A story begging for Hollywood - surviving the mid-Atlantic plane crash

A Lockheed Constellation 1049H – the plane that ditched in the Atlantic on 9/23/1962.

Until yesterday I'd never heard the story of Flying Tiger 923, a flight from New Jersey to Frankfurt, Germany that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean 500 miles off the Irish coast on September 23, 1962. What makes the story remarkable is that of the 76 people on board 48 survived.

I stumbled across this story in a local Colorado newspaper, which had an article about one of the survivors.  Fred Caruso is in Ireland to mark the 50th anniversary of his lucky escape. At first I thought it was possible the local Colorado paper had the story wrong, but a few minutes of Googling told me it was true. There was no shortage of links with information, including the cold, official government report into what happened. However, most of what's available comes thanks to Caruso. Caruso is using his web site FlyingTiger923.com to tell the story of Flight 923*.

I can only imagine that Caruso thinks there's a story to tell here. I'm just amazed it's taken this long for it to be told (or retold as was a news item at the time). I can't believe it hasn't received the big Hollywood treatment.

I don't know about you, but when I board a plane that is going to cross an ocean the one thought that never goes through my mind is that I might actually survive a catastrophic incident. The idea that something might actually go wrong with the plane and the pilot might have to improvise a landing strip occurs to me regularly, but never over the sea. I always assume that if something disastrous happens over the ocean that I'll be soon landing in the next life.

Sure I know Captain Sullenberger managed it. He managed to land on water, but that was the Hudson River, not the Atlantic Ocean.
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Cork plane crash survivor cheats death twice
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Flight 923's Captain John Murray** landed his plane, mostly intact, on the ocean in waves up to 20 feet in height. It wasn't a smooth landing nor did everyone survive. The left wing tore off, the plane broke in half and 25 people were killed. It's still a tremendous feat, allowing more than half of the passengers and crew to live.

A landing, safe or otherwise, in the middle of the ocean is a guarantee of nothing, other than that death has to be defied again. The plane was equipped with five life-rafts. However within seconds four of them were blown away, out of reach, gone. The one remaining life-raft was designed to carry 25 people, but 51 were alive in the freezing waters around the ditched plane.

They all clambered aboard, some of the injured were helped by others into the overloaded inflatable raft. Then they waited. And drifted - nearly 22 miles from the crash site. The fact that there were far too many in the life raft meant it was cramped and uncomfortable, but probably saved them from freezing to death. After 6 hours the Celerina, a Swiss freighter that had monitored the SOS messages, found the floating survivors.

A Canadian aircraft carrier, the Bonaventure, was also monitoring the distress calls. Despite the stormy conditions the naval ship's helicopters ferried medical supplies to the Celerina and removed the most severely wounded. Later, when the Bonaventure was near Ireland, the helicopters again transferred the wounded to Shannon Airport.

The Swiss freighter arrived off the coast of Ireland two days after the plane crash. British helicopters removed the 17 remaining wounded. They were treated at Mercy Hospital in Cork. Fred Caruso was among them. He's back now to visit to mark the anniversary of those remarkable events and to thank those who helped him 50 years ago.

The past few weeks our televisions have been full of dramas and documentaries on the extraordinary tale of the sinking of the Titanic. I would have thought these events on the Atlantic exactly 50 years after the Titanic would merit at least some attention from Hollywood. This is a great story and it needs a big audience.


* Caruso has also published a book on the subject, Born Again Irish, the title of a reflection of the good fortune he felt to be alive in Ireland in September 1962.


** Captain John Murray moved to Ireland after the crash and flew out of Shannon Airport.

{Photo thanks to Avia Deja Vu}

Belfast's new Titanic center needs a little more 'Hollywood'

Titanic Centre, Belfast

I went up to Belfast on Saturday. In fact, the whole family went to Belfast on Saturday to go to the new Titanic center there and to be part of Belfast's Titanic festival.

It still amazes me how much I know about the Titanic these days. Before 2007 I knew no more than anyone else who ever watched A Night To Remember. I hadn't (and still haven't) seen Kate and Leonardo in Titanic from the mid 1990s. When I think back to the 80s the fact that someone found the Titanic only barely registered.

All that changed after my (then) 7-year-old son saw A Night To Remember. Who can understand the workings of a the 7-year-old's brain, but from that experience was born an obsession. He had to know more. No, he had to know everything.

Birthday and Christmas presents included Titanic books and Titanic DVDs - movies and documentaries. There is a cartoon Titanic movie and Barbara Stanwyck starred in a movie called Titanic released five years before A Night To Remember. Who knew? Not me anyway.
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Belfast pulls out all the stops for Titanic anniversary

Cobh remembers the Titanic - last stop before the ship set sail in 1912

The Titanic Centenary - An Irish Central Commemoration
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We indulged him, probably too much. We took him to Belfast for the first time in 2008. The memory still makes me laugh. We drove to the Harland and Wolff shipyard to show him the place where the Titanic was built.

