Posted by Jim on November 30, 2018
RADIO FREE EIREANN will broadcast this Saturday December 1st on WBAI Radio 99.5FM or WBAI.ORG at 12 noon-1pm New York time or 5pm-6pm in Ireland or anytime after the program on WBAI.ORG – Archives (scroll back to 12 noon Saturday)
After 993 days of unjust imprisonment, prominent Derry Republican TONY TAYLOR was released and one of the campaign leaders PAUL SCANNELL will describe the Internment by License fiasco,the censorship conditions placed on him and and the threat this case carries towards other Irish Republican political prisoners.
We will have a special review of the IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE production of A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES.
We will play an interview with Ellen McCourt about the making of Frank McCourts children’s book Angela Christmas into an animated movie now playing on Netflix.
We will preview an upcoming WBAI Special Event,staring MALACHY McCOURT and co-host JOHN McDONAGH, with a special intervention by Fr. PAT MALONEY.
Posted by Jim on
Please stop and say a prayer for Carol and the Gillen/Costello Family.
As Carol goes off to Tir N’ anOg. Tir N’anOg is the place of the Blessed. There is no pain. There is no sorrow. There is only great joy. Weep but briefly for your loved one, for by now Carol has obtained a pleasure that is unattainable on this Earthly Realm. For by now our sister Carol has seen the face of God. She is at peace.
Carol served as President of New York County Division 29 of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians (LAOH) and was an active member of the Knights of St. Patrick. She served as Corresponding Secretary for the Irish Institute, and was also a life member of the Cathedral Club of Brooklyn and Queens. As a lifelong educator Carol served four terms as President of the Irish American Heritage and Cultural Committee, New York City Board of Education, where she Chaired/Co-Chaired their Annual St. Patrick’s event at City Hall. Carol served as Treasurer of the NYC St. Patrick’s Parade and Affiliation Committee with distinction and was an outspoken advocate for all things Irish American, especially her beloved New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
In addition, Carol served as a member of the Board of Directors for The Queens Historical Society. Carol is retired from the Department of Education, New York City where she worked as a: Teacher, Staff Developer, Curriculum Developer, Workshop Coordinator and Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of all the Bronx High Schools for 8 years, before serving as School Principal for 10 years.
Our sincerest condolences to Carol’s family; her son Michael Costello, wife Heather, and her cherished granddaughters Amanda & Karina. She is also survived by her sister Rose Gillen Collins and her brothers Neil and James Gillen.
Funeral arrangements: Visitation at Lindenhurst Funeral Home on Thursday 7-9 pm and Friday 2-4pm and 7-9pm, Mass of Christian Burial on Saturday, 9:30 AM at Corpus Christi Church, 31-30 31st St. Woodside, Interment to follow at Maple Grove Cemetery.
The LAOH, The NYC Parade Committee, and AOH will assemble at 7:30pm on Friday evening for our prayer service – please wear your sashes.
Yours in Friendship, Unity, and Christian Charity
Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Inc
Posted by Jim on
Official Communication from the UFA
UFA RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR SPECIAL TICKET OFFER
Madison Square Garden is pleased to provide the UFA with discounted tickets to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular for selected show dates. $10 from each ticket purchased through the link https://www.fevo.com/discovery/UFA-Radio-City-Christmas-Spectacular-Special-Ticket-Offers-ZH8Ojwz3 will go towards the UFA Widows and Children’s Fund. For any questions, or for groups of 9 or more, please contact Evan Doyle at 212-465-3915 or evan.doyle@msg.com.
VIGIANO BROTHERS BRAVEST & FINEST SKI EVENT
The Vigiano Brothers Foundation annual Ski Trip is January 6-10, 2019. Funds raised will be donated in Joe and John Vigiano’s memory to benefit the UFA Scholarship Fund and PBA Children’s Fund. To make reservations, contact Stowe Mountain Lodge in Vermont at 888-478-6938 and reference “2019 Vigiano Ski Event.” Rooms are $150 per person per night, $42.75 for every additional person over minimum occupancy. For more info or questions, call the Vigiano Foundation at 516-900-2057.
A 20 Year Probie Reunion for the February 16, 1999 class will be held on February 21, 2019, from 7:00-10:00 PM, at The Mason Jar, 43 E 30th Street, New York, NY. $80 cash at the door includes open bar and appetizer. For more information, please contact Eric Bischoff at ebischoff@ufanyc.org. Please RSVP and send old photos to nfeatherstone@ufanyc.org.
NEVER FORGET TRIBUTE CLASSIC
Join us for the 3rd Annual Never Forget Tribute Classic at Prudential Center, Newark, NJ, on Saturday, December 8. It’s an amazing NCAA Men’s Basketball doubleheader featuring the Florida State Seminoles vs. the UConn Huskies and the Clemson Tigers vs. the Mississippi State Bulldogs. These highly anticipated matchups will air exclusively on ESPN 2. The Never Forget Tribute Classic is a benefit for the Families of Freedom Fund managed by Scholarship America which supports the educational aspirations of the children of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Families of Freedom Fund was established within one week of the attacks and has since provided more than $150 million in postsecondary education to an entire generation of financially-needy dependents of those killed or permanently disabled in the attacks and their aftermath. Visit PruCenter.com/NFTC2018 and use code FDNY to purchase tickets.
