Available Officer-Fire Life Safety Positions at Columbia

Posted by Jim on April 23, 2019

Easter Week by Joyce Kilmer (In memory of Joseph Mary Plunkett)

Posted by Jim on April 22, 2019

(“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.”)
—from “September 1913” by William Butler Yeats.

“Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone,
It’s with O’Leary in the grave.”
Then, Yeats, what gave that Easter dawn
A hue so radiantly brave?
There was a rain of blood that day,
Red rain in gay blue April weather.
It blessed the earth till it gave birth
To valour thick as blooms of heather.
Romantic Ireland never dies!
O’Leary lies in fertile ground,
And songs and spears throughout the years
Rise up where patriot graves are found.
Immortal patriots newly dead
And ye that bled in bygone years,
What banners rise before your eyes?
What is the tune that greets your ears?
The young Republic’s banners smile
For many a mile where troops convene.
O’Connell street is loudly sweet
With strains of Wearing of the Green.
The soil of Ireland throbs and glows
With life that knows the hour is here
To strike again like Irishmen
For that which Irishmen hold dear.
Lord Edward leaves his resting place
And Sarsfield’s face is glad and fierce.
See Emmet leap from troubled sleep
To grasp the hand of Padraic Pearse!
There is no rope can strangle song
And not for long death takes his toll.
No prison bars can dim the stars
Nor quicklime eat the living soul.
Romantic Ireland is not old.
For years untold her youth shall shine.
Her heart is fed on Heavenly bread,
The blood of martyrs is her wine.

It is with sadness and deep regret that I notify you of the passing of the Father of our beloved Hibernian, Martin Galvin.

Posted by Jim on

My Brothers and Sisters, It is with sadness and deep regret that I notify you of the passing of the Father of our beloved Hibernian, Martin Galvin.

His Father, Martin Galvin, Sr. passed yesterday April 19 at the age of 95.

Wake:

• Monday afternoon from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m.

• Horn and Thomas Inc. Funeral Home. 83 East Main St. Pawling, N.Y. (Dutchess County)

Funeral Mass

• Tuesday morning at 10 a.m.  St. John’s Church. 39 East Main St. Pawling.

In lieu of flowers donations in memory of Marty could be sent to:

Pawling Resource Center
P.O. Box 331
Pawling, N.Y.  or

St. John’s Church
39 East Main St.
Pawling, N.Y.
12564

Please feel free to circulate. Call me with any questions.

Yours in our motto,

Bob

Robert F. Nolan
President
Bronx County Board
Ancient Order of Hibernians in America
347.880.1403

Landmark battle on the cards for European Parliament election

Posted by Jim on April 21, 2019

The election to the European Parliament in the North of Ireland on May
23could be a historic one if two out of three seats are won by
nationalists.

Speculation of a nationalist breakthrough follows the decision of Colum
Eastwood, the leader of the SDLP, to contest for the third seat
following the retirement of Ulster Unionist Party MEP Jim Nicholson.

The outgoing MEPs, Martina Anderson of Sinn Fein and DUP MEP Diane
Dodds, are considered certain to retain their seats, but the destination
of the third seat is highly significant, and could mark a further change
in unionist political control in the Six Counties.

The election will also feature another strong pro-EU candidate, Naomi
Long of the Alliance Party, as well as possibly Jim Allister, leader of
the extreme unionist Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV).

In 2014, the SDLP fell just short of the UUP total, as did the TUV. The
SDLP’s Alex Attwood, who has since retired, only lost out on the eighth
and final count in 2014, when Mr Allister’s transfers got Mr Nicholson
over the line.

This year’s election, to be decided by Single Transferable Vote, may not
even go ahead if a Brexit deal is concluded before election day, May 23.

Mr Eastwood said he was  “seeking to secure a historic second seat
representing the Pro-Europe Majority in Northern Ireland”.

“This is an election like no other,” Mr Eastwood said.

“In June 2016, a majority of people from communities across Northern
Ireland came together to express our clear will that we should remain in
the European Union. It was a vote that, unlike many others, saw people
break free from their traditional trenches to occupy a common ground and
a common identity.

“Since then, the broad progressive coalition that came together has been
sidelined and silenced. Without a government in Belfast and with the DUP
aligned to hard Brexit fanatics in London, people here have been
ignored. Enough is enough.”

Mr Eastwood said the European election should be a referendum on Brexit,
“the North’s People’s Vote”. He said the SDLP “is within striking
distance of the third European seat”. He told BBC Radio Ulster his party
was “best placed” to take a second anti-Brexit seat.