My son, smiling, at Harland and Wolff, Belfast 2008.
Note the pile of rubble behind the rusty gate.

We were all looking at an industrial ruin, but he was seeing something else, something tangible to connect him to this legend he had been reading and learning about. His face was lit up with excitement. We took a free tour of the shipyard run by enthusiasts and he loved every second of it. We stood in a huge, wreck of a room, but it was the room where the Titanic was designed. He was thrilled.

Since then we've been back up to Belfast a couple of times to visit Titanic sites and exhibitions. We have also been to Cobh and Southampton touring both cities' Titanic-linked sites. We even made it to the Titanic Museum in Indian Orchard, MA.

Thanks to his keenness we have all learned a great deal about the Titanic, thrown ourselves into his interest and although some are more enthusiastic than others, I think it's fair to say we were all looking forward to the visit to the new Titanic center.

I don't want to say we were disappointed, but we were far from blown away. I came away hoping - hoping because I really want Belfast to get this right - that this was really a first effort and the exhibition can be changed to make it better.

Given that all the reviews I've seen have been glowing I'm feeling sheepish about my misgivings. However, I thought it was missing something. There are too few actual artifacts to call it a museum and there was far too much reading to call it an interactive or multimedia experience. There was so much reading, in fact, that I left with my head hurting and a sense that I'd missed a lot.

The centerpiece - the five minute 'Shipyard Ride' - fell far short of my expectations. I thought it would be a Disney-esque journey up and down, inside and outside the Titanic. Instead it was really minutes sitting down looking at recreated scenes of men working. There was no real sense of scale, which is what I was expecting.

I guess I was kind of surprised by how 'high-brow' the whole thing was. We weren't allowed to see, let alone climb, the grand staircase. They did put one in the building, but it's off limits to those plebes who merely paid for tickets to visit. Also, the building is a series of ships bows, but nowhere in the center are visitors given that "I'm standing on the bow of the Titanic" moment that I was sure would be there. There should be an outdoor Titanic bow.

There is also very little for younger children. The few hands-on exhibits for kids are a little dull and seem more adult or at least teen-focused. I was really surprised by this because when he was seven my son loved the Titanic experience he got up the road in Holywood, Co Down when we visited the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. I just assumed the new center would borrow heavily from that.

My son, now 11, and the Titanic in the new Titanic Centre in Belfast

I don't want to be too negative. We did have a good time. I enjoyed lots of it and my son loved more. He loved the giant photographs, the model of the gantry, the giant models of the ships, the staterooms, etc. Maybe my expectations were too high.

I just can't help thinking it's a little too much history and too little Hollywood, especially too little Disney. After all, the reason we all still recall Titanic when other tragic ships are all but forgotten is thanks to Hollywood. Belfast needs to remember that.

Belfast deserves no criticism for cashing in on its Titanic links

Titanic Belfast - opened on March 31

Belfast is catching flak thanks to its Titanic Belfast Launch Festival. While I can understand some of the misgivings, I'm more than willing to cut Belfast some slack on this one.

Belfast man William Neill, now a Professor of Urban Planning at Aberdeen University in Scotland, was one of the more quoted critics in recent weeks. Neill worries that the memory of the Titanic is not being "treated with enough respect." Neill acknowledges Belfast's shipbuilding history and it's "unique" place in the Titanic story, but is concerned that the city is trying to cash in with Titanic "infotainment" with its new Titanic center.

While Hill may have a point, other critics went completely off the deep end with their narky comments. One columnist even compared the Titanic's sinking with Auschwitz and 9/11, saying that in "2101, it's unlikely the people of New York will want MTV staging a concert at Ground Zero."

Let's get this out of the way: there is no comparison between the Titanic and Auschwitz or 9/11. None.
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A Mayo village recalls the Irish who perished aboard the Titanic

James Cameron documentary shows new animation of how the Titanic sunk

The Titanic's Centenary
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Now, to be honest I found the decision to have an MTV concert this coming Friday a little weird too. However, the people of Belfast are not 'celebrating' Titanic's sinking, let alone the 1500 dead, but rather the achievement of getting the Titanic Centre built. Maybe Belfast didn't get the tone of this coming weekend pitch-perfect, but so what?

The crux of the issue for the critics is that Belfast is trying to use its Titanic connection to earn some filthy lucre. For these people Titanic and her dead should be remembered mournfully without fanfare and certainly without the ringing of cash registers. I say 'hooey' to all that.

