Posted by Jim on March 18, 2013
By Brian Feeney (for Irish News)
Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson are in Sao Paulo behind a display of George Best memorabilia, all smiles for the photographers. It won’t do. Everyone here and a lot of people in Brazil know they are conducting a charade at vast public expense. They are like a married couple who maintain a facade for the neighbours but live separate lives inside their own house.
Do they imagine for a second that journalists in Brazil are incapable of telling people the truth about the frozen wasteland at Stormont? In these days of internet and instant communication do they not realise that anyone with the least interest in investing here can see on TV or laptop the images of flag-waving unionists rioting and petrol-bombing police, the most recent occurring as the posing pair jetted off?
Besides, the number of Portuguese and Brazilians living and working in the Dungannon district are more than capable of telling their relatives and friends what’s really going on here.
The whole expensive delusion in Brazil is nothing more than an extension of the political fraud that is going on up at Stormont where nothing is going on. There isn’t enough business to keep the assembly occupied for three days a week, though that hasn’t stopped members – apart from the SDLP – awarding themselves a £5,000-a-year pay rise. We’re going to be treated to regular Brazilian updates as the first minister and the deputy first minister swan around fooling no-one as they pretend everything is rosy in the garden.
It’s a lot more serious than the failure to have anything of substance processed through the seized machinery at Stormont. The behaviour of unionists in the past six months has been appalling.
It began publicly last summer with almost every elected unionist in Belfast, including, disgracefully, First Minister Robinson, repudiating the Parades Commission and thereby implicitly endorsing so-called loyal orders who intended to ignore the Parades Commission rulings.
In December unionists called their cannon fodder out on the streets in spurious protests about flags, leading to attempted murder of police, death threats, millions of pounds lost to business and only reluctantly advised people to stop protests long after the damage had been done.
Many unionist elected representatives participated in the protests and some played a very ambivalent role among violent rioters.
At the bottom of these disgraceful performances lies a deceit propounded by unionists – principally that their ‘Britishness’, which they have been unable to define, is being chipped away, that their values, again undefined, are in danger.
It is disgusting that unionist leaders mislead people so brazenly. They know that the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) ratified by Dublin and London and by a referendum, guarantees their rights as British citizens just as it guarantees people’s Irishness or their right to be both if they wish.
They know also there can be no change in the position of the north without consent of a majority. Yet they dishonestly feed the fears of the mobs blocking roads and attacking police.
What is true is that the DUP never subscribed to the Good Friday Agreement and insisted on having its own version, the St Andrews Agreement. However, they know full well that St Andrews is a mere codicil to the Good Friday Agreement and a fig leaf to enable Paisley to become first minister. Again, misleadingly, DUP figures claim St Andrews is all there is and repudiate all the guarantees of rights and diversity contained in the GFA which is the best deal unionists ever got.
Why do they repudiate these rights, duties and obligations? There are two reasons, both unworthy. One is that if they accept them, it means the other side, them’uns, have to get them too. The other reason, and on the DUP’s record the more likely, is that it doesn’t believe it can or should make any agreement with Sinn Fein until Sinn Fein repents and apologises for the past 40 years. Unionism is blameless.
It’s another way of trying to avoid living on equal terms with the rest of the people in the north which is fundamentally what all the flag-waving and rioting is about. McGuinness and Robinson should stay at home until they’ve got that sorted out.
Posted by Jim on March 14, 2013
By Matthew Bunson senior correspondent for Our Sunday Visitor as it appeared in the NY Daily News Mar. 14th, 2013
There were more than 6,000 accredited journalists in Rome watching a narrow smokestack protruding from the roof of the Sistine Chapel for signs of white or black smoke.
And every rooftop was packed with reporters craning for a view.
There was a profound contradiction in all of this, of course. The media that decamped in Rome was the same powerful megaphone that claims the Catholic Church is not relevant in a modern world.
“Do the Popes matter?” English writer Peter Hebblethwaite asked a generation ago — the question is with us anew.
The answer? The Pope matters.
And he matters not just to the 1.2 billion Catholics who will call him the Vicar of Christ.
The head of the Catholic Church — now known to the world as Pope Francis — oversees the world’s largest charitable effort, feeding millions, caring for the homeless and providing medical care for literally hundreds of millions.
Despite the recent travails of the church, the Pope is still viewed almost universally as a voice for peace, justice and human dignity at a time when the planet confronts thundering drumbeats of war and new crises caused by transnational capitalism, fast-moving globalization and profound ethical questions raised by advances in science and medicine.
Francis’ writings and homilies will provoke study and also criticism — but they will be read. And a pilgrim Pope like Paul VI or especially John Paul II will take his presence and his teachings to the corners of the globe.
Francis will have a voice in the great debates of our time, and even those who disagree with him will nevertheless be unable to dismiss him.
The Pope still matters. Anyone who doubts that only needed to look at the rooftops of Rome.
Posted by Jim on March 12, 2013
ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS
BREHON LAW SOCIETY
IRISH AMERICAN UNITY CONFERENCE
TO: All Concerned and Interested Individuals
FROM: Brendan Moore (AOH President); Thomas J Burke (IAUC President)
Robert Dunne (Brehon Law Society President)
RE: Advocate ending A. G. Holder enforcement of British subpoena of Boston College Irish
records
DATE: March 4, 2013
The struggle against the British misuse of the U. S. Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) is coming to a close. We need you now more than ever to stand up to this injustice. If we don’t win the legal battle or this political battle, America’slaws will have been ignored and citizens will be threatened. The next, and possibly last, legal hurdle will be the acceptance or rejectionof the Writ of Certiorari by the Supreme Court as early as April. We now need a full court press on A. G. Holder, Sec. of State Kerry and Senator Menendez .
