leaving most of the responsibilities to his son Hank. George managed one last hurrah, a final gesture towards what he'd been in the 70s, when he all but dismissed long-time manager Joe Torre after the 2007 season. He was old and frail then and Yankee fans mostly gave George a pass on that one as they were as annoyed as he was that the team had stopped winning (temporarily, unfortunately).

Steinbrenner made the Yankees interesting and winners and for that Yankee fans should be grateful to him. Most Met fans would have loved to have had to endure the 27 years Steinbrenner has given the Yankees.

Forgotten Irish soldier to get full military honors at Arlington Cemetery

On Monday an American soldier killed in action will be buried in Arlington cemetery with full military honors. This soldier was not, however, killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, but in eastern France in 1918.

Private Thomas D. Costello (60th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division) was killed during what was known as the St. Mihiel Offensive in a wooded area near Jaulny on September 16, 1918 and was buried near the scene.

Although the location of Costello's grave was reported at the time, the Army was unable to locate the exact spot after the war. Costello's body was only discovered in 2006 and identified using "forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence," including dental records.

Among the details revealed about Costello is the fact that he was born in Ireland in 1892. Costello was living with his sister in New York at the time he enlisted.

In some ways Costello's death seems almost like ancient history. Yet, during the fighting which claimed his life, he wasn't far from where my own grandfather's regiment (165th Infantry) was involved. Costello never came home, never had a chance to marry, have a family or descendants. That my Irish immigrant grandfather was spared where Costello wasn't is just one of those things, part of the lottery that is warfare.

Costello's nearest living relative, his great-great nephew Michael Frisbie of Maine, will be at Arlington for the ceremony. Until the Army contacted him, Frisbie never knew he had a great-great uncle who had fought in WWI. It's great that Costello's been found, is being buried where he belongs (although the American cemetery at St. Mihiel would have been equally appropriate) and is now remembered by a family - and a nation - that had forgotten him.

Photo - American soldiers on the march near St. Mihiel in September 1918.

Potholes in the roads and black-holes in the banks are a source of fascination

Irish people used to almost love complaining that "we have the worst roads in the world." I don't know how true that was, but the roads are so much better now that nobody would make that claim today. However, we now own a new "worst in the world title": Ireland now boasts the worst bank in the world.

Of course all of this depends on how you measure the quality of a bank. I'm sure there is a bank out there that someone might believe is worse than Anglo-Irish Bank, but I doubt they'd be able to point to any facts of figures to back them up. It would almost certainly be based more on anecdotal evidence borne of frustration.

That's not the case with Anglo-Irish. Oh no. Unfortunately, we have an actual quantifiable measure by which we can compare the performance of banks and Anglo topped the list in 2009 as having lost the most money.

Of course, losing the most money doesn't necessarily make a bank the "worst" in the world, but it's an arguable case. However, Anglo – which is NOT a big bank – lost €15bn ($18.5) in 2009. That's more than Royal Bank of Scotland lost, more than Citibank lost, more than any of the massive conglomerate banks you can think of lost, which I believe certainly qualifies it as the worst bank in the world. At least for 2009.

These days Anglo's not so much in the business of losing money as taking it. Anglo is now fully owned by the government. That means that each and every taxpayer is a (probably not too) proud owner of a piece of the worst bank in the world. The price we pay for this claim to fame is that we're all paying back the money Anglo lost in 2009. The joys of nationalization.

That brings me back to the roads. Back in the days when the number and size of the potholes was almost a daily news item, cars were regularly wrecked by, and occasionally lost in, potholes, so vast and so deep were they. Whenever people spoke about this issue they always conveyed anger and frustration, a sense that it didn't have to be this way and that a large dose of mismanagement and corruption helped create the problem.

At the same time, people always managed to convey - I don't know - a sense of wonder that the roads could be so bad. Wonder is probably not the word. It's more a fascination with the grotesque.

It's the same today whenever people talk about the banks. Nobody fails to express their anger and frustration at the mismanagement and corruption that created the Anglo-Irish Bank black-hole and the other banking black-holes. Yet I sense that same sense of fascination when people speak of the banks. If the banks were just bad, there'd be only anger, but they are in such bad shape that people seem to marvel at the fact that we may well have "worst banks in the world."

Tourists should not be hassled for bridge tolls

Ireland's Minister for Tourism is in America at the moment in an effort to encourage more of you to come on over for a visit. Great stuff. American visitors get a good welcome here and, well, there are many tourism related enterprises that could use the business.

There two things Minister Mary Hanafin should tackle to make the visitor's experience even better. Both relate to driving in Ireland, which can be stressful enough for visitors to this country. I'll deal with one of those two today.

The first issue relates to road tolls and one toll in particular. A few years ago the government eliminated the toll booths on the M50, which is the main highway that runs around Dublin and connects the Belfast road with the roads to the south and west. It's a key road.

When the government got rid of the toll booths they didn't just forgo all that toll money. Oh, no. They installed a license plate scanning system that records each trip on the road as it crosses the River Liffey.