First of all, nobody can say Belfast was quick off the mark to market its Titanic connection. It's taken them 100 years. People have been making money off the tragic events of April 14-15, 1912 for decades, but only now is Belfast trying to join them. I wonder if these same people criticized James Cameron for his Titanic or even Walter Lord for A Night To Remember for the same reason? Those two and everyone else associated with those movies were, after all, cashing in on the same tragedy with their own "infotainment." In fact, those movies created the 'Titanic industry' we have today. I see no reason to fault Belfast for getting in on the act.

Also, what about the dead? Would they really be remembered more appropriately if there were no Titanic "infotainment?" We can compare the Titanic's dead to those of other shipping disasters from the same era. How many of the 1,012 dead are remembered from the 1914 Empress of Ireland disaster? How about the 1,021 who died when the General Slocum burned and sank in New York's East River? How many New Yorkers remember even one of those people? I daresay virtually none.

Yet all this week stories of the victims of the Titanic are being aired again. Why? Because of the fanfare and "infotainment." Without that only a few would care about Addergoole, Co. Mayo and even fewer would care about Patrick Dooley or Charles Melville Hays or even the musicians who played right up to the liner's last minute. If not for the 'infotainment' the stories of the lucky survivors would be just about forgotten now. There would be no Encyclopedia Titanica online. So spare me your tears because the choice is not between remembering with respect vs "infotainment," but between forgotten and infotainment.

Also, Belfast just deserves a break. The city is only now waking up from a long nightmare. Other than 'the Troubles' what do people know of Belfast? Nothing much really, but the Titanic is a cultural icon, the subject of successful movies, commemorated in many cities with monuments and museums. Yet Belfast's connection to the Titanic* is only rivaled by Southapmton's.

The Titanic is a tragedy, sure, but it is long in the past. There is virtually nobody alive today who remembers the Titanic or who lost a loved one on the Titanic. It was a tragedy on a par with other long forgotten maritime disasters of the era. It was far less a tragedy than the one that unfolded in Europe between 1914 and 1918. Indeed, the Titanic is less a tragedy than what Belfast endured during 'the Troubles.'

That the Titanic is remembered at all is thanks to the entertainment industry's capacity to turn a horrific but largely accidental event into a romantic tragedy. Belfast is - finally - connecting itself to the legend, the myth of the Titanic. It is not cashing in on anyone's grief.

* Let's just keep that whole rivets thing quiet, okay?

Irish homeowners are not "revolting" - they're treating their incompetent government with contempt

Ireland's Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan,
who bungled the Household Charge.

It seems just about anywhere the new Irish household charge appears in the foreign press the words "boycott" or "revolt" are used to describe the fact that so many people did not pay the fee by Saturday night's deadline. Yesterday's New York Times quoted an Irish parliamentarian who refers to the "mass boycott." The Financial Times says the Irish government is facing a "revolt" over the new tax. {You might even see such words around here.}

Words like "boycott" and "revolt" suit those political campaigners who have been leading the charge calling on the people not to pay, but what's going on is nothing like a boycott or a revolt. It's more a case that hundreds of thousands of Irish people have weighed up the pluses and minuses of paying and come to the conclusion that not-paying is not such a bad idea. Why? Because the government blew this one in a big way. The charge was designed and implemented badly. Very badly. 100% ineptly.

The charge itself – €100 ($133) for the year payable by the owner of each house and apartment in the state – is more annoying than crushing. There was even an option to pay the tax on a quarterly installment basis.

Considering the hefty sums people pay in income tax and VAT (sales tax of 23%) €100 is no where near the most onerous levy Irish people pay. Heck it's even less than €160 ($213) annual license fee for having a television in the home, a fee that most Irish people pay without grumbling.

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Half of Irish homeowners join boycott on $131 tax

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Before this new charge was introduced for the 2012 tax year there was no tax on homeowners at all. {No property tax, although there is a fairly steep stamp duty payable on the purchase of a home.}

So it is a new tax, but did the Irish people really revolt against the government's austerity program when they decided not to pay this new tax? Is it really the case that after four years of accepting the punishing cut backs and tax hikes that this €100 charge was the straw that broke the camels' back? No. No, what really happened is that many Irish homeowners thought they might get away without paying this one.

From the start it was clear that government was flying by the seat of its pants on the household charge. They had no database of who owned what property. Sure they knew who lived where, but they didn't know who were the renters and who were the owners.

When this point was put to members of the government they went into full tyranny mode. The Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan oversaw the planning and implementation of the Household Charge and he, in particular, became the face of this hectoring, bullying government.

