18TH ANNUAL CHIEF BARBARA NIGHT WITH THE STATEN ISLAND YANKEES
Come watch the Staten Island Yankees play on Saturday, June 15, 2019, at 7:00 PM at the Richmond County
Ballpark. Join us for this night, celebrating the life and legacy of Chief Jerry Barbara. All members, their families and friends are invited to attend. For ticket information visit www.siyanks.com. Admission is $20 and includes hot dog, chips and soda. The night will also include a ceremonial first-pitch by Chief Barbara’s daughter and son and a spectacular pre-game fireboat water display & post-game fireworks show.
FDNY MARINE CORPS ASSOCIATION FISHING OUTING
The FDNY Marine Corps Association’s 6th Annual LCpl Buckley Memorial Fishing Outing will be held on Monday, June 17, from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. Participants will board the Captree Star III (Captree Boat Basin) and depart at 9:00 AM sharp. Space is limited, so it will be on a first come, first serve basis. Cost is $100 for adults, and $65 for kids under 16. For reservations, contact Joe Bachert at 631-605-1444 or John Newman at 631-291-3499.
NYC FIRE MUSEUM PLAQUE DEDICATION
On Wednesday, June 19, 2019, the New York City Fire Museum will dedicate a seedling from the World Trade Center Survivor Tree in memory of FDNY members, other First Responders and New Yorkers who have died from illnesses attributed to their work at the World Trade Center after September 11, 2001. The plaque dedication ceremony will begin promptly at 0900 hours at the Museum, located at 278 Spring Street, Manhattan. Off-duty members are invited to attend in dress uniform.
HAPPY HOUR FOR FRIENDS OF FIREFIGHTERS AT LT. JOHN SIERP’S HOME BASE BISTRO
The staff and board of Friends of Firefighters invite all FDNY members to join them on Friday, June 21, for the happiest of happy hours at Lt. John Sierp’s Home Base Bistro, 416 3rd Avenue, New York, NY 10016. From 5:30-10:00 PM, enjoy food and drink specials with 20% of the evening’s sales being donated to Friends of Firefighters. Learn more by visiting www.friendsoffirefighters.org. Register in advance at friendsoffirefighters.eventbee.com.
LT. JOSEPH GULLICKSON MEMORIAL PICNIC
On Saturday, June 22, 2019, the annual Lt. Joseph Gullickson Memorial Picnic will be held at Nansen Park, 3465 Victory Blvd, Staten Island, NY, from 12:00 – 6:00 PM. Admission is $40 for adults, $10 for children ages 6-14, children 5 and under are free. Admission price includes all-day BBQ, unlimited beverages, DJ, games and prizes. For tickets and information, call Robert Gullickson at 732-580-4215 or visit www.themaverickfoundation.com.
STREET RENAMING CEREMONYTomorrow, Friday, June 14, 2019, at 1000 hours, a Street Renaming Ceremony will be held honoring the memory of Assistant Chief Ronald R. Spadafora, Chief of Fire Prevention, who died on June 23, 2018. The ceremony will be held at the intersection of 90th Street and Rockaway Blvd., in Queens, NY. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform. MEMORIAL MASSOn Friday, June 21, 2019, at 1100 hours, a Memorial Mass will be held honoring the memory of Firefighter Daniel F. Pujdak, L-146, who made the supreme sacrifice on June 21, 2007. The mass will take place at St. Cecilia’s Church, 84 Herbert Street, Brooklyn, NY. All off-duty members and their families are invited to attend. Members are requested to attend in dress uniform. FDNY DAY AT SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURESix Flags Great Adventure will host FDNY Appreciation Day on Saturday, June 22, 2019. Special FDNY discount admission of $35.99, (regular admission $81.99), includes Shilelagh Law Band Concert. Other exciting activities include: FDNY-led Parade and fireworks. Proceeds benefit the FDNY Family Transport Foundation. For tickets, visit www.sixflags.com/greatadventure. Be sure to use promotion code FDNY. A percentage of each ticket sold through this link will be donated back to the FDNY Family Transport Unit. FDNY BROOKLYN CYCLONES NIGHTThe 19th Annual FDNY Night will be held at 7:00 PM on Friday, June 28, 2019, at MCU Park in Coney Island. Come out and watch the Brooklyn Cyclones. Pre-game activities begin at 6:30 PM with the Ceremonial Pitch by Chief of EMS Operations Lillian Bonsignore. Post-game fireworks display. $25 package includes: Field Box Seat, $10 Food & Beverage Credit, Limited Edition Hat, Portion of ticket proceeds to benefit EMS FDNY Help Fund, Children can participate in Field of Dreams Program, First 2,000 fans receive a Noah Syndergaard Bobblehead. *Pre and Post game party in Coney Island Brewing Co. (below the stadium). Special FD beers, discounts and music! For tickets, visit https://offer.fevo.com/cyclones-vs-lowell-svdxmue-85c2800?fevoUri=cyclones-vs-lowell-svdxmue-85c2800.
