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March 18, 2006

Ahern: No Executive NI Assembly Plan

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News About Ireland & The Irish

BB 03/18/06 'No Executive' NI Assembly Plan
BN 03/18/06 Unionists Accuse Ahern Of 'Bullying' Over Powersharing
SB 03/19/06 Bush Adviser Says IRA Has Not Decommissioned Fully
IN 03/19/06 Congress Probes 'IoS' Revelations On IRA Link To Iraq
GU 03/18/06 Victims Sue Gadaffi Over IRA Bombs
SF 03/18/06 Adams Protests To US Adm Over Airport Security Delay
RT 03/18/06 Anti-War Demonstration In Dublin
SB 03/19/06 Opin: Comment: Optimism Over Illegal Irish
VC 03/19/06 Opin: The Old Sod Begets 70 Million Of Irish Heritage
BT 03/18/06 Opin: The Political Logjam Must Be Broken Up
SB 03/19/06 Opin: Presidential Poppycock Passed Off As Eloquence
BB 03/18/06 Spanish Civil War Veterans Look Back
UL 03/18/06 Notes On The Mood And Meaning Of St. Patrick’s Day

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/4821076.stm

'No Executive' NI Assembly Plan

A Northern Ireland Assembly may operate for some months
without an executive, the Irish premier has told the BBC.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the aim was to have a fully
functioning assembly with an executive as envisaged under
the Good Friday Agreement.

However, he said a deadlock over the formation of that
executive should not stop the assembly from operating while
there is work for it to do.

He made his remarks in an exclusive interview with the
BBC's Politics Show.

It comes as the British and Irish governments prepare to
unveil their blueprint for restoring Stormont.

Mr Ahern said he wanted to give the assembly a chance and
it would not be a meaningless interim assembly.

He suggested the assembly could operate over the summer and
into the winter.

However, he warned that time was limited and that if there
was no agreement on an assembly with an executive, Stormont
would not operate into next year.

"At the end of the day, we want to get to a position where
we'll have the assembly operating fully and functioning as
it was designed in the Good Friday Agreement and we want to
get the executive doing the same."

We do not intend to go into another winter in this
position, but at the same time if politicians want some
time to debate issues and to go through things we'll listen
to that

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern

He added: "What we have said is that 2006 has to call it.
So we'll set out our plan, but I think we do not intend to
go into another winter in this position, but at the same
time if politicians want some time to debate issues and to
go through things we'll listen to that.

"There are no two better listeners (than Mr Ahern and UK PM
Tony Blair). We've spent the last nine years listening to
debate."

'A huge tragedy'

Mr Ahern said "if we don't agreement on the executive you
can't have an executive".

"But that shouldn't stop the assembly operating for a
period of time while there is work for it to do and that
could take a few months."

The Irish premier said that if "we cannot get the
institutions functioning as per the Good Friday Agreement
this year, then we'll all have to think again".

"But that would be a huge tragedy and I do not want to find
myself in that position."

Earlier on Saturday, Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern
said the British and Irish governments would take the
decisions on Northern Ireland if NI politicians did not
share power.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme,
Mr Ahern said London and Dublin would adopt "an
intergovernmental approach".

DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said any such move would be
"completely unrealistic".

"It's time Dublin stopped being the bully boy and worked
with the rest of us," he said.

Devolved government at Stormont was suspended in October
2002 following allegations of a republican spy ring at the
Northern Ireland Office.

A full interview with Bertie Ahern will be featured on The
Politics Show at 1230 GMT on Sunday on BBC One.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external
internet sites

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/03/18 18:47:51 GMT
© BBC MMVI

*************************

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/03/18/story249892.html

Unionists Accuse Ahern Of 'Bullying' Over Powersharing

18/03/2006 - 14:32:59

The Irish Foreign Affairs Minister should stop trying to
bully Unionists into accepting powersharing with Sinn Féin,
it was claimed today

Dermot Ahern has said that if unionists do not accept a
forthcoming plan to get the Northern Ireland Assembly up
and running again, the Irish and British governments will
have to impose joint authority.

But Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Jeffrey Donaldson
accused Mr Ahern of having his head buried in the sand.

“It’s time Dublin stopped being the bully boy and worked
with the rest of us. You can’t bully unionists into
accepting something that they find unacceptable at the
moment and the sooner Mr Ahern realises that, the sooner we
can make progress with the Irish Government,” he said.

Mr Donaldson said that joint authority would seriously
destabilise Northern Ireland and would lead to an increase
in violence and disorder.

“If that is the Plan B, then the government should quickly
put it in he bin and concentrate with the rest of us on
trying to restore some form of devolution to Northern
Ireland,” he said.

All of the Northern parties attended yesterday’s St
Patrick’s Day ceremony at the White House, except the DUP
which has said it will not talk to Sinn Féin until it is
confident the party has completely renounced violence.

The Irish and British governments are planning to publish
their joint plan to restore powersharing in three weeks
time. They had intended to publish the plan sooner but both
Sinn Féin and SDLP opposed the concept of setting up a
“shadow assembly” in advance of restoring the powersharing
executive – a move favoured by the DUP.

Mr Ahern told BBC Radio Ulster that the plan would include
all the elements provided for in the 1998 Good Friday
Agreement: an assembly, executive, North-South bodies and
east-west ministerial council

“It (the agreement) has been voted on by the people and we
can’t simply tear it up,” he said.

Mr Ahern also emphasised that progress had to be made this
year because of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s
decision to step down at some stage in the future and the
Irish General Election in 2007.

But Mr Donaldson said this was an absurd suggestion.

“There have been initiatives going on in Northern Ireland
long before Tony Blair became the Prime Minister and will
be after he goes. As for the timing of the Irish general
election, that has no relevance to the situation in
Northern Ireland.”

*************************

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=12733-qqqx=1.asp

Bush Adviser Says IRA Has Not Decommissioned Fully

19 March 2006 By Paul T Colgan

The Bush administration’s adviser on the North has rejected
General John De Chastelain’s conclusion that the IRA
decommissioned all its weaponry last year.

Mitchell Reiss told a US congressional committee on
Wednesday that the IRA had only ‘‘decommissioned a
substantial portion of its weapons arsenal’’ last autumn.
His comments directly contradict two statements by De
Chastelain that the IRA has destroyed all its guns.