The government declared that they were going to get the information they needed by strong-arming the electricity and natural gas companies into revealing what they knew. The state-owned banks too would be forced to comply.

That tactic didn't work, but it was revealing: the government was going to struggle making people pay. The government's lack of information as to who owed and who didn't meant no bill or invoice could be sent to those who had to pay. The more this question was raised the more aggressive the government became. The public didn't so much fear as smell fear.

It wasn't just the lack of invoice, however. The tax came with a list of exemption criteria, but the criteria were unclear. If the vox pops on the radio are an indication many people who aren't exempt seemed to believe they are. It was all as clear as mud.

The government carried on brow-beating long past the point when it was obvious that it wasn't working. As the clock ticked down towards the March 31 deadline the government then took to threatening homeowners with cuts to local services. That too failed, possibly because it was too late, possibly because the waste in the mostly unaccountable local government spending is obvious to all or possibly because many people just didn't want to pay the €100.

The government made such a mess that 800,000* Irish homeowners thought they'd take their chances on the possible fine for late payment. This only served to highlight another serious design flaw in the Household Charge: the penalty for not paying on time is too small.

Those who fail to pay within the first 6 months will owe €116 ($154). The penalties rise a bit after that, but if you leave it for a year you owe only €142 ($189). A €42 ($55) penalty is just too small to cause anyone worry, especially if you believe that this government is incapable of figuring out who really owes and who doesn't. (Compare that penalty to the €60-90 that's owed by those who fail to put €2 into a parking meter.)

To me this is the essence of what's going on here – hundreds of thousands of people have treated the new Household Charge as not much more than a parking meter. They figure there's a good chance they'll get away without being caught and if they are caught the price they'll pay is too small to worry about.

This isn't so much a revolt against imposed austerity as a statement by the people on the capabilities of the government to actually enforce the law. For generations Irish people have skirted the law when the opportunity has arisen and this is more of the same. They've looked the government in the eye and said, "I'll pay - when you make me." It's up to the government to prove them wrong.

* Even the figure of 800,000 who didn't pay is open to question as the government doesn't really have an accurate figure for how many households there are in the country. Simply incredible.

** Just for the record: I paid. My wife says I'm too American.

{Photo thanks to Independent.ie.}

Ex-Irish Premier Bertie Ahern's spectacular fall mirrors Ireland's

Former Irish Prime Minister
Bertie Ahern

Bertie Ahern's name is mud. The former Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) was named and shamed in a report published last week by the judge who headed the 15-year-long tribunal into corruption in the planning process here. Since then Ahern's name has been more spat out than spoken.

All of this would have seemed almost unthinkable a few years ago. Then Bertie Ahern was feted as a political genius. He was the pragmatic deal-maker who helped bring peace to Ireland. He was the efficient manager orchestrating Ireland's economic surge. He was the longest-serving Taoiseach since Éamon de Valera was running the country in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

There were no airs about Ahern. He was comfortable in his skin and the people were comfortable with him. He loved his sports, loved being seen out supporting his teams, here and like so many Irish soccer fans, in England watching Manchester United. He drank in his local pub and was a proud Dub (person from Dublin). He had an everyman's Dublin manner of speaking. Yet he was admired across the island: north, south, east and west.

There were frailties too. Before he became Taoiseach he opened up on a TV program about the problems in his marriage. He was separated from his wife. Yet from what we could see his relationship with his two daughters was about as good as any separated father could want.

When his girlfriend began accompanying him on foreign trips it was hardly even a talking point. He was a true representative of the new Ireland, the one shorn of the rigid social strictures of the past, but confident in business and management.

Bertie – he was always Bertie to the people – was loved. Sure there were detractors, but as far as any high-ranking politician can be loved, Ahern was. Even people who didn't vote for his Fianna Fáil party liked him personally.

His smiling face more than any other was the human face of the Celtic Tiger. He was a success. We were a success.
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Former Prime Minister Bertie Ahern gave false evidence says Mahon Tribunal investigation

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Bertie Ahern quits and leaves a divided legacy---Celtic Tiger collapse and North peace
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Unfortunately for Ahern he more than anyone else in Irish politics is held responsible for the terrible turn of fortune over the past four years.

Today Ireland is a failure; it's hard-won sovereignty lost when the EU and IMF came in to oversee our elected leaders' work. Irish people are leaving in droves and those who remain are seeing massive cutbacks in public services along with punishing tax increases. Ahern's smiling face now looks to the Irish people like he's smirking, like he got away with something and we're paying for it.

None of this was in the Mahon Report, but it's the underlying context for the animosity now being directed at Ahern. I doubt anyone would be paying too much attention to the allegations against Ahern if the economy was still flying high.