A true legend of the Irish Republican Army, Billy McKee, has passed away at the age of 98. A founding member and former leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), he fought in several eras of the struggle and remained committed to the cause of liberation until his death. Mr McKee was born in Belfast in 1921. At the age of 18, he joined the anti-treaty Irish Republican Army and took part in the IRA’s campaign north of the border, the Northern Campaign, in the early 1940s. He was captured and imprisoned in Crumlin Road Gaol until 1946. On his release, he remained a committed Volunteer and took part in the Border Resistance Campaign in the 1950s, when he was again imprisoned. Upon his release, he became Officer Commanding (OC) of the IRA’s Belfast Brigade. In the 1960s, he became disillusioned with the IRA’s shift towards Marxism, and following the 1969 burning of Bombay Street in Belfast by loyalists with the support of the RUC, he became a founding member of the breakaway Provisional IRA, becoming its first OC in Belfast. In 1970, he led a heroic and legendary action to defend St Matthew’s Church in east Belfast from loyalist attack. Captured and imprisoned once again in April 1971, he led a hunger strike protest to win recognition for IRA prisoners as political prisoners. When McKee was close to death, then Home Secretary William Whitelaw conceded the equivalent Special Category Status. Mr McKee was released in September 1974 and took part in secret peace talks involving the British government in Derry and in County Clare alongside then Sinn Féin leader Ruairi O Bradaigh. In 1977 amid internal upheaval he was voted off the IRA Army Council and ultimately remained with Republican Sinn Féin following their split with Sinn Féin in 1986. He remained an advocate of armed struggle and continued to support the new breakaway IRA groups following the ceasefire and dissolution of the Provisional IRA. He continued to attend republican events and took part in occasional media interviews until recent years. Speaking later in life Mr McKee said he had no regrets about his IRA past. “From I was 15 until 65 I was in some way involved. I have had plenty of time since to think if I was right or I was wrong. I regret nothing,” he said. “If I was the young man today I would be with the group that would be the proper IRA. “I would never condemn them in any way, my heart and soul is with them.” Independent republican Cait Trainor and a friend of Mr McKee said he “was known and loved by many” and “left for us a wonderful legacy that will continue to inspire Republicans for generations to come.” Republican Sinn Féin paid tribute, sending their “deepest sympathy to the family and comrades” of IRA Volunteer Billy McKee. Ar dheis dé go raibha anam dílis.
“Imagine
if a presidential candidate loved to sing anti-Black or anti-Semitic songs?
Wouldn’t that rightly cause deep and outright revulsion?Well,
turns out, one of the leading “pretenders to the throne” —that is, in the
upcoming race to be British PM—loves to belt out anti-Catholic and anti-Irish
songs.
The
attached article from today’s Irish News of Belfast reveals that extreme right-wing
Michael Gove glories in belting out the best-known Orange supremacist/anti-Catholic song of
all: “The Sash My Father Wore,” the chorus of which bellows:
‘It
is old but it is beautiful, and its colors they are fine
It was
worn at Derry, Aughrim, Enniskillen and the Boyne.
From my
orange and purple forefather, it descended with galore
It’s a
terror to them Papish [Catholic] boys,
The Sash My Father Wore.’
However,
to this Fermanagh man, while Gove’s bigotry is offensive, it is not surprising.
In 1886 Churchill’s father Randolph infamously played the “Orange Card’:
inciting and exploiting anti-Catholic hatred in Ireland for political advantage
(like Governor George Wallace inciting anti-Black bigotry). And Winston
Churchill himself was a noted anti-Catholic bigot, writing: ‘Superstitious
faith in nations rarely promotes their industry…[Catholicism] … checks our growth and saps our strength
[impeding]
the improvement of the British breed …’ In 1911, Churchill wrote:
“The Catholic Church has ruined every country in which it has been supreme
….” In 1961, Churchill’s biographer
son—without any sense of embarrassment or shame— published that letter under
the very revealing title of ‘The Curse of Catholicism.’
Imagine if an American president wrote of the
‘curse of Judaism,’ or the ‘ curse of Islam,’or the ‘curse of Blacks,’ etc., etc? How can the Beloved Community in Northern
Ireland be built up when a leading Tory like Gove proudly sings about his own
anti-Catholic bigotry?” —Fr. Sean
McManusMichael Gove happy to sing The Sash, book revealsIrish News. Belfast.Tuesday, June 11, 201911 June, 2019
TORY leadership hopeful Michael Gove has a long-held fascination with the Troubles and knew the words to loyalist anthem The Sash, a new biography reveals.
Sean O’Grady, a journalist who worked alongside the environment minister, recalls an eye-opening visit to Mr Gove’s London flat in the 1990s.