The rejection of De Chastelain’s statements has unsteadied
nationalists, who believe the United States government is
unwilling to bring any pressure to bear on Ian Paisley’s
DUP to engage in talks.

Reiss, who has been criticised by Sinn Fein leader Gerry
Adams for his input into the political process, told the
Committee on Foreign Relations in Washington that the IRA
may have retained some weapons.

His comments were based on last month’s report by the
Independent Monitoring Commission which said that IRA
members were involved in crime and that the paramilitary
organisation had not destroyed its entire arsenal.

Adams said last week that if Reiss was giving advice to
President George Bush, it was ‘‘very, very bad advice’’.

Sinn Fe¤ in has said it was concerned by the US
administration’s ‘‘partisan’’ approach to the North and had
questioned why Adams was still not allowed to raise funds
in the US. The party was forced to return donations of over
€80,000 made at a Friends of Sinn Fein fundraising event on
Thursday because Adams was in attendance. The US has
maintained that Adams would not be allowed to fundraise
until Sinn Fein endorses the new policing structures in the
North.

*************************

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article352175.ece

Congress Probes 'IoS' Revelations On IRA Link To Iraq

By Greg Harkin
Published: 19 March 2006

It was just another St Patrick's weekend in Washington. The
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern presented shamrock to
President George Bush, the Northern Ireland political
parties continued to bicker over who is responsible for the
latest impasse, and green beer was drunk by the gallon.

This weekend, however, a new cloud hangs over the legacy of
the Troubles and the alleged role played in a number of
deaths by both American and British security agencies.

The claim - if true - threatens a new political storm over
how and why FBI officials and MI5 operatives conspired to
supply deadly bomb-making equipment to the Provisional IRA
in the early 1990s, mechanisms the paramilitary
organisation later shared with Palestinian fighters.

Today in Iraq the same technology is being used by
insurgents to kill and maim British and American soldiers.

Six months ago, when The Independent on Sunday first broke
the story, the Secretary of State for Defence, John Reid,
was forced into a humiliating retraction.

For weeks his officials had claimed that bombs which killed
eight British soldiers in separate attacks in Basra had
been supplied to foreign fighters by Iran's Revolutionary
Guard.

Our story showed that the technology, far from being new,
had in fact first been used in Newry, Co Down, in 1992 to
murder a policewoman and maim her male colleague.

Kevin Fulton, a former soldier who infiltrated the IRA on
behalf of the security services, made an astonishing claim:
that he had flown to New York, met FBI and MI5 agents and
was given money to buy an infra-red device to be used to
set off IRA bombs.

The security services - already successful in preventing
radio-signal bombs - believed that by supplying the
equipment they could then introduce counter-measures.

"They knew the IRA was looking at the technology. By
supplying the equipment, they thought they could stay one
step ahead of the IRA," Mr Fulton told the IoS yesterday.

Following our article in October, an investigative
journalist from the American magazine Atlantic delved
deeper. And in an article to be published next week,
Matthew Teague claims FBI sources have confirmed Mr
Fulton's trip to the United States.

"I was satisfied with Fulton's story after checking it with
FBI sources. I also had a record of Fulton's stay at a New
York hotel at the time he said he was there," Mr Teague
said. He said the article had already sparked a wave of
interest before it hit the news-stands and he was aware of
a number of senior American politicians who were waiting
for publication before raising the issue in Congress.

The IoS has also spoken to a republican who was a senior
IRA member in the early 1990s. He confirmed that Mr Fulton
had introduced the IRA to the new technology and that the
IRA shared this with "like-minded organisations abroad".

Mr Fulton currently lives in hiding in England and is
taking legal action against the MoD, insisting he should
receive a soldier's pension. A former member of the Royal
Irish Rangers, he infiltrated the IRA after being recruited
directly from the regiment by the shadowy army outfit the
Force Research Unit, which ran agents inside loyalist and
republican organisations.

Mr Teague says Mr Fulton answered "no comment" to claims
that he had been responsible for 11 murders while working
as an agent and that he had been given carte blanche to
kill by his handlers.

Yesterday Mr Fulton refused to comment on those claims
again, but asked about his New York arms-buying trip, he
said: "I have been in touch with representatives of some
senior American politicians in the past few days and I've
told them that I am willing to travel back and appear
before Congress if necessary."

The Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland has been
investigating the FBI/MI5 link to the murder of Constable
Colleen McMurray, 34, who was killed when an IRA Mark 12
mortar hit the side of her patrol car as it travelled along
Merchants Quay, Newry, on 26 March 1992. Officer Paul
Slane, who was travelling with her, lost his legs.

It was just another St Patrick's weekend in Washington. The
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern presented shamrock to
President George Bush, the Northern Ireland political
parties continued to bicker over who is responsible for the
latest impasse, and green beer was drunk by the gallon.

This weekend, however, a new cloud hangs over the legacy of
the Troubles and the alleged role played in a number of
deaths by both American and British security agencies.

The claim - if true - threatens a new political storm over
how and why FBI officials and MI5 operatives conspired to
supply deadly bomb-making equipment to the Provisional IRA
in the early 1990s, mechanisms the paramilitary
organisation later shared with Palestinian fighters.

Today in Iraq the same technology is being used by
insurgents to kill and maim British and American soldiers.

Six months ago, when The Independent on Sunday first broke
the story, the Secretary of State for Defence, John Reid,
was forced into a humiliating retraction.

For weeks his officials had claimed that bombs which killed
eight British soldiers in separate attacks in Basra had
been supplied to foreign fighters by Iran's Revolutionary
Guard.

Our story showed that the technology, far from being new,
had in fact first been used in Newry, Co Down, in 1992 to
murder a policewoman and maim her male colleague.

Kevin Fulton, a former soldier who infiltrated the IRA on
behalf of the security services, made an astonishing claim:
that he had flown to New York, met FBI and MI5 agents and
was given money to buy an infra-red device to be used to
set off IRA bombs.

The security services - already successful in preventing
radio-signal bombs - believed that by supplying the
equipment they could then introduce counter-measures.

"They knew the IRA was looking at the technology. By
supplying the equipment, they thought they could stay one
step ahead of the IRA," Mr Fulton told the IoS yesterday.