The Tribunal found that Ahern had been untruthful in his testimony, was evasive about the source of payments he received. He was completely bizarre and unbelievable when he said he had no bank account.

I have no time for corruption in politics so my sympathy for Ahern is near nil. The only thing that bothers me is that unlike Ireland's other corrupt leading politicians, Ahern doesn't seem to have any of the trappings of a wealthy life. No island, no yacht, no 3 houses, no "insatiable appetite for money." The tribunal said Ahern got £165,000 (approx $275,000), which in the early to mid 90s was not a bad sum. What then did Ahern do with that money?

I guess it doesn't really matter now. His 'good name' is in tatters. Everyone is jumping on the anti-Bertie bandwagon, including many of those in his party who owe their political positions to him. Those people I hold beneath contempt because they're now pleading that they 'had no idea' when everyone in Ireland knew the Fianna Fáil way of doing things consisted of a nod and wink to the rules, the law. They should all get out of politics and see if a younger, untainted Fianna Fáil can revive the party.

You know what else is bothering me? We all knew. We didn't know the specifics, but we all knew that Fianna Fáil had this element to it – the shady operations, the 'look-the-other-way' method of enforcing the law when it came to their pals. We went along with it because despite (or maybe because of) that slick used-car-salesman approach we thought they were the best at "getting things done."

Now, thanks to the fact that what they got done was our undoing we want not so much justice as vengeance. We must have our pound of flesh and Bertie's flesh looks more tempting than all others right now.

Ireland needs to "drill baby drill"

Tony O'Reilly Jr, head of Providence Resources,
which discovered oil off the Cork coast.

Last week we had the delicious news that an Irish oil exploration company had found a commercially exploitable oil field off the south coast of Ireland. The high price of oil and new technologies used in the discovery and recovery of oil make this oil field 30 miles off the coast just the first of what is hopefully many Irish oil fields.

It's exciting news, but I can't say I'm shocked by it because it always struck me as a little strange that the seabeds off the coast of Scotland should be full of oil and ours barren. Not barren, however, just a little trickier to get at. Presumably that's all changed now and Ireland is about to go into the oil production business.

One of the least discussed factors in the rise of the Celtic Tiger was the low price of oil in the 1990s. Ireland is heavily dependent on oil. Our small population means most of what's produced here has to be exported and there is also a high level of imports. Transporting goods in and out of our small island is a very oil-dependent exercise. In addition, tourists all have to travel here on fuel-hungry jets and road transport is the primary means by which people get to and from work. All modern economies are dependent on oil, but Ireland is particularly so.

The Celtic Tiger ran on cheap oil. It's no coincidence that our economy weakened as the price of oil shot up during the the last decade.
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Massive Irish oil find as company hits major well off Cork coast

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Ireland is green, but her people are not
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Sure I know. We are heading towards 'peak oil' and we're all supposed to be planning for a future without oil. Great, fine. If that's true, then that makes last week's news all the more exciting because for too long the cost of oil has been a one way street here. When oil was plentiful and cheap Ireland boomed. Now that it's scarce and expensive we're in deep trouble. What last week's find possibly heralds is that Ireland can, at least, hope to cushion the blow of rising oil prices by (a) cutting imports and (b) maybe even selling some oil on the open market. That would be special.

The same company that made the Cork discovery, Providence Resources, wants to explore the seabed off the east coast of Ireland, four miles off the coast of Dalkey, Co Dublin to be more exact. That too must happen, although the drilling will be a lot closer to the shore.

The usual the forces of 'No' can count on the support some of the wealthiest people in Ireland in their bid to prevent the drilling. Dalkey is a millionaires' enclave and many of those who own mansions with see views worry that their views will be spoiled by the sights of oil rigs along the distant horizon. "C'est la vie." My interest in their view is less than minimal.

As my mother used to tell me whenever I mentioned Ireland's beauty, "You can't eat scenery." Too true and if oil really is going to continue to get more expensive then it would be nationally irresponsible at best not to get from the surrounding seas what we so badly need: oil. A few rigs dotted along the coast will be a small price to pay.

A rendering of what the view of the Irish Sea will be like with
an oil rig on the horizon.

Besides, how spoiled will the view be? I remember a few years ago someone called to me door asking me to sign a petition against a massive wind-farm proposed for the waters off Wicklow, where I live. Our view would be ruined. I remember the look of horror on his face when I told him that I loved looking out over the sea, but it was really more interesting when there was something to break the monotony of the endless sea: something like a ship or a lighthouse. Then I added "or a wind-farm or even oil rigs." He scurried off without saying good-bye.

I won't mind the sight of oil rigs on the horizon and that's with me being skeptical that they'll be as unobtrusive as they're rendered in the oil company's prospectus.