This development freed up the road; no more lengthy back-ups at the toll booths. All car owners can register their car so that the toll is automatically deducted from an account via their credit/debit card. Kind of like the E-Z Pass system only you don't have to slow down. You can zip through at 65MPH. There are no booths at all. No toll booths where tourists and others can pull up and pay the toll.

That's the crux of the problem. For tourists this becomes a real hassle. The car rental companies are at pains to point out to tourists that they must pay these tolls if they use the M50. And, the only way to pay the toll is to find a store that has the facility to let you do so.

There are a couple of stores near where I live that provide this service, but none of them has easy parking, which only increases the hassle. A tourist has to (a) find one of these stores and then (b) find somewhere to park near to the store and go pay the €3 ($3.65). Oh, and they have to know the license plate number when they get to the counter or it's back to the car to check.

I've never had to go looking for one of these pay-points, but it is easy to imagine how frustrating this would be when you've arrived in a strange country and you're just figure out the roads. You just want to get where you're going and begin to relax and enjoy yourself, but no.

Having to remember to pay the toll is bad enough, but then you must hunt down a shop that may or may not exist, in a town you don't know, with no phone and most likely no suitable map. And you have to do that by 8pm the day after you cross the bridge.

And you may not even realize you've even crossed the bridge {photo of bridge's underside above}. I've talked to a couple of Americans who've driven over that bridge without even being aware of it. It's not hard to miss the signs indicating you've crossed the bridge and there's absolutely no indication on the road itself: no change in surface or even paint, no steel structure overhead that is a feature of most bridges, nothing that shouts out, "This is the toll bridge you've heard about."

This is just plain stupid. Tourists should be exempt from this toll or at the very least, paying it should be no hassle. Instead you have visitors coming here whose last experience of Ireland will be a charge on their credit card for a toll they knew nothing about AND a €50 ($60) fine. What sort of lasting impression is that creating?

This isn't rocket science. The government should exempt tourists, but failing that at a minimum they should make it so that rental companies can add these costs (& nothing more) to the rental bill in order to minimize the upset to tourists. It's simple common sense.

Irishman may have solved baseball's broken bat problem

An underemployed Irish roofing contractor believes he may have the answer to a problem that is plaguing Major League Baseball. Flan Marsh of County Clare is hoping that a treatment he developed for hurleys, ash sticks used in the Irish game of hurling, can be adapted for baseball bats and help rid Major League Baseball of the scourge of broken bats.

Over the last decade or so MLB has seen a significant rise in broken bats and injuries related to those bats. Stories about fans being injured by flying pieces of bats - like the boy hit in the head by a broken bat in Milwaukee during the early part of this season - have become all too common. Players and umpires are also at risk from broken bats.

Marsh developed his treatment for hurleys because of his concerns for the safety of those who play hurling. Hurling is more like lacrosse, with lots of close contact clashes with opponents. These clashes often lead to broken hurleys where the hurley breaks in two with knife-like sharp ends flying amidst the players.

Marsh's hurleys will still break, although breaks are less common. However, when one of his hurleys breaks the two pieces stay together {see photo above} - no sharp missiles are launched.

I think Major League Baseball might well jump at Marsh's development, so long as it doesn't affect the flight of the ball. That will be the real test. The last thing the baseball authorities want is media and fan complaints that the bats are "juiced", although given the pitchers' dominance this year they might secretly cheer a bit more offense.

Something that would save them the bad press and even lawsuits from broken bats flying into the stands would probably sound enticing.

I hope Marsh's approach to MLB works out for him. It's a great story. However, even if MLB turns him down he may well be onto a winner with youth and high school baseball leagues. Many of those have recently banned (the repugnant) aluminum bats because of fears that the metal bats hit the ball too hard. Pitchers can't respond fast enough to protect themselves.

Metal bats have been legally banned for youth leagues in New York and North Dakota. Many other youth leagues have imposed their own similar bans. Metal bats are increasingly being replaced by wooden ones.

One of the worries about a return to wooden bats is cost: metal bats are cheaper because they need to be replaced far less frequently. If Marsh's treatment can solve the problems caused by metal bats, but also make the wooden bat less breakable he could help tip the balance in the direction of wood over metal. He may just be the right man, with the right idea at the right time.



{picture of broken bat in crowd from AP-Charles Krupa}

Nothing unAmerican about USA's World Cup team

Every four years the same articles appear in the Irish and British press about how Americans don't understand, don't 'get' soccer, err, "the beautiful game." They love to portray Americans, tediously, as looking for touchdowns or home-runs in soccer games.

The journalists who repeat these statements from Americans do so earnestly, not seeming to realize that it's an American way of saying soccer is a big yawn. Although people here can sometimes wax lyrical about the great defense in a 0-0 game that sort of scoring pace doesn't interest a lot of Americans.