Following our article in October, an investigative
journalist from the American magazine Atlantic delved
deeper. And in an article to be published next week,
Matthew Teague claims FBI sources have confirmed Mr
Fulton's trip to the United States.

"I was satisfied with Fulton's story after checking it with
FBI sources. I also had a record of Fulton's stay at a New
York hotel at the time he said he was there," Mr Teague
said. He said the article had already sparked a wave of
interest before it hit the news-stands and he was aware of
a number of senior American politicians who were waiting
for publication before raising the issue in Congress.

The IoS has also spoken to a republican who was a senior
IRA member in the early 1990s. He confirmed that Mr Fulton
had introduced the IRA to the new technology and that the
IRA shared this with "like-minded organisations abroad".

Mr Fulton currently lives in hiding in England and is
taking legal action against the MoD, insisting he should
receive a soldier's pension. A former member of the Royal
Irish Rangers, he infiltrated the IRA after being recruited
directly from the regiment by the shadowy army outfit the
Force Research Unit, which ran agents inside loyalist and
republican organisations.

Mr Teague says Mr Fulton answered "no comment" to claims
that he had been responsible for 11 murders while working
as an agent and that he had been given carte blanche to
kill by his handlers.

Yesterday Mr Fulton refused to comment on those claims
again, but asked about his New York arms-buying trip, he
said: "I have been in touch with representatives of some
senior American politicians in the past few days and I've
told them that I am willing to travel back and appear
before Congress if necessary."

The Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland has been
investigating the FBI/MI5 link to the murder of Constable
Colleen McMurray, 34, who was killed when an IRA Mark 12
mortar hit the side of her patrol car as it travelled along
Merchants Quay, Newry, on 26 March 1992. Officer Paul
Slane, who was travelling with her, lost his legs.

*************************

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1734367,00.html

Victims Sue Gadaffi Over IRA Bombs

American court case targets Libya for supplying explosives
that killed or maimed thousands

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday March 19, 2006
The Observer

Victims of IRA atrocities are to sue the Libyan leader
Colonel Muammar Gadaffi and his government in what their
lawyers say is the largest ever civil action involving
terrorism in the UK.

Survivors of the attacks and relatives of those killed,
from the UK and abroad, are seeking millions of pounds in
compensation and an apology from Libya through courts in
the United States. They claim that for more than three
decades Libya supplied war materials that left their
relatives dead or themselves scarred, physically and
psychologically, for life.

Michelle Williamson, 40, whose parents Gillian and George
were killed by the 1993 bomb in a fish shop in Belfast's
Shankill Road, said: 'Libya can't wash its hands of
responsibility. It's like the pub owner who knowingly
supplies drink to a customer knowing he or she is going to
drive home drunk. If that driver kills someone, the person
who plied him or her with drink bears some responsibility.'

American Mark McDonald, 55, an oceanographer from Colorado,
was peppered with shrapnel by an IRA bomb outside Harrods
in west London in 1983. He spent 10 weeks in hospital and
still has fragments lodged in his body. 'I see this action
as part of making the world safer because it might make
other states thinking of sponsoring terrorism think again,'
he said.

The civil action, to be launched next month, is similar to
that being pursued by relatives of victims of the 9/11
terror attacks in the US against rich Saudis accused of
financing al-Qaeda.

Lawyers for the IRA victims say papers will be filed in New
York or Washington DC for a 'spearhead group' of around 20
plaintiffs. Victims' groups hope hundreds more people from
Northern Ireland, Britain, the US and beyond will join the
class action, which targets Libya and named individuals
associated with the regime's policy of sponsoring Irish
terrorists. Lawyers say up to 6,000 people were killed or
injured with Libyan supplied guns and explosives.

Among the individuals accused are Gadaffi himself and
Nasser Ali Ashour, who in the mid-Eighties was third in
command of Libyan intelligence and allegedly liaised
directly with republican leaders including the South Armagh
smuggler and former IRA chief of staff, Thomas 'Slab'
Murphy. Gadaffi sent five huge arms shipments, - enough to
supply at least two infantry battalions - to the IRA in the
Eighties. Stung by Margaret Thatcher's logistical support
for US air strikes against Libya, the Libyan leader
authorised the smuggling operation that gave the IRA enough
guns and explosives to wage war against Britain well into
the 21st century.

Jason McCue, who is heading the case for the London-based
legal firm H20, said: 'Libya sponsored the IRA. The IRA
utilised their help to foster their terrorist campaign.
Innocent people who got caught up in that campaign suffered
dreadful losses. Libya wants in from the cold. They want to
normalise into international commerce and society. They
have to put their terrorist past behind them. But like
anyone else they are accountable for their past actions.
They need to settle their dues. This action is one avenue
down which they can address such matters.

'Libya has paid compensation to the victims of Lockerbie.
It is now being sued for sponsoring Middle East terrorism.
It is time they addressed the IRA victims because it
beggars belief that Libya has never even apologised to
those victims.'

McCue and his team will use two separate American laws to
pursue both the Libyan state and leading members of its
ruling apparatus. As only US citizens can file claims
against other nations, Americans caught up in IRA attacks
will sue under the 1996 Foreign Sovereignty Immunity Act.
British citizens will sue individuals through the Torture
Victims Protection Act 1991. The case will be fought on a
no win, no fee basis.

Semtex from Libya provided the main element of bombs such
as the one that exploded on the Shankill Road in 1993, and
small quantities of the colourless explosive also acted as
'boosters' for larger devices that devastated parts of
London in the early Nineties. H20 is hoping victims of
bombings such as those at Canary Wharf and in Manchester
will join the class action in America.

A spokesman for the Libyan embassy in London said yesterday
that the consul was unavailable for comment.

Case history

'I was angry all the time, and I couldn't sleep'

Michael Clarke, an American, was serving at the US naval
base on Lough Foyle in Northern Ireland as a communications
officer in the early Seventies. He was caught up in five
terror attacks in Derry from 1971 to 1973. He returned to
settle in the city five years ago and is now doing youth
work for the Church of Ireland.

'The worst was the explosion at a bank on Strand Road in
late 1973,' he said. 'I only avoided being killed because I
walked back down the road to encourage a couple of friends
of mine to hurry up and join us.