PLEASE MAKE PHONE CALLS TO ALL OF THE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS OVER THE NEXT TWO WEEKS UNTIL YOU GET THE LETTER FROM THEM OR THEY DECLINE TO DO SO. CALLS TO SECRETARY KERRY SHOULD REMIND HIM OF LETTER TO CLINTON OBJECTING TO THIS. CALLS TO A. G. HOLDER SHOULD URGE REJECTION OF THE SUBPOENA ENFORCEMENT (SEE 10 Reasons etc).
Phone calls are mandatory to reflect a seriousness of purpose and to identify a contact and e-mail. These leaders were selected not because of a constituency but because of their status as members of Senate Foreign Relations, House Foreign Affairs or Irish-American leaders. All of them have received at least three letters and numerous commentary from us. If you know of a constituent who would also make a phone call that is helpful but it is not necessary. We are making this appeal for their action as members making national policy .
Please remember this is an American issue. The British are corrupting American laws for a political purpose in an attempt to undermine the Irish peace process. The British deceived American officials over this subpoena and over their commitment to the Belfast Agreement. The British would have American’s betray American values of truth and justice to serve their own selfish, arrogant and sinister purposes. Don’t let them get away with it.
If you need anything, please let us know. Action is needed now. For info contact: saoirse64@hotmail.com
KEY SENATE CONTACT PHONE CALLS FOR LETTERS
TO SEC OF STATE , A. G. HOLDER TO STOP BC SUBPOENAS
& TO SEN MENENDEZ FOR HEARING REQUEST ON MLAT
D. C. OFFICE DIST. OFFICE
MASS. SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN d 202-224-4543 617-565-3170
MASS. SENATOR WILLIAM COWAN d 202-224-2742 617-565-8519
NEW YORK SENATOR GILLIBRAND a 202-228-0282 212-688-6262 ELANA BROITMAN
NEW YORK SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER a 202-228-3027 212-486-4430 MARTIN BRENNAN
CONN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL d 202-224-2823 860-258-6940
CONN. CHRISTOPHER MURPHYc, d 202-224-4041 860-549-8463
MARYLAND BEN CARDIN a 202-224-4524 301-860-0414
NEW HAMPSHIRE JEANNE SHAHEEN c 202-224-2841 603-647-7500 CHAD KREIKEMEIR
NEW JERSEY FRANK LAUTENBERG a 202-224-3224 973- 639-8700
NEW JERSEY ROBERT MENENDEZ a, c 202-224-4744 973-645-3030 JODI HERMAN
DAN O”BRIEN
PA. ROBERT CASEY a, c 202-224-6324 570-941-0930DAMIAN MURPHY
PA. PATRICK TOOMEY a 202-224-4254 215-241-1090
CA. BARBARA BOXER d, c202-224-3553 510-286-8537
ILL. RICHARD DURBIN d, c 202-224-2152 312-353-4952
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
U. S. DEPT. OF STATE SEC. JOHN KERRY 202-647-5291
202-647-2972 DAVID MCKEAN
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER 202-514 -3892 GARY GRINDLER
KEY HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES TO CONTACT
MASS. RICHARD NEAL a 202-225-5601 413-785-0325 BILL TRANGHESE
MASS. JOSEPH KENNEDY III d, b 202-225-5931 617-332-3333
NEW YORK ELIOT ENGEL d,b 202–225-2464 914-699-4100 JASON STEINBAUM
NEW YORK JOE CROWLEY a202- 225-3965 718-779-1400
NEW JERSEY ALBIO SIRESa, b202-225-7919 201-823-2900
NEW JERSEY CHRISTOPHER SMITH d,b 202-225-3765 609-585-7878 MARK MILOSOCH
MARY NOONAN
a= sent ltr to Clinton/Holder SENATE FOREIGN RELATION COMMITTEE—202-224-4651
b= member House Foreign Affairs HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE— 202-225-5021
c= member Senate Foreign Relations
d= no previous ltr to Clinton/Holder
Posted by Jim on February 27, 2013
To : Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland
From: Brendan Moore National President: Ancient Order of Hibernians USA
February 26, 2013
The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), America’s largest Irish organization, adds it voice to the scores of other organizations, elected officials and citizens from throughout the world in calling for the immediate release of Marian Price. The AOH is a staunch supporter of the full implementation of the Good Friday agreement and believes that all people in the North of Ireland have the right to peace, truth and justice.
As members of the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland you have the ability to address once and for all the severe injustice that the current legal system has administered to Ms. Price. Based on criteria related to humanitarian and justice grounds there is no justification to deny her parole request. If you are what your board claims to be “an independent body” you need to exhibit that independence and grant parole to Ms. Price.
Ms Price’s medical condition is well known; she is gravely ill, frail, weak and of no possible danger to anyone. Based on your own judgment criteria that if at ‘the end of the hearing, … the panel is satisfied that the level of risk the prisoner poses is no more than minimal, then it is required by law to direct that the prisoner should be released” The board of commissioners needs to go no further than its own established criteria and therefore solely for humanitarian reasons release Ms. Price immediately.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians in America request that you grant parole to Ms. Marian Price.
Posted by Jim on February 26, 2013
The Breezy Point Catholic Club Pipes and Drums
Lost equipment and uniforms.
If you would like to make a contribution to the
Band, please mail donations to:
Terrence F. Williams – Pipe Major
204-25 9th Ave.
Breezy Point, NY 11697
breezypiper@aol.com
checks payable to: The Breezy Point Catholic Club Pipes and Drums