I know the green folks are going to rant, rage and scream bloody murder. Their shrill voices will ring out in desperation, pleading with us to install solar panels in our roofs, to eat only locally produced produce, and to travel by bicycle. In other words, they want us to live the lives that the subsistence farmers enjoyed here in the 1950s.

Well, you know what? There's a good reason why that lifestyle was shunned by the very people who were living it: it's hard. Most Irish people prefer the variety, the comforts and the opportunities that our oil-based economy provides. If there is oil off the coast of Ireland and this oil can help maintain our lifestyles then there is only one thing to do: drill, baby, drill.

Ireland needs a "Cooperstown" for St. Patrick and Americans can help

St. Patrick - Hill of Tara, County Meath

St. Patrick's Day. A world-wide festival celebrating all that's great about being Irish and Ireland. It's upon us again and that's no bad thing. St. Patrick's Day puts us in a good mood. Heck, it puts the stock market in a good mood.

When you think about the size of Ireland the "brand awareness" of St. Patrick's Day is incredible, although the loud, celebration-style St. Patrick's Day is an American invention. In Ireland St. Patrick's Day was traditionally a Holy Day - the pubs were closed and Catholics were obliged to attend Mass*. In recent years St. Patrick's Day has turned into something of a nation-wide party in an attempt to steal some of New York & Boston's thunder.

St. Patrick's Day. If you break the name down you realize it's a day named after a person - Saint Patrick. There are very few people in Irish history who are better known than Saint Patrick, other than the four members of U2 of course. (Yes, I'm ignoring St. Patrick's Welsh birth, etc.)

St. Patrick is an important person in Irish history. He brought Christianity to Ireland and the Irish took to it like ducks to water. Not long after Patrick's death the Irish were sending out missionaries throughout Dark Ages Europe, bringing the faith and learning to the peoples of Europe and saving civilization.

So Patrick was, as it turns out, crucial to all of Europe, not just Ireland.
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Top ten locations for St. Patrick's Day

Belfast pulls out all the stops for Titanic anniversary

County Down
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Given all that, wouldn't you imagine that somewhere in Ireland there would be a mega-center catering to all those who want to know about St. Patrick? Don't you think there'd something touristy to appeal to the keen and, more importantly, the vaguely interested?

I have no solid ideas right now, but I'm not talking about something sedate and high-minded. I'm talking about something that will attract a lot of people. For this to work I think we'll need a lot of American input because let's face it Americans know best how to turn the teeniest bit of history into a mega tourist center. (If you don't believe me, go to Cooperstown, NY and then read the truth about Abner Doubleday and his role in the development of baseball.)

That to me is the model - "Cooperstown" devoted to St. Patrick, only one that's easier to get to than Cooperstown is. A place completely committed to telling the story of Patrick and and all the knock-on effects his mission to Ireland has had.

So the need for "Patrickstown" is established, but where?

There are places all over Ireland that can claim some connection to Patrick. There's Tara, Co Meath where he stood up to the pagan powers that ruled Ireland and won them over to Christianity. There's Armagh, where he established his main church. There's Croagh Patrick in Mayo, where Patrick fasted for 40 days. And then there's Downpatrick, where St. Patrick is buried.

"Whoa!," I hear you yell. St. Patrick's grave is known? Well, it's one of those things where you don't want to look for too much by way of evidence, but yes there is a grave in the grounds of Down Cathedral that is (supposedly) St. Patrick's grave. That gives Downpatrick a solid claim to be the host of the St. Patrick mega-center, but I think it's really too far off the beaten path like Cooperstown.

{There is a Saint Patrick Centre in Downpatrick. I was there last November. What's it like? Well, I'd like to tell you it was great, but I can't. I can't even tell you it was terrible because I couldn't get in. It was closed. It's only open part of the year—not what I have in mind.}

St. Patrick's grave - Downpatrick, County Down

Deciding where to locate the St. Patrick mega-center is another issue where American input can help. Any official attempt at developing a St. Patrick mega-center is going to lead to some heavy-duty lobbying for the various contending locations. Oh, and there's the whole north-south thing too. No harm having an independent American perspective given that complication.

We need a big solution to a big hole in our tourism offering. We need help from people who are indifferent to the pleadings of a dozen possible locations and tuned out to the problems associated with the border. All we really need is a proper business proposal and business plan for the creative attraction that respects the truth and real history on as far as makes sense for the project. The St. Patrick mega-center needs America.

* It's still a Holy Day of Obligation here, probably one of the better observed Holy Days.

Time for alcohol pledge to be dropped from Confirmation

Pioneers Association abstinence from alcohol
pledge is made by Irish Catholics
at Confirmation.