'I remember seeing this shop blowing up, the glass
shattering everywhere, this huge bang. By that time I was
already close to being a total wreck after the other
attacks, including being caught in crossfire during an
Army-IRA gun battle.

'After the bomb on Strand Road, though, I couldn't sleep. I
was drinking heavily. I was getting angry all the time. I
had lost many friends.

'Over the years the effect on my physical and mental health
was slow burning. I was still on trauma courses right up to
1998.

'It even affected my desire to study for the ministry in
the Presbyterian Church. I had to give that up because of
all my problems. Many people like myself have been
traumatised by being caught up in the violence. This legal
action is one way to draw a line under the past.

'I hope others caught in the Troubles will join this
action. I know of several cases involving young US
servicemen.'

*************************

http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/13527’

Adams Protests To US Administration Over Airport Security
Delay

Published: 18 March, 2006

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and party colleagues Rita
O'Hare and Richard McAuley were unable to attend scheduled
events in Buffalo last night and today after they were
detained by security screening problems at Dulles Airport
last night.

Speaking today before departing for Boston Mr Adams said:

"I am deeply disappointed that I could not attend the
events in Buffalo. Last night 700 people turned up to be
briefed on the Peace Process.

"I have consistently raised with the Administration the
problem of additional security screening. While I
understand the need for vigilance Sinn Féin members are the
victims of an unacceptable and unfair administrative
practice. We have protested again today to the
Administration." ENDS

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http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0318/iraq.html?rss

Anti-War Demonstration In Dublin

18 March 2006 20:37

At least 500 people marched through Dublin city centre this
afternoon in an anti-war demonstation to mark the third
anniversary of the beginning of the conflict in Iraq.

The Irish Anti-War movement is calling on the government to
ban US military planes passing through Shannon Airport.

The march through the city centre finished with a rally at
the GPO on O'Connell Street.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government has said that six people
have been arrested in connection with the murder of a
journalist and her crew from the Saudi-owned television
network, al-Arabiya.

The journalist, Atwar Bahjat, her cameraman and her
soundman were seized by gunmen and shot dead near Samarra
last month.

Iraq's Defence Minister said the six were arrested during a
joint US/Iraqi operation near Samarra.

*************************

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=682990

Storm Over Mcaleese Visit To Ballymena

By Lisa Smyth
18 March 2006

Northern Ireland residents should be given the right to
vote in Irish presidential elections, a Sinn Fein
councillor has said.

Ballymena councillor Monica Digney made the comments
following confirmation that Irish president Mary McAleese
is to visit the town later this month, which has sparked
outrage from unionist politicians in the area.

Despite an assertion by DUP councillor Robin Stirling that
"the Irish President has little to contribute to our
borough", Ms Digney said she believes that permitting
citizens of Northern Ireland to participate in Irish
Presidential elections would give them a sense of belonging
to the Republic.

"The Good Friday Agreement stated that people in the North
have a right to Irish citizenship and voting for the
President is one way in which we are entitled to use this
citizenship," she said.

"At present, we have a President who was born down the road
in Belfast but even the very people who grew up with her
cannot vote for her.

"We in Sinn Féin are still lobbying the Dublin Government
to grant northern citizens the right to take part in
Presidential elections, as it is a key part of our Irish
citizenship that was safeguarded under the Agreement."

Ms Digney also urged unionist representatives in the area
to refrain from engaging in any negative actions or words
towards Mrs McAleese after Mr Stirling refused to rule out
the possibility of a protest greeting the Irish President.

He said he expected a decision about a protest would be
taken at a higher level within the DUP but claimed that
parents of Ballymena Academy, where Mrs McAleese is due to
visit on March 28, had contacted him to express their
outrage at the proposed visit.


"Her visit to what is viewed as a DUP heartland will
undoubtedly be seen by many as being provocative. ," he
said.

However, Ms Digney argued: "Mary McAleese has been involved
in much bridge-building and cross-community work."

*************************

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=12711-qqqx=1.asp

Opin: Comment: Optimism Over Illegal Irish

19 March 2006 By Niall O’Dowd

There was no question what the overwhelming issue facing
Irish America this St Patrick’s Day was: the issue of
legalising the 40,000 or so Irish illegal immigrants in the
United States.

It has become the primary focus of communities from New
York to Boston to San Francisco and from Philadelphia to
Chicago. The recent successful action day on March 8 in
Washington which attracted almost 3,000 Irish Americans is
ample proof of that.

The 3,000 people who descended on Capitol Hill had one
clear message. It was emblazoned on the t-shirts the
thousands wore, which read: ‘‘LegalizetheIrish.org’’.

At times, Capitol Hill seemed a sea of green and white.
Chants of ‘Ole Ole Ole’ echoed around the ballroom at the
Holiday Inn on the Hill when Hillary Clinton made her
appearance at the rally.

Along with Senator John McCain, Senator Edward Kennedy and
Senator Charles Schumer, she was sending a strong message
to her Irish base that she was there for them. Senator
McCain told a staffer he felt ‘‘like a rock star’’ after
the reception he got and immediately signed up to host an
Irish town meeting in the Bronx on March 31.

The Capitol Hill rally was the culmination of a hectic
three months for the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform
(ILIR), which was started in New York on December 9.

The organisation was apprehensive before that first meeting
that Irish illegal immigrants would come out of the deep
isolation into which they had disappeared. Strangely,
politicians in Ireland were more on top of the issue than
Irish American groups. The issue was deeply underground in
America, but was surfacing in families back home. Now the
ILIR is bringing it above ground in America.

It turned out that we need not have worried about
attendance as the first meeting and all subsequent ones
were overwhelmed with people. There were more than 1,000 in
meetings in New York, Boston, San Francisco and New York
again as well as 400 in Philadelphia.

More than 6,000 joined through the website. Veterans of the
Morrison and Donnelly visa battles could not remember
crowds like it during the thick of those fights.

The huge numbers attending meetings from coast to coast
personified the clear signs of distress from a community
much beleaguered since the impact of September 11, 2001
tightened immigration laws.

The biggest problem was driver’s licences. Now when your
licence is up, you have to produce a valid social security
number, which very few illegals have, to get a new one.
Mothers are unable to drive their children to school. Some
workers have to hire drivers to take them to work.