“He had an enormous cartoon of the Ulster Unionist Party in parliament – a great big Orange banner type of affair,” Mr O’Grady told Owen Bennett, author of Michael Gove: A Man in a Hurry.
Mr O’Grady, associate editor of the Independent, says Mr Gove’s politics were “quite Orange”.
He remembers the former education secretary’s enthusiasm for unionism was a “bit odd”‘, adding: “he’d be perfectly happy to sing along with Orange songs – ‘the sash my father wore’, all that sort of stuff.”
Others too have witnessed Mr Gove belting out loyalist tunes.
Mike Elrick, who trained with him as a journalist, remembers the Conservative leadership contender as “very, very strongly supportive of Ulster Protestantism, and very much sided with the Protestant political parties”.
“I remember him singing various Ulster songs – partly in jest, but he knew the words,” he recalled.
Subscribe to our most read headlines in the evening newsletter In 2000, former journalist Mr Gove wrote a pamphlet called ‘Northern Ireland: the Price of Peace’, in which he compared the Good Friday Agreement to the appeasement of the Nazis in the 1930s and the condoning of the desires of paedophiles.
The Scottish-born Brexiteer said the agreement was a “mortal stain” and “a humiliation of our army, police and parliament”, and that its 1998 endorsement on both sides of the border was a “rigged referendum”.
FDNY BRAVEST FOOTBALL TO PLAY NYPD FINEST FOR CHAMPIONSHIP
The FDNY Bravest Football Club will be playing the NYPD Finest Football Club for the 2019 NPSFL Championship. This game will be a rematch of this year’s Fun City Bowl where the Bravest defeated the Finest by a score of 27-21. The Championship Game is being played on Friday night, June 21, with kickoff scheduled for 6:00 PM. The game is being played at Mitchel Athletic Complex, 1 Charles Lindbergh Boulevard, Uniondale, NY 11553. Admission will be $10 with children under 12 free. Come out and cheer on the Bravest as they try to make history by becoming the first of these teams to beat the other twice in a single season!
FIREFIGHTER CAREER DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION SESSION
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Office of Recruitment/Mentoring is hosting a Firefighter Career Development Information Session on Wednesday, June 12, 2019, from 1100 to 1400 hours, at the Fire Academy, Building 9 – Auditorium. This event is open to all active FDNY Firefighters. Chief Thomas Richardson, Chief of Operations, will be the keynote speaker, along with representatives from several units in Fire Operations, discussing career possibilities for active firefighters. All questions about the event should be emailed to firepromo@fdny.nyc.gov or can be directed to 718-999-3369.
LEMM FOUNDATION MEMORIAL COPS VS. CELEBRITY 2019 SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT
There will be a Softball Tournament on Thursday, June 13, 2019, to honor Det. Joseph Lemm, killed in military action in Afghanistan in 2015, and Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo, killed in the line of police duty in 2016. The Precinct and Military Playoff Games start at 1:00 PM, and the final’s opening ceremony will start at 5:30 PM at Juniper Valley Park in Queens. There will be a live performance by country and western legend Lee Greenwood, and the event will also feature radio and football great Boomer Esiason versus the NYPD and various celebrity participants. The event will kick off the Joseph Lemm Memorial Foundation, which has the mission of honoring U.S. First Responders, raising awareness of their service and sacrifice, and providing scholarships for those pursuing a career in civil service and the United States Military. A post-game party will be held at O’Neill’s at 64-21 53rd Drive in Maspeth, NY 11378. $25 cover at O’Neill’s includes beer, wine, soda and light fare. There will be a chance to win a Derek Jeter World Series ring and other items! Proceeds will benefit the Joseph Lemm Memorial Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 charity.
18TH ANNUAL “FOREVER RUNNING” MEMORIAL RUN
To keep the memory of DC Raymond M. Downey and all the victims of September 11th alive, the annual “Forever Running” Memorial 5K Run/Walk and ¼ mile Kids Fun Run will be held on Father’s Day, June 16, 2019, in Deer Park, Long Island. The 5K run begins at 9:30 AM and the Kids Fun Run at 9:00 AM. Pre-registration fee for 5K run is $25, for students grades K-12, $22. Kids Fun Run is free. Special awards, raffle prizes, carnival entertainment and a family barbecue will follow the run. All proceeds benefit the DC Raymond M. Downey Scholarship Charity Fund. For race applications and information, log onto www.chiefraymonddowney.com (events) or http://runsignup.com/Race/NY/DeerPark/RayDowney5K. For more information, call BC Joe Downey, 631-877-0310 or BC Chuck Downey, 631-413-4653.
FIRE LIFE SAFETY DIRECTOR SECURITY POSITION OPEN AT MONTEFIORE
Montefiore Medical Center Security Department is currently seeking candidates for the Position of Fire Safety Security Officer with Fire Life Safety Director License. If interested, please call or email Security Hiring Manager Hector Rivera at 718-920-6131 or hectrive@montefiore.org.