In Ireland there is a tradition that children making their Confirmation take a pledge to abstain from alcohol until they're either 18 or 21 (they choose). It's a tradition that goes back to the 19th century, but "The pledge" is in decline. I can't claim to have a great understanding of The Pledge nor its history, but I really don't like it. I never understood the need to raise the topic of alcohol as part of the Confirmation ceremony.

First of all, it's weird to ask children to promise to avoid something that they don't fully understand. They know it's alcohol and they know it's "forbidden," but not much more than that. Lots of things are forbidden to children at the age of 12, which is when most Irish children are confirmed. Why should alcohol be singled out? No other pledges are included as part of Confirmation.

To me The Pledge sullies Confirmation. In times past The Pledge was in the actual Confirmation ceremony. Now it's incorporated into The Service of Light.

The Service of Light is a pre-Confirmation ceremony, which has been added to the Confirmation preparation process in recent years.  The Service of Light is generally held at night a few weeks before Confirmation. Although I'm not much for newfangled ideas, I like the Service of Light. The key part of the service is when parents hand the lighted Baptism candle to their child as an acknowledgement that the child is now ready to be a responsible Christian.

It really is a nice ceremony, but then comes The Pledge, and the discussion of alcohol. To me it just lowers the tone of the whole ceremony. I remember when it came up with my oldest daughter I was really annoyed. I knew there was an abstinence pledge in my daughter's future, but I didn't realize it was going to be right in the middle of the ceremony. I thought it was something they just did in school around the time of Confirmation.
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I understand the motivation. Ireland has an issue with alcohol and teenagers, maybe worse now than ever. But if that's true then shouldn't the whole abstinence pledge at age 12 be rethought?

Getting a group of 15 or 16-year-olds to publicly pledge to avoid alcohol would be a lot harder, I know. Yet maybe those who make such a pledge would actually honor it in a way no 12-year-old can.

There's no denying faith can play an important role in helping people stay on the straight and narrow and avoid the sort of trouble alcohol causes for so many. I don't see any harm in introducing the idea of alcohol avoidance to kids when they're 15 or 16. I just want all of that kept separate from my child receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Belfast pulls out all the stops for Titanic anniversary

RMS Titanic at the dock in Belfast - 1911 

Did you know this is the 100th anniversary of the maiden voyage and sinking of the Titanic? If you have recently been to Belfast, where the Titanic was built, there is no question that you would know because Belfast is going all out to mark the Titanic anniversary.

This is in stark contrast to how Belfast has dealt with its Titanic legacy for most of the past century. In fact, unless you knew before-hand where the Titanic was built, you would have been hard-pressed to find any sign at all that the great liner spent most of its short life in Belfast. The ship's sinking, the collapse of the ship-building industry generally in Belfast and, of course, 'the troubles' all took their toll. Memory of the Titanic wasn't so much swept under the carpet as allowed to rust and decay, much like the shipyard where it was built.

Even after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, when the atmosphere of Belfast was transformed and the city sought to bill itself as a tourist destination, the Titanic was ignored. This was despite the fact that James Cameron had boosted the Titanic from fading tragic memory into a cultural icon, a romantic tragedy thanks to his massively successful movie.
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That's all changed now. This year Belfast will host a two week Titanic festival starting March 31. The city is going all out to celebrate its links to the most famous passenger ship in history. The itinerary includes: talks, exhibitions, plays, concerts, and Titanic the Musical, which I'd never heard of, but which won five Tony awards back in 1997. And, of course, there is Belfast's new Titanic Visitor Experience, which opens on March 31 and which I'm hoping to get into sometime in April.

There literally is 'something for everyone.' In fact, so wide-ranging are the various events that they're a bit jarring. On Saturday, April 14 there is a concert in St Anne's Cathedral titled "Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic." To me the Titanic is so far in the past that anything with the word 'requiem' in the title seems a bit of a stretch. Yet, maybe there are others - children and grandchildren of those who built it, perhaps? - who feel the Titanic's loss still and for whom a requiem is appropriate. It doesn't suit me, but it's not inappropriate either.

Titanic Building, which will host the 
Titanic Visitor Experience
Photo – Feb 2011

However, the night before the St Anne's concert there is going to be an outdoor MTV concert at the place where the Titanic was built. I don't know about this one. I know it'll appeal to the younger generation (presumably - no line-up of acts is available yet), but 1,500 people did die on the Titanic and despite the fact it was a long time ago an MTV concert is knocking on the door of tackiness. There is definitely a disconnect between the series of commemorative events on offer and this MTV show, which will have to feel like a celebration more than a commemoration if it's to be a success.