Now, too it has become impossible to travel home to Ireland
and come back safely.

New technologies in place at ports and airports have begun
to bite. Illegals are unable to visit sick parents, many
Irish grandparents have never seen their grandchildren, and
missed weddings, funerals and wakes are among the
consequences.

Some have asked why the illegals cannot just return home to
Ireland. The reasons are numerous.

Many are from remote areas of Ireland where the Celtic
Tiger does not stalk. Others have made lives, families and
careers in the US and would find it impossible to adjust.

Many have basic educational qualifications and are ill-
fitted for the high tech vistas of Ireland.

Others just want to live their version of the American
dream like millions before them.

Many are angry that the Irish in America are in this bind.

Irish immigrants have fought in every war, helped build
every US city, educated millions of American children and
practically invented politics in big cities as it is played
now.

When it comes to seeking legalisation for Irish citizens,
ILIR makes no apology for making clear the incredible
contribution of the Irish or the fact that the Irish have
been hard done by since a 1965 law changed everything on
immigration.

Since that 1965 act, Irish emigrants have become an
endangered species and have essentially been excluded from
America.

The act was an attempt to remove the European bias from
American immigration, but in the process, it went way too
far in the opposite direction, making it difficult for
citizens of old seed countries to emigrate legally.

In the mid-1980s and early 1990s,we saw the first
manifestation of this as a flood of young Irish illegally
entered America during an economic recession in Ireland.

Fortunately, the community was able to rustle up temporary
solutions in the Morrison and Donnelly visa bills, but they
were not long-term solutions.

Now the community is at the same point again, as another
group of immigrants seeks legal status and it is clear that
a long-term solution must be found if both the Irish in
Ireland and those in America are not to keep facing this
issue into the future.

The future of many Irish communities across the country,
especially where immigrants have gathered, is at stake. It
is hard to imagine anything more important this St
Patrick’s season.

Many of the undocumented feel that it is time for Irish
American organisations to stand up and be counted. Few,
with the honourable exception of the GAA, have done so. In
New York and Boston the GAA have ran hugely successful
fund-raisers for ILIR.

Even though it is an issue that has only become apparent in
the past few months, there is no question that it is the
most important one facing the Irish American community
since the question of the American role in the Irish peace
process over a decade ago.

Back then, Irish America rose magnificently to the
challenge and, in the process, played a huge role in
bringing about an historic peace agreement in the North.

This year, a major helping hand came from the Irish
government on the issue of helping Irish illegal
immigrants, a refreshing change from 15 years ago when they
were at pains to try and play down the issue of Irish
citizens staying illegally in US.

This week, Bertie Ahern and Dermot Ahern spoke eloquently
and often on the need for immigration change, and the
Taoiseach made a point of raising the issue at his meeting
with George W Bush.

The Irish community has joined together with the government
to tackle this issue. It is still too soon to see the final
shape of the bill that would legalise the Irish but there
is a new sense of optimism because of the most recent
events.

The ascent of the deep hill has begun.

Niall O’Dowd is publisher of the Irish Voice in New York.

*************************

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/opinion/article/0,1375,VCS_125_4548330,00.html

Opin: The Old Sod Begets 70 Million Of Irish Heritage

By John McNally
March 17, 2006

On this St. Patrick's Day, many of us will lift a pint to
our Irish heritage, shout "Erin Go Bragh," perhaps attend a
function with Irish music and dancing. A few will go to
Mass. But what does it really mean to be Irish beyond
superficial sentimental displays? Unlike many of America's
immigrant communities of today, the Irish were in a hurry
to become assimilated into mainstream American culture, and
understandably so.

I will never know the bigotry my grandparents must have
felt when they first came to America a hundred years ago.
"No Irish Need Apply" signs were not uncommon in those
days. Economic and political assimilation into America was
achieved 45 years ago with the election of President
Kennedy but our culture was reduced to commercially
packaged shamrocks and Leprechaun's promoting alcohol and
self deprecating humor. A form of historical amnesia set
in, probably because our past is not very pleasant.

Anti-Irish attitudes was the carryover of centuries of
brutal British domination of Ireland, which was
rationalized by portraying the Irish as inferior, even
subhuman. Ireland was England's first colony and the Irish
have the distinction of being the only white-skinned people
in recent centuries to be traded as slaves in large
numbers. More were sent to America as indentured servants,
only slightly better off. Then came the potato famine of
the 1840s, one of the worst human tragedies ever, where at
least a million Irish people died and a couple million more
emigrated, mostly to America.

The "Famine" was an example of free-trade capitalism at its
worst where plenty of food was being produced in Ireland
only to be shipped overseas for greater profit while
millions starved. These poor starving Irish arrived to
slums in America and fought with the blacks for the bottom
rung of the economic ladder. But many understood the cause
of their plight was British tyranny and, going by the name
of Fenians, funded and assisted the generational rebellions
against British colonial rule back in Ireland.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter
Rising, which instigated subsequent, although only partial,
Irish nationhood. The British held onto the six
northeastern counties of Ireland for their industry, namely
shipyards, and justified this with a colonialist majority
who were to treat their minority Irish population much like
the blacks were treated in our precivil-rights American
South.

When these Northern Irish marched for their civil rights,
they too were battened off the streets and, on Bloody
Sunday in 1972, 14 demonstrators, protesting internment
without trial, were shot and killed by British soldiers. In
response, the British Embassy in Dublin was burned. Those
who would not bend a knee or turn a blind eye, commenced a
guerrilla war against British rule in Ireland that climaxed
25 years ago when Irish prisoners went on hunger strike, an
ancient Celtic tradition of redress, for political status.

In 1981, Irish Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands
was elected to British Parliament on his deathbed, proving
that the hunger strikers had the backing of the people and
also showing political struggle to be the way of the
future. A New Ireland was about to emerge from the ashes of
the old.

The '90s was a watershed decade for the Irish people. The
IRA ceasefire brought relative peace to the island. The
Celtic tiger roared as Ireland's economic growth out paced
England for the first time. "Riverdance" catapulted Irish
culture into mainstream American life and numerous films
made Irish ness more accessible to all.

