Author: Ruth Swift

The 2015 Irish Network USA Annual Conference was held in Boston last weekend, to resounding acclaim from attendees and speakers. The conference coincided with the fifth anniversary for the Boston chapter, a group which has worked to promote an enduring link between Ireland and the United States.

This conference was the third hosted by INUSA, with the first two being held in Washington, D.C. and Austin, Texas respectively. These conferences provide an opportunity for INUSA members to hear from a variety of speakers on topics related to INUSA’s mission.

Irish Network USA, which now has over 20 chapters, with more than 5,000 members, is continuing to grow and its presence and influence, reaching across the US and now also Dublin. This year for the first time, delegates from the new Irish Network Dublin (IN-Dublin) were also in attendance.

In a statement issued by the President of IN-Boston, Sean Moynihan, said the group “has a sincere commitment to engaging the Irish diaspora – including Irish born, Irish Americans and friends of Ireland. Our goal is to celebrate our mutual interests in Irish culture, business, education, and social/community initiatives by providing opportunities and experiences for all of our members. Our network was one of the first chapters to be founded under our umbrella organization, Irish Network USA (IN USA), which is now 20 chapters strong and continues to grow.”

There was impressive lineup of keynote speakers, notably Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, Anne Anderson and Mark Redmond, Chief Executive of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, and Joanna Murphy, CEO of Connect Ireland.

Panels and speakers this year also included Gary Hanley of Invest Northern Ireland, Mark Gallagher of Silicon Valley Bank, Professor Liam Kennedy of the UCD Clinton Institute of American Studies, and Stewart Matthews of the Northern Ireland Bureau.

The conference was also host to the 5th anniversary of IN Boston, and was celebrated in style at the State House. Photos below!

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”30″ gal_title=”2015 5th Anniversary Party”]

The Irish government will maintain the level of support it provides to diaspora communities abroad, Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan confirmed on Tuesday after the Irish budget was unveiled.

“I am also extremely pleased that in line with our recently launched diaspora policy Global Irish, Budget 2016 will see my department maintain its steadfast support for Irish community and diaspora groups in very many corners of the world through €11.6 million in funding under the Emigrant Support Program,” said Flanagan.

The budget also provided funding for ongoing modernization of the Passport Service, and further development of consular assistance capacities.

Flanagan also confirmed that Irish job creation, export growth and promoting Ireland’s attractiveness for investment, tourism and education will remain and develop as key priorities for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Ireland’s network of diplomatic missions. A seven percent increase in Official Development Aid budget has brought the overall budget up to €640 million.

Flanagan also committed to ensuring that Ireland’s consular services abroad remain strong and ready for immediate assistance. He said some 1,600 Irish citizens each year seek consular assistance while abroad – the most tragic in the U.S. this year being the Berkeley balcony collapse that resulted in the deaths of five Irish students and one Irish American.

Maureen O’Hara, who died on Saturday, was Ireland’s first great Hollywood star and appeared in over 50 films.

Ranked among the world’s most beautiful women, she is best known in Ireland for her role as the headstrong Mary Kate Danaher in The Quiet Man – “the sexiest film ever made” according to the director John Ford.

He initially approached her to star in the film in the mid-1940s, but it was not made until Ford, O’Hara and John Wayne first agreed to make a western to satisfy Republic Pictures’ executives. The chemistry between Wayne and O’Hara that was apparent in that film, Rio Grande (1950), was even more in evidence in The Quiet Man.

Her flaming red hair often led to her being cast as fiery-tempered characters and Wayne learnt that she did indeed have a temper.

She was born Maureen FitzSimons on August 20th 1920 in Ranelagh, Dublin, the second of the six children of Charles Stewart Parnell FizSimons and his wife Marguerita.

Her father, a businessman, was a co-owner of Shamrock Roversfootball club, and her mother was a noted couturiere and an accomplished contralto.

A natural athlete, she excelled at sports. She also had a flair for acting and won many prizes at feiseanna.

At the age of 12 she made her broadcasting debut and within two years she was performing with the Dublin Operatic Society. Accepted by the Abbey School of Acting, she looked forward to a stage career.

However, a chance meeting with the film producer Harry Richman led to a screen test in London and to a seven-year contract with Charles Laughton. She had small roles in two British films in 1938, Kicking the Moon Aroundand My Irish Molly.