What's ironic is that as James Cameron giveth he may also taketh away. Cameron's latest Titanic project is to get to the bottom (sorry about that) of what happened to the liner. On April 8 Cameron will present a two-hour special on the National Geographic Channel that Cameron describes as the "ultimate cold-case investigation into the tragedy."

Cameron will have a team of experts going through all the latest evidence as to what happened to the Titanic, what went wrong and, threateningly, who is to blame. I say threateningly because unless Cameron has unearthed something completely different he will be most likely talking about the quality of the metal used to make the rivets.

If that is Cameron's conclusion then the effect of his program will be to place the blame squarely on the Harland and Wolff shipyard where the Titanic was built. Although it's always been muted, the attitude of Belfast has long been that the Titanic's sinking wasn't 'their fault,' summed up by the usual refrain of "She was fine when she left here." The truth is she may not have been fine when she left Belfast and it may stick in the craw of those whose fathers and grandfathers built the Titanic. They may hope this is the last they hear of the Titanic's Belfast connection.

Galway's shameful proposal to honor Che Guevara

The most famous image of Che Guevara -
by Irishman Jim Fitzpatrick.

Galway City Council wants to erect a statue to Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara. Che, who was born in 1928, had Irish roots going back to the early 18th century. Che's distant ancestor Patrick Lynch was from Galway, which is the City Council's justification for wanting to erect a statue to a man who spent one night in Ireland, accidentally, thanks to fog at Shannon Airport. He never set foot in Galway.

Che's father did once try to explain his son's revolutionary ways saying the "blood of the Irish rebels" flowed in his veins. That is a load of hooey, as I'm sure Che's father knew, but that doesn't stop those Irish people who admire him from latching on to him as one of their own. Che's one night in Ireland was spent in Kilkee, Co. Clare, where last fall the townsfolk honored the memory of that one night with a 3-day festival. Galway obviously feels cheated that its 300-year-old link to Che is not getting the proper recognition, hence the statue proposal.

According to the Galway Advertiser the idea for the Galway statue came from a member of the City Council, Labour's Billy Cameron, who is "an ardent admirer of the revolutionary." Cameron is hardly alone. Che shirts and posters have been de rigueur for the hippest, coolest protesters and revolutionary-wannabees for decades. However, you're supposed to grow out of that phase. Cameron clearly has not.

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The proposed statue has not made much news in Ireland, but one man, businessman and sometime political campaigner Declan Ganley, has been on a mission to scupper this plan for the past week. Ganley (@declanganley) is a Galway man himself and worries that such a statue would damage Galway's reputation, especially in America, hurting the chances of investment and putting Americans off visiting the city.

That seems a bit of a stretch to me. I doubt too many tourists would know much of Che beyond recognizing his face and, well, business is business.

However, yesterday, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen issued a press release asking Galway City Council to reject the proposal to erect the Che Statue. "The romanticizing image that this monument would portray would serve to diminish the brutality that was committed by Che and the painful suffering endured by many Cuban-American families and his other victims far and wide."

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is a Cuban-American and Cuban-Americans know far more about Che than the average American and, I daresay, than the average Irish revolutionary wannabee. And they don't like him, not one bit. Whereas the average American may not take much interest in whether Galway honors Che Guevara, people from South Florida and other Cuban enclaves may take a keen interest.

Galway City Councillor - Billy Cameron,whose idea
it was to erect a statue ofChe Guevara

The Cuban government has pledged to help pay for the statue so I guess Galway's Councillors can rest easy knowing Fidel's on their side. Whether the Cuban people admire Che as much as Councillor Cameron and the rest is impossible to say because, as Representative Mario Diaz-Balart put it: "Galway is a city where people have the right to vote, the right to worship freely, the right to speak freely, and access a free press -- all of which 'Che' Guevara and his murderous associate, dictator Fidel Castro, ruthlessly suppressed."

There's no way that Councillor Cameron or anyone who shares his views will take that seriously. They know better than those Cuban-Americans just like they knew better than to listen to all those exiles from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, etc.

There's a part of me that half hopes the statue goes up and is defaced and damaged by Cubans who live here in exile. There are some. Or, better yet, I'd like to think that when Cubans do finally shake off the shackles of Castro's rule some of them will find their way to Ireland and pull the statue down and curse those who put it up. It's a dream.

The proposal is hideous, but I'm not surprised by it. It suits the mind-set of a small segment of the Irish people. I'd love to know what Ireland's President, a Galway man too, thinks of the idea. I suppose I should just consider it fortunate that no one ever found any Irish link to Lenin or Stalin or Mao. Honoring one mass-murderer is enough.

{Photo of Cameron from Labour.ie}