The film "Michael Collins" told the story of the 1916-21
rebellion against British rule in Dublin. "The Magdalene
Sisters" shocked us with another view of Catholic Ireland,
through "Angela's Ashes" we saw Irish poverty and
alcoholism and "In the Name of the Father" exposed British
racism towards the Irish. U2 rocked its way to superstardom
proving that being Irish was cool and U2's singer Bono took
up a very Irish cause of campaigning against world poverty.

The Irish were gaining their self confidence, accepting
their own faults and confronting injustices of the past.

In his book, "Irish on the Inside," Tom Hayden writes: "The
Irish character contains seeds of rebelliousness rather
than conformity, of moral idealism rather than amoral
materialism, of communal ethics rather than individualistic
ones, of mysticism and even otherworldliness that challenge
modernity."

Today, the 70 million people worldwide who claim Irish
heritage can take greater delight in being Irish.

— John McNally lives in Ventura.

*************************

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/opinion/story.jsp?story=682995

Opin: The Political Logjam Must Be Broken Up

18 March 2006

Amid all the shamrock and the shenanigans there was some
serious political talk in Washington this week. The White
House, the Northern Ireland Office and Dublin found common
cause in their calls for the political logjam here to be
broken.

President Bush urged the parties to "get on with it" while
Peter Hain warned that hard choices would have to be made
if there was continued drift. For his part, Bertie Ahern
expressed the hope that the Assembly would be back in
business by Christmas.

Certainly, most people in Northern Ireland will share the
widespread exasperation over the lengthy impasse. At a time
when public expenditure is in short supply in health and
education, some £9m a year of taxpayers' money is going on
salaries and expenses for Assembly members.

Three and a half years on from the last sitting of the
Assembly, this expenditure is looking increasingly
difficult to justify. As Mr Hain says, a decision on the
future of the body cannot be postponed for ever.

Progress has been made, but the key issues of
paramilitarism, policing and partnership have yet to be
fully resolved. Significant progress has been made on IRA
arms but as Gerry Adams discovered during his visit, the
republican movement has not yet been given a clean sheet.

The profile afforded to the McCartney family in Washington
was a timely reminder that there is still unfinished
business. Until the Independent Monitoring Commission is
content that criminality and racketeering have been
expunged, Sinn Fein's democratic credentials will continue
to be called into question.

Indeed, the ban on fundraising by Mr Adams was a clear sign
from the US administration that it sees Sinn Fein's boycott
of the PSNI as one of the major stumbling blocks. The Sinn
Fein president's angry denunciation of Mitchell Reiss was
an indication that this official censure is making its
mark.

Regrettably, the DUP leadership chose to absent itself from
events in Washington, thereby missing a valuable
opportunity to influence decision-makers and win hearts and
minds. The DUP is now the largest unionist party in
Northern Ireland and it cannot absolve itself of its
responsibilities.

Saying "No" may have worked in the past but if the DUP is
serious about seeking the restoration of devolution, it
will soon have to re-engage in the process. At present, the
heat is on Sinn Fein, but the DUP can expect to feel more
pressure in the next few months if it continues to opt out.

Mr Hain has put down a marker and must now stick to it.
Continued political uncertainty does no favours to Northern
Ireland's international image or the province's economy.

*************************

http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=VINCENT%20BROWNE-qqqs=commentandanalysis-qqqid=12669-qqqx=1.asp

Opin: Presidential Poppycock Passed Off As Eloquence

19 March 2006 By Vincent Browne

Mary McAleese, our president for another five and a half
years, has the same eloquence quotient of the average minor
all-Ireland winning hurling captain, if her St Patrick’s
Day message is anything to go by (see www.president.ie if
you really want to experience this).

She has nothing of the fluency and magnificence of, say,
Sean Og O hAilpin, the Cork senior captain who delighted
Croke Park last September.

Instead, she possesses the banality and mundaneness you
would expect from the Carlow substitute delegate at a
regional Irish Countrywomen’s Association gathering in
Kinnegad (no offence intended to the ICA, Carlow or
Kinnegad).

‘‘Beannachtai na Feile Padraig oraibh go leir, sa bhaile
agus ar fud an domhain.” If this were heard in Croke Park
or at the aforementioned meeting in Kinnegad, there would
be a rush to the bars and the exits.

‘‘I wish to send warm greetings,” she says. Simple
greetings were not enough, they had to be ‘‘warm’’, though
at least we were spared ‘‘from the bottom of my heart’’.

And to ensure we would know the occasion on which she was
offering the beannachtai na Feile Padraig, she tells us it
is ‘‘on this St Patrick’s Day’’, not last year’s St
Patrick’s Day or next year’s St Patrick’s Day but this St
Patrick’s Day.

These greetings were being addressed to the Irish people at
home and guess where?

Right first time: ‘‘abroad’’. But not only to the Irish
people at home and abroad, but to ‘‘Ireland’s friends
around the globe’’. How thoughtful.

Let’s skip a sentence, if you don’t mind, and get to the
bit where she says: ‘‘Over many decades, the people of
Ireland, resolute in their belief in freedom, democracy,
and human rights and the pursuit of truth, justice, and
peace, have worked to create the successful Ireland of
today.”

You wha’? Even if we ignore the bit about the Irish people
being ‘‘resolute in their belief in freedom, democracy, and
human rights’’, what’s this about ‘‘their belief in truth,
justice and peace’’.

Truth? What truth? Justice?

What justice? And please let’s not get into the peace
palaver.

She followed that with: ‘‘We can all bear witness to the
arduous trials of our predecessors.”

What on earth does that mean? The only arduous trials I can
bear witness to are the arduous trials I myself have
witnessed and experienced, including the arduous trials of
reading Mary McAleese’s speeches.

So far, I have avoided the even more arduous trial of
having to listen to one of them. But how could anyone ever
bear witness to the arduous trials of their predecessors?
What is she on about?

First, the bit about our belief in truth, justice and peace
and this witness-bearing stuff?

And remaining on the theme of bearing witness to the
arduous trials of our predecessors, she says: ‘‘Yet,
through it, and perhaps because of it, we have built a new
confidence and sense of direction, our collective aim to
create a better Ireland and a better life for our children
and our children’s children.” Is your head wrecked yet?