Laughton suggested that she should change her surname to O’Hara – to better suit cinema hoardings – and cast her as his co-star in the 1939 film version of Jamaica Inn, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Her athleticism enabled her to perform physical feats that few actresses would attempt, from fencing to fisticuffs. She insisted on doing her own stunt work.

The picture of health, she was a natural for the title-role in Lady Godiva (1955) in which she made the famous bareback horse ride wearing only her long tresses. But she was adamant that she would never appear nude in a film, not even for a million dollars.

Subsequent films included Our Man in Havana (1960), The Parent Trap (1961) andSpencer’s Mountain (1963). She was reunited with Wayne in McClintock! (1963), appearing opposite him for the last time in Big Jake (1971). She then retired from screen acting.

Her third marriage, to Charles Blair in 1968, brought her much happiness. A former US air force colonel, Blair captained the last scheduled flight out of Foynes and was the first commercial pilot to fly into Shannon Airport.

The couple ran a commuter seaplane service in the Caribbean. Following her husband’s death in a plane crash in 1978, she took over the business, becoming the first woman president of a commercial airline in the United States. She also published a monthly magazine, The Virgin Islander.

She strongly disapproved of what she termed “permissive” films, describing them as “wrong, downgrading and bad”. And feminism was not really necessary. “Women were liberated the day they were born. Any woman can turn a man around her little finger. Even a little girl can do it to her daddy.”

She was coaxed out of retirement in 1991 to play John Candy’s domineering mother inOnly the Lonely. She stole the show and was nominated for an Oscar. It was her last film and she bowed out of television in 2000.

A long-time resident of St Croix in the Virgin Islands, she was a regular visitor to Ireland and for a time kept a holiday home in Glengarriff, Co Cork. At her insistence the European premiere of Only the Lonely was held in Limerick, and she chose Adare for her 80th birthday celebrations.

She was in 1988 awarded an honorary LL.D. degree by the National University of Ireland. She was further honoured in 2004, both at the Galway Film Fleadh and by theIrish Film Institute.

Her autobiography ‘Tis Herself was published in the same year.

O’Hara was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame at an event in Wexford in 2011 and received an Honorary Award at the 2014 Oscars ceremony.

Her daughter Bronwyn survives her.

The 6th annual Boston Irish Honors luncheon will take place on Fri., Oct. 23, at 11:45 a.m. at the Seaport Hotel/Boston World Trade Center.

The 2015 honorees are: Boston Police Commissioner William Evans and his brothers, Paul, John, Thomas and James; Mike Sheehan, chief executive officer, The Boston Globe; and Margaret Stapleton, retired vice president, John Hancock Insurance and Financial Services, past president Eire Society, and longtime Pine Street Inn volunteer.

Since October 2010, the Boston Irish Reporter has sponsored this annual event. It’s an inspiring luncheon to recognize and celebrate exemplary Irish individuals and their families who share our heritage in Boston and Ireland.

The 35-member luncheon committee will be chaired by Jim Brett, president of the New England Council. Serving as honorary chair are US Senator Ed Markey and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. Program moderator will be Boston Red Sox “poet laureate” Dick Flavin.

Other committee members are Breandán O Caollaí, Ireland Consul General, Aidan Browne, William M. Bulger, John Burke, James Carmody, John T. Carroll, Della O’Flaherty Costello, Steve Costello, Jay Curley, Brendan Feeney, John Philip Foley, Bill Forry, state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry, Maureen Forry-Sorrell, Anne Geraghty, David Greaney, John B. Hynes III, Edris Kelley, William F. Kennedy, Rev. Thomas B. Kennedy, Mimi and Paul LaCamera, Joe Leary, Bill McNally, Roseanne and Peter Meade, Sean Moynihan, Gil Sullivan, Bobby White, and W. Paul White.

Past Honorees: (2014) Katherine Craven, Mayor Marty Walsh, and the Burke family of South Boston; (2013) State Senate President Therese Murray, John P. Driscoll Jr. (posthumously,) and Gerry and Bob Mulligan & family; (2012) Congressman Richard Neal, Brendan and Greg Feeney, and the Mary and Bob Muse family; (2011) Former Boston Police Commissioner Kathleen O’Toole, State Sen. Tom Kennedy (RIP,) the Joseph Corcoran family, the James Hunt family and the Thomas Mulvoy family; (2010) Congressman Ed Markey, John Donohue, the Brett family, the Tom & Peg Geraghty family, and the Mayor John B. Hynes family.