DUP leader Arlene Foster urged unionists to turn out and vote in the
coming elections, warning that if Sinn Fein emerges on top, it will
strengthen calls for a border poll.

“Some claim it does not matter which party you vote for, but you can be
absolutely certain that it would be heralded as a massive success for
republicans and a massive defeat for unionism if unionism was to be
split and republicans were to have a massive win, and use the election
results to strengthen their demand for a border poll,” she added.

Sitting Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson, who topped the poll in 2014 with
more than 25 per cent of first preference votes, described the
forthcoming election as an opportunity to send a message to Brussels,
London and Dublin that the people of Ireland “will not be left behind”.

She said it was a poll the British government “didn’t want to happen”.

“The DUP didn’t want EU elections either – their Brexit involves
stripping people of their rights including the right to vote,” the Sinn
Féin representative said.

“Not only do they refuse rights that everyone else in Britain and
Ireland enjoy, they also want to remove EU rights too.”

BATTLES ON LEFT AND RIGHT

In the 26 Counties, a total of 59 candidates have declared for the
election, including three surprise candidates: prominent left-wing TDs
Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, and right-wing populist Peter Casey.

Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan sitting MEP will face a battle to defend her
seat in Dublin against Daly. Ms Daly’s colleague Mick Wallace also
submitted his nomination papers for Ireland South, where Sinn Fein’s
Presidential candidate Liadh Ni Riada will be looking to hold her seat.

In the vast constituency of Midlands-North West, which stretches from
Donegal to Kildare, a variety of 17 candidates makes the result
difficult to predict.

The sitting MEPs who are running again are Matt Carthy (SF), Luke ‘Ming’
Flanagan (Ind), and Mairéad McGuinness (FG). Fianna Fáil hopes to gain a
seat here by running two TDs, but the dynamics of the contest have been
changed by the surprise presidential runner-up, Peter Casey, who is
running as an independent.

Setting out his reasons for running for election, Mr Casey said: “Rather
than sitting on my hands for a year and waiting for a general
[election], it made more sense to stand now. It is one of those things
where I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. If I sat it out
people would ask me what I have been doing.”

US Congress members to act to defend 1998 deal

Posted by Jim on

A US Congressional delegation visiting Ireland has vowed to use its
influence to stop Brexit from undermining the Good Friday Agreement.

The group, led by House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and
including leading Irish-Americans Richard Neal and Brendan Boyle, marked
21 years since the signing of the treaty.

At a press conference at Stormont, Congressman Neal said the visit had
been useful. “The one position that we all hold is that no wants a
return of a hard [remilitarised] border – we’ve made that as clear as we
can,” he said.

He said the US was a guarantor of the 1998 accord and that he and his
colleagues did want to see the agreement “compromised in any sense or
term”.

Mr Neal said the previous night’s events in Derry, in which journalist
Lyra McKee was killed by a bullet fired during a riot, highlighted “how
fragile the peace can be”.

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, made
similar remarks in a speech in the Dáil yesterday as part of centenary
commemorations.

She added that politicians in the US stand with Ireland as it faces
challenges posed by Brexit – and issued a warning to the UK of future
trade deals.

“We must ensure nothing happens in the Brexit discussion that threatens
the Good Friday accord,” she said. “If the Brexit deal undermines the
accord there will be no chance of a US-UK trade agreement.”

Ms Pelosi said two decades of peace cannot be jeopardised by the Brexit
process.

“We treasure the Good Friday accord because it is not just a treaty, it
is an ethic, it is a value, it is an article of faith for us, it is a
beacon to the world,” she said.

In a separate address at Iveagh House at the Department of Foreign
Affairs, the US politician, the third most powerful in the US after the
president and vice-president, told “our friends in the UK” that a trade
deal between Britain and the US is “just not on the cards” in the event
of a breach of the Good Friday Agreement. “Don’t even think about it,”
she said.

The delegation also visited the border between Derry and Donegal, where
they symbolically walked from British jurisdiction into the 26 Counties.

Speaking to the media, Congressman Neal recalled a previous border
crossing with a former Speaker. “I was on a bus here 30 years ago with
the Speaker of the House, Tom Foley. The bus was stopped and British
soldiers mounted the bus with full night-vision and armament and they
searched the bus.

“Here we are 30 years later with Speaker Pelosi and we accept the result
of the Good Friday Agreement that eliminated the border and we walk back
and forth. At that time you were searched; today your phone pings,” he
said.