Then, there’s more about our ‘‘traditional welcome for the
stranger’’ which is, of course, ‘‘extended to people from
many countries’’ and ‘‘the world is ever-changing’’ and
‘‘meeting the challenges, and seizing the opportunities
which lie before us’’.

A mind that comes up with such cliches is close to
disqualification as a mind. It wouldn’t matter so much in
the case of the substitute Carlow delegate at an ICA
regional conference, whose opportunity to dull into stupor
more than a handful of people - and then only very
occasionally - is limited.

But a president’s opportunity to congeal the mind of the
nation is considerable.

In away we deserve this, for when we elected her to office
in 1997, there were symptoms of a coagulated mind even
then.

But perhaps we thought someone who had been Reid Professor
of Law at Trinity couldn’t be all that dull. And to be fair
to that post, her predecessor as Reid Professor, Mary
Robinson, and her successor, Ivana Bacik, are certainly
bright.

In 2004, there was an opportunity to elect someone who
might stimulate the mind and delight the nation, someone
like Michael D Higgins, but the political establishment
colluded to avoid the inconvenience of allowing the
electorate to decide and we got another seven years of
McAleese.

Her customary anonymity is welcome and, perhaps because of
it, we are startled by the intellectual awkwardness of her
occasional public pronouncements.

Her 1916 lecture, which she apparently drafted herself, had
a few sharp observations, but the claim that we had
absorbed into our political culture the spirit of the
Proclamation, which talked of cherishing the children of
the nation equally, was just tedious Fianna Fail-speak.

Her condemnation of the publication of the Mohammed
cartoons was also welcome (by those of us who agreed).
However, she went on to embarrass not just herself but the
rest of us by implying that, as President of Ireland, she
was entitled to speak for all the people when, manifestly,
she was not.

And, worse than all that, there is reason to believe her
‘‘bridge-building’’ with loyalists in the North may be
doing more harm than good. Anyway, it is none of her
business.

We have this until 2011, which seems like an eternity away.
And, in those five and a half years, there will be more
embarrassment and tedium, unless she can be encouraged to
take up golf or knitting.

However, it highlights how the presidency could be used
inspirationally, as Robinson used it. If there were, in
Aras an Uachtarain, a president who had a sturdy commitment
to equality and understanding of equality, he or she might
be able to use the office, within the constitutional
constraints, to signal that commitment and to highlight the
glaring inequalities that prevail.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte could have used the presidential
campaign as a platform to argue the case for equality, but
he chose not to, perhaps because a debate on equality might
unsettle his single-focus determination to get into high
office at whatever he cost.

Meanwhile, beannachtai na Feile Padraig oraibh go leir, sa
bhaile agus ar fud an domhain.

sbpost@iol.ie

*************************

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4818356.stm

Spanish Civil War Veterans Look Back

This year is the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the
Spanish Civil War in which 500,000 people died.

About 1,000 people from Ireland fought in Spain, both for
and against General Franco. BBC Northern Ireland's Diarmaid
Fleming reports.

General Franco and his fellow generals began a revolt in
1936 against the democratically elected socialist Popular
Front government of the Spanish Republic.

It followed plans to strip the rich, including the Catholic
Church, of its power and wealth and improve workers'
rights.

Fascism was on the rise in Europe and, in the Irish Free
State, the sacked chief of police, Eoin O'Duffy, led the
right-wing Blueshirt movement.

Irish Republicans attacked their meetings, which frequently
descended into riots.

O'Duffy commanded the Free State Army during the brutal
Civil War in Kerry.

Troops under his command committed atrocities such as the
massacre of eight republican prisoners tied to a landmine
at Ballyseedy bridge in 1923.

Dan Keating, who is 104 years old, told for the first time
about plans to assassinate O'Duffy on his way to a meeting
in Kerry in 1933.

"We had a reception party for him in Ballyseedy, to kill
him. There was a man sent to Limerick to find out the
number of the car O'Duffy was travelling in."

The person who was to give the number, fearful of O'Duffy's
fate, got cold feet and gave false information. O'Duffy
escaped.

The Catholic Church portrayed the war in Spain as a holy
one against godless communists.

O'Duffy responded to the Irish church's call to send help
to Franco and led a brigade of more than 700 to Spain. But
this prompted the Irish left to respond.

One of only two surviving Irish Spanish Civil War veterans
who fought against Franco, Michael O Riordan, now 89, said
he went to "restore Ireland's name".

"We went for two reasons. One was the old trade union
slogan, 'An injury to one is the concern of all' , and the
Spanish people needed our help as they were really fighting
against world fascism.

"The other reason was that Ireland had committed itself,
not the people or the government, but O'Duffy who was
sending a brigade to fight with Franco.

"For national, patriotic reasons we had to erase that from
people's minds, and restore the good name of the country,"
he said.

In Belfast, people from both Protestant and Catholic
backgrounds went to defend the Spanish Republic against
Franco.

For Catholics, going against their church was a hard
decision.

Peggy Mount from Poleglass, now 93, recalled how her family
in the Springfield Road area reacted when her brother Dick
O'Neill, a communist and skilled print worker, said he was
going to Spain.

"My mother was a devout Catholic and my father a socialist.
But they stood by him because he was our lad."

The war in Spain was brutal. O'Duffy's 750 Blueshirts saw
little combat and lost 12 men, but according to research by
Belfast historian Ciaran Crossey, 85 - about a quarter of
those of Irish origin from all around the world who fought
on the Republican side - died, including Dick O'Neill and
Henry McGrath from the loyalist Shankill area.

Henry McGrath's nephew, Freddie, from Glencairn in Belfast
said their family was proud that he went to fight fascism.

A documentary, "In the Fields of Spain", is on BBC Radio
Ulster on Saturday 18 March at 1130 GMT and Sunday 19 March
1430 GMT.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2006/03/17 18:49:16 GMT
© BBC MMVI

*************************

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Notes+on+the+mood+and+meaning+of+St.+Patrick%E2%80%99s+Day&articleId=2138966b-5618-4ee3-9b73-fc3002dbe3ab

Notes On The Mood And Meaning Of St. Patrick’s Day

By Mark Hayward And Dale Vincent
Union Leader Staff
Friday, Mar. 17, 2006

With St. Patrick whispering in his ear, God has smiled on
his children this St. Patrick’s Day.