World championship is taking place in Glenview, IL on Monday 19th & Tuesday 20th of October

Rob Hogan, a Golf Professional in Ireland is the current Number 1 in World Speed Golf.

SpeedGolf is a growing sport, as it combines the world of athletics & golf and has followings in the US, UK, Japan & Australia. Many of the golfing networks & national media outlets have covered the sport to some degree in recent years.

Rob has gained significant success to date in his short career, claiming the World Championship title in 2013 & Runner up spot in 2014. He competed and succeeded against notable names from within the athletic world, including competitors from the Beijing Olympics. This year the World championship is taking place in Glenview, IL on Monday 19th & Tuesday 20th of October.

While Rob has achieved success on a wider stage his achievements have thus far gone unnoticed at home. Interest in Golf in Ireland is generally limited to the traditional R&A Game & the tourist market.

Rob would welcome any assistance, be it from local media coverage, course knowledge, offers of accommodation or modest sponsorship.

Ultimately, Rob is looking to ensure that he can compete this year with a clear focus on just the sporting challenge.

A “homecoming” celebration of Dublin’s All-Ireland football success will be held on Monday evening in the capital.

The Lord Mayor, Críona Ní Dhálaigh and Dublin City Council will host the celebration on O’Connell Street.

The Dublin team won its 25th all-Ireland title on Sunday at Croke Park, beating Kerry by 12 points to nine.

The event is due to begin at 7.15pm on Monday and will centre on a stage to be erected to the south of the Spire.

The team will arrive on an open-top bus and will be joined in the celebrations by their backroom staff and the Dublin County Board.

Ms Ní Dhálaigh congratulated the team on their great win.

“I would like to pay tribute to the players, management, backroom staff and sponsors, for all their work through the year to bring us to this great day, and to Dublin fans who brought such great passion to the ground,” she said.

“I’d also like to acknowledge the wonderful contribution that the Kerry team and supporters made to what was truly a great spectacle today, where football was the ultimate winner.”

She said she was looking forward to welcoming the Dublin team to O’Connell Street where “we can let them know how much we appreciate their great efforts”.

Public access to the event will be confined to three access points via O’Connell Street Lower, Middle Abbey Street and Lower Abbey Street.

There will be no public access from O’Connell Street Upper or from any other side streets off O’Connell Street.

The local authority said the event will be family-friendly and alcohol-free. It is encouraging people to use public transport to travel and to be prepared for changeable weather.

A “homecoming” celebration of Dublin’s All-Ireland football success will be held on Monday evening in the capital.

The Lord Mayor, Críona Ní Dhálaigh and Dublin City Council will host the celebration on O’Connell Street.

The Dublin team won its 25th all-Ireland title on Sunday at Croke Park, beating Kerry by 12 points to nine.

The event is due to begin at 7.15pm on Monday and will centre on a stage to be erected to the south of the Spire.

The team will arrive on an open-top bus and will be joined in the celebrations by their backroom staff and the Dublin County Board.

Ms Ní Dhálaigh congratulated the team on their great win.

“I would like to pay tribute to the players, management, backroom staff and sponsors, for all their work through the year to bring us to this great day, and to Dublin fans who brought such great passion to the ground,” she said.

“I’d also like to acknowledge the wonderful contribution that the Kerry team and supporters made to what was truly a great spectacle today, where football was the ultimate winner.”

She said she was looking forward to welcoming the Dublin team to O’Connell Street where “we can let them know how much we appreciate their great efforts”.

Public access to the event will be confined to three access points via O’Connell Street Lower, Middle Abbey Street and Lower Abbey Street.

There will be no public access from O’Connell Street Upper or from any other side streets off O’Connell Street.

The local authority said the event will be family-friendly and alcohol-free. It is encouraging people to use public transport to travel and to be prepared for changeable weather.

It is late September at the end of the tourism season. Most of the tourists have gone home. Yet in Lisdoonvarna there is not a hotel room to be had, nor a car parking space in the whole of the narrow streets. The rain is sheeting down. There is so much music coming from every doorway that it seems to create a solid wall of noise, country and Irish noise mostly.

This is the third and busiest weekend of the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival. The international curiosity towards this idiosyncratic and very Irish festival grows with every passing year. TLC are making a documentary, Channel 4’s Pixie McKenna from Embarrassing Bodies was there on Saturday. There is a French film crew staying the weekend.