However, this year those stories seem to be less common, possibly because it isn't just Americans who've been bored by this World Cup or possibly, just possibly, because they've realized that there are many Americans who do 'get' soccer.

Maybe that's why on Saturday the Irish Times ran with a different variation on the 'Americans & soccer' theme: conservative Americans don't like soccer because it's somehow "unAmerican" or even "Hispanic." As evidence Davin O'Dwyer cited Glenn Beck and G. Gordon Liddy, who uttered negative remarks about soccer, although only Liddy attached his argument to anything even vaguely "Hispanic."

I can't totally fault O'Dwyer, however, because I've come across similar views in the American press. In fact, last week NPR's web site published a piece that said much the same thing as O'Dwyer, basically claiming that race and ethnicity were contributing factors to Americans' failure to love the "beautiful game."

The race/ethnicity argument is laughable and it's a shame that someone outside America would repeat such nonsense. You only have to watch America's sports to realize how wrong that is: black stars dominate basketball and football and baseball features many, many players from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, etc. Conservatives watch those sports, root for those players as much as liberals do. There's not much of a political angle in Americans sports.

Sure some Americans like soccer and some don't. I know plenty of Americans who don't like soccer. They find it boring or can't understand why anyone would watch or play a sport where the opposable thumb is an unnecessary appendage. I also know many Americans who love soccer. Political considerations have nothing to do with it: liberals and conservatives fit into both camps.

Among those who love it are many who've taken to watching the English Premier League and Champions League thanks to satellite television. Mostly these are men who are sports fanatics and who had a gap in their lives for live sports at 10am on Saturdays and Sundays or mid-afternoon on weekdays. European soccer was able to fill that gap.

These guys have a pretty good understanding of soccer. They're watching the World Cup pretty intensely and using the internet to source sports radio discussions or are using Facebook, Twitter, bulletin boards and chat rooms to get more information, analyses and opinions. The World Cup, like the Olympics, also attracts a lot of other American fans, people who'll watch this big festival of soccer, but who wouldn't consider themselves ardent fans of the game. Their interest will remain pretty high so long as the American team stays in the tournament.

All of which brings me to the most important issue of the day: the US team's must-win game against Algeria (10am on ESPN). If you watch you'll see the faces of the American players are the faces of America, their names are not solely Hispanic, but represent all of America and the players give every appearance of being extremely proud to wear USA on their jerseys when they play. UnAmerican? I don't think so.

What's more, Americans take can take great pride in the team because despite being far from the most talented side at the World Cup the USA team plays with real heart, never gives up and leaves it all on the field. What more could we ask for? Go USA!

The ideal time to visit Ireland: RIGHT NOW

What follows is an upaid ad for the Irish Tourist Board:

If you can drop everything you have on your plate at the moment and grab a flight to Ireland for the upcoming week, you couldn't pick a better time. The weather is fantastic and it's supposed to remain so through the weekend (at least). It's warm and sunny and, this is the best part, this is the longest day of the year.

If you live somewhere near the 40^o line of latitude (New York, Chicago, San Francisco) you're used to the sun setting around 8:30pm at the time of year. Here it sets around 10pm. If you're lucky enough to be in the west of Ireland that means it's daylight til after 11pm. All those hours of sunshine are a boon to any tourist, so long as you're energetic.

And, of course, the dollar has strengthened against the euro, which has helped make Ireland seem a little less costly to any American visitors these days. On top of that, many prices have fallen thanks to the pretty severe deflation we've experienced over the past 12-18 months.

So you have good weather, long days and, well, more affordable goods and services. Like I said, you could hardly pick a better time to come visit.

RTE provides masterclass in sports broadcasting

Ireland's national television channel RTE's coverage of the World Cup provides a model that American sports broadcasters should emulate. Actually, I'm not even talking about watching the actual games, although RTE does a fair job on that. I'm talking about the pre-game, half-time and post-game analysis and discussion of each World Cup match.

The World Cup draws a massive audience, including many people who don't watch a lot of soccer. Yet unlike what seems too common on American tv, RTE doesn't dumb down the coverage to meet the limited understanding of the game that some of the less devoted soccer fans might want or need.

There's no razzmatazz in RTE's production. A panel of two or three analysts and a director of the conversation sitting around a big table discussing tactics, performances and using nothing more technologically adventurous than instant replay.

The analysts are all unsentimental, intelligent, and opinionated, unafraid to go against the views of the mob or each other. Even their personalities seem like a slap across the face to an American sports fan used to fake smiles and/or "characters" among our analysts.

RTE's panelists range from clinical (Johnny Giles or Ronnie Whelan) to grumpy (Eamonn Dunphy) to dour (Liam Brady or Graeme Souness). For this World Cup RTE has worked in ex-German player Dietmar Hamann who has fit in well.

If you're a serious sports fan who'd like to understand soccer more, RTE's panel offers a university education. However, if you're a long-time knowledgeable fan of the game, you'll find plenty of food for thought. It's exactly what any sports fan wants from the broadcaster during a major sporting event.