The day falls in the solemn season of Lent on a no-meat
Friday. But Manchester Bishop John McCormack has dispensed
with any spiritual dilemma for the Irish-Catholic faithful
and permitted meat-eating today.

McCormack, no doubt, knows that one needs saint-like
qualities to suffer limp, boiled cabbage without succulent
slices of corned beef beside it.

Meanwhile, nippy temperatures create an ideal environment
to head to the local pub to give reverence to the patron
saint of Ireland. So with our thoughts and prayers turned
toward Patrick and his homeland, we offer the following
tidbits on Irish lore, New Hampshire style.

——

Members of the William J. Shanahan Division of the Ancient
Order of Hibernians will be attired in new jackets when
they parade down Elm Street on Sunday.

Josh Alexander, Nick Zingaro and Debbie Schubeler started
their day at the Wild Rover. More than 100 would-be
revelers were lined up outside the downtown pub at 8 a.m.
(DICK MORIN)

Gone are the increasingly expensive, traditionally
tailored, heavy, green-corduroy jacket. In is a less
expensive and more “functional” jacket that’s still easily
recognized, said Scott M. McQuillen, division president of
the AOH. The new jacket is dark green fleece, with the
organization’s embroidered emblem and the owner’s name, if
desired.

As for the old-style green corduroy, McQuillen said, “I
wear it for about an hour a year.”

McQuillen’s had the comfortable new fleece jacket since the
beginning of this month and has already worn it more in 15
days than the 10-plus years that he’s owned the traditional
jacket.

——

The Manchester Monarchs will wear shamrock-hued jerseys
when they hit the ice tonight, and spectators will have a
chance to win the shirts off the players’ backs. All fans
will receive a scratch card; 20 of them good for a player
jersey.

One card will be good for a trip for two to Ireland, four
days and three nights, courtesy of the Wild Rover.

As it turns out, there’s not a player to match every shirt
on the scratch cards. “Trades happen,” said Monarchs
spokesman Kim Mueller.

——

In 1992, the Ireland born-and-raised Jim O’Connell was
driving up Interstate 93, his first foray into the heart of
New England.

O’Connell did a double take in New Hampshire, when he saw
the highway sign for Exit 4 — Derry Londonderry.

“I was, like you’d say, God-smacked,” said O’Connell, who
now lives in Manchester.

Derry-Londonderry exit sign on I-93 south. (BOB LAPREE)

In New Hampshire the names signify two separate, distinct
towns. But in Northern Ireland, the two different names
represent the same city. If you’re Protestant and an Irish
loyalist, you call the city Londonderry. If you’re a
Catholic and an Irish nationalist, it’s Derry.

It would be provocative to say the least for anyone to walk
into a room of Irish Catholics and say Londonderry,
O’Connell said.

At 83,000, the city is the second largest in Northern
Ireland and has maintained a Catholic majority in a
Protestant land. Peace is slowly taking hold in Northern
Ireland, with the Irish Republican Army announcing last
year that it will stand down.

O’Connell has often seen the Derry-Londonderry sign at Exit
4 and wondered how the two towns were named.

“I’ve driven through there often thinking there’s a story
there,” he said.

——

Irish pubs will be packed tonight. They will feature Irish
stew, Guiness on tap and a singer at a microphone.

If he’s good, he can coax the crowd into sing-alongs that
give a twinkle to the eye and, with enough ale flowing, a
sweet melody to the ear.

The older set favors the traditional songs — Danny Boy,
McNamara’s Band, Irish Eyes and just about anything from a
Bing Crosby movie.

The latest generation of pub crawlers, thank God, has
developed its own repertoire of sing-alongs, according to
Marty Quirk, a singer-guitarist who will play at Shannon
Door in Jackson tonight.

“I’m in the trenches of the pub, at the whims of what
people are screaming at me,” Quirk said.

The latest crowd favorite is “Dirty Old Town,” an old
English ballad that has been appropriated by Irish punk-
rocker Shane MacGowan, Quirk said.

Following are the first two verses:

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed a girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

Clouds a drifting across the moon
Cats a prowling on their beat
Spring’s a girl in the street at night
Dirty old town
Dirty old town

——

Irish pubs. Where would we be on a day like today without
them?

A quick Internet check found 14 establishments in the
Granite State that call themselves Irish pubs. The Queen
City has three, with two each in the cities of Dover,
Nashua and Portsmouth.

At Molly Malone’s in Portsmouth, nine kegs of Guiness had
been delivered on Wednesday morning, said bartender Thomas
Ray.

“St. Patrick’s Day is on a Friday this year. I’m preparing
for war,” Ray said.

What makes a bar Irish?

One could be the name, such as Biddy Mulligan’s in Dover.
Owner Mike Murphy said he named it after a legendary Dublin
street vendor — wise, sassy and pugnacious, she was.

Another requirement: an Irish-born owner, at least that’s
what Murphy said. Eleven years ago he came to Dover from
Ireland and opened Biddy Mulligan’s.

Musicians, bagpipers and step dancers are scheduled for
today, his biggest of the year. The crowd ranges from 21
years in age to 60, he said.

“By the time 1 o’clock comes, you can’t wait to get rid of
them. They’re hammered,” he said.

Molly Malone’s opened 15 years ago to this day in
Portsmouth.

“From the minute we open the doors I expect to be full,”
Ray said.

——

Places to party for a good cause:

Nashua Mayor Bernie Streeter’s Wild Irish Breakfast. 7 to 9
a.m., Crowne Plaza, Nashua. Benefits the PLUS Company,
which serves people with disabilities. Tickets $75.

Seventeenth Annual John P. Ganley Memorial/Award Luncheon.
11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Salem Boys & Girls Club. Tickets $35.

Bobby Stephen’s 28th Annual St. Patrick’s Day event. 5
p.m., Executive Court, Manchester. Benefits Jobs for New
Hampshire Graduates Program. Tickets $30.

——

And a last word.

The Children’s Friendship Project for Northern Ireland is
seeking families to host two Northern Ireland teens — one
Protestant, one Catholic —this summer.

All that’s needed is one room, daylong adult supervision
and a safe and neutral environment. Interested? Call Peggy
Barrett at 888-524-0648 or visit www.cfpni.org .

----
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