Posted by Jim on November 28, 2018
The UK is not a ‘nation’, despite what Theresa May says
Brian Feeney. Irish News. Belfast. Wednesday, November 28, 2018
At first sight Theresa May’s so-called ‘letter to the nation’ pleading for support for her deal is just another typically provocative and divisive use of the terminology she always chooses to describe the UK which qualifies as a nation under no definition of the word.
However, it’s more than that. Her use of the word ‘nation’ betrays her ugly, nasty, nativist view of the place she lives in, a place now unlike her English idyll.
The UK isn’t a nation, it’s a state. The word state correctly describes the political unit that is the UK which has sovereignty over its territory and the people living there. It’s not a country either. England is a country, so is Scotland and Wales, distinct national entities in political geography. Those three are also nations, composed of people who mainly share a feeling of common national unity, identity or ethnicity, or all three.
As you see, the one that doesn’t fit is the north, an artificial construct, a political invention which is a region of the UK, but not part of Great Britain. Nor is it a nation for it meets no definition of the word, though the BBC thinks it is because the corporation is too lazy to think of a more precise definition or qualification. Loyalists think the north is a country because it’s an area given to their ancestors 97 years ago which they designated as their country, or colloquially, ‘our wee country’.
There’s another difference about the north. It’s the only part of the UK state which is entitled by law to secede from the UK when a simple majority votes to do so. Now the north has the additional attraction that the vote to secede automatically creates a parachute to float back into the EU. How long do you think it will take to sew the parachute? Five years? Ten? Or less, given that the backstop means the north remains in effect in the EU?
Not everyone knows the north’s peculiar position, especially British politicians. One egregious example is Shailish Vara who resigned as a junior minister here a fortnight ago in opposition to Theresa May’s Brexit policy. Vara said it was important that the north retained its place in Great Britain. Hah.
And there you see the nonsense of this place. A person you never heard of, resigned from a job you didn’t know he had, and he had the nerve to take decisions about a place where he had not a single vote and didn’t even know its status. Sounds a bit like the colossus of intellect that is our present proconsul [ Northern Ireland Secretary of State]
Now, back to Theresa May, who presides over this place [Northern Ireland] for the time being. May doesn’t like immigration. In fact, she has knocked her brains out for eight years to try to stop it. She it was who was responsible for the infamous ‘hostile environment’ policy which made the lives of people from the West Indies a misery. It was on her watch that the vans with appalling notice boards saying ‘Go home or face arrest’ toured London streets.
May, the nativist, sees England, and only England, as her country, her nation. In none of her speeches has she ever acknowledged the existence of either Scottish or Irish nationalists trapped for the present in the UK state. She conflates England, Britain and the UK interchangeably. Occasionally her true feeling blurts out as when she said in an attack on Remainers, ‘If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere.’
Her hostility to immigrants is the main driving force and USP [abbreviation of “unique selling point”] behind her Brexit deal. She insisted on leaving the single market and customs union for that reason, and that’s the reason for the backstop. You can’t stop freedom of movement and stay in the single market. May could have kept the whole UK in the customs union and single market by any other name or subterfuge, but the price of ending free movement was to lose The North to the single market.
Obviously, given her nativism, her atavistic Englishness, her antipathy to immigration, she opted to jettison freedom of movement. Keep single market rules for the UK or keep The North? No brainer.
Posted by Jim on
Derry republican Tony Taylor, released as his internment by the British
approached a significant one thousand days, was released this evening
after a day of tense last-minute negotiations around the details of his
release.
Restrictions placed on the lifelong republican political activist
include a broad media censorship, as well as a threat of re-imprisonment
if the British government believe he has breached his release ‘licence’,
the details of which have not been released.
Speaking in a video clip uploaded to social media from their family home
in Derry, Mr Taylor’s wife Lorraine, said: “I’m delighted to have Tony
home. Thank God my nightmare is finally over. I’d just like to thank the
people in Derry for their faith, for all their campaigning for Tony and
for all their support through the two and a half years.
“It’s been a long process but I’m glad now they’ve made the decision to
let him home. An early Christmas present for us all.”
Speaking off camera, Mr Taylor said he was delighted to be reunited with
his family.
“Due to strict conditions on myself I have to be very careful what I
say, I can’t really talk about my internment or anything around that at
all,” he said.
“It’s great to be home again. It’s great to be here with my mother and
father, I’m delighted to be back with them and I know that they’ve
missed me a lot. They are up in age, I’ve always been there for them and
I want to continue to do that.
“Between them and my own family, I’m sure I’ll be kept right and busy,
my mother’s already got jobs for me and I’m only out a couple of hours.
We’re all back together again and that’s the main thing.”