Presiding over it all is the bearded sage of matchmakers Willie Daly. He holds court in the snug of the Matchmaker pub in Lisdoonvarna. People come to shake his hand, get their picture taken and touch the dog-eared matchmaking book, with pens prodding out of the pages, which has been in his family for more than 100 years. The story goes that if you are single and put your two hands on the book, you will be married in six months. It is much in demand.

Those looking for love fill out an application form. Willie scribbles notes on them in red. One encircled reads “lovely girl”.

The odds are in her favour. The ratio of men to women is about two to one. They trust in Willie. “Hopefully, at the end of the day they’ll get a little wife to help out around the house,” he says.

The British are all about “dancing not romancing”, he believes, the Americans are all about “romancing” and the Irish visitors come for “dancing, romancing and drinking”. There is plenty of drinking. Every pub is full.

Florrie O’Sullivan from Castletownbere, Co Cork, has been coming to the festival since 1974. The 41 years in between has not dimmed his quest for love. “I’ve met a lot of women here in my time. I met one last year but we were too far apart. She lived in Roscommon and I’m in Cork. That’s just the way it goes.”

Janet McAtee from Kansas City is on a family vacation with her sister, brother and father. “I heard about Willie. I’m looking for love,” she said.

She has two grown up daughters and four grandchildren. She wants a man who “loves family, with a good heart who is honest and loyal.”

Some are looking for first love, others for a second chance. A lot are just curious.Juliana Weiss (21) from New York came down from NUI Galway, where she is studying, to see what all the fuss is about. “There’s absolutely nothing like this in the United States. Of course I had to come.” She’s not looking to settle down just yet. She laughs: “My grandparents would be thrilled, but no.”

The conviviality and atmosphere of it all is an old-fashioned comfort in comparison with online dating. “The internet has ruined dating,” said one woman who didn’t want to give her name, “it’s all about sex”.

The next weekend will be the last for straight people. The first weekend of October will be the annual “Outing” festival for gay people which will have a particular significance given the passage of the marriage equality referendum earlier this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Ireland and the US from September 23-29.

In posts on Facebook, Modi said he will be going to Ireland on September 23 – in the first visit by an Indian prime minister in almost 60 years – and hold talks with Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny.

“We hope to further develop strong people-to-people and economic ties with Ireland in the years to come. In Ireland, I will also interact with the Indian community,” he wrote.

On September 24, Modi will travel to the US. In New York City, Modi will address the UN Sustainable Development Summit for formal adoption of post-2015 new sustainable development agenda. “Coming from a culture that regards harmony as central to its ethos, I am glad to have an opportunity to address this forum. The new goals are closely aligned with India’s vision for sustainable development and our flagship programmes for the same.”

Revealing he will also participate in a summit hosted by President Obama on peacekeeping, he noted that India has been one of the largest contributors to UN peacekeeping forces, with over 180,000 troops – more than from any other country.

“We are proud of our peacekeeping forces spread across the world, ensuring peace in difficult circumstances. I will pay homage to all those brave men and women who sacrificed their lives for peace. And I look forward to sharing my thoughts on how to make peacekeeping more effective,” he wrote.

Modi also said that India will host a summit of G-4 leaders in New York where the main agenda would be the UNSC reforms and the UN’s 70th anniversary “is an appropriate moment for reform discussions to be accelerated” as the General Assembly has finally adopted a document that would form the basis of formal discussions on this matter.

He said he will be meeting several world leaders and also hold interactions with leading investors and financial sector firms, including a working dinner where major Fortune-500 companies will be present to deliberate on investment opportunities in India. “We have been interacting with several American business leaders over the last year and the outcomes have been encouraging,” he said.

He also said that he will be visiting the West Coast on September 26-27 and participate in several programmes. “It would be after a gap of almost 33 years that an Indian PM would be visiting the west coast – the home of start-ups, innovation and technology.”

Modi said he will also be part of a Townhall Q&A at the Facebook HQ along with Mark Zuckerberg, and this was an event “you shouldn’t miss”.

“I have already invited you all to share your questions through Facebook or the ‘Narendra Modi Mobile App.’ I will also see some recent technological innovations at the Google (Alphabet) campus and Tesla Motors. I will address a Renewable Energy Roundtable with USDOC and Stanford University.”

He said he is also enthusiastic about the ‘India-US Start-up Konnect’. “India is emerging as a hub of start-ups in a wide range of areas and we aspire to take this further. We want the world to see our innovation capabilities in the start-up sector. At this event, a group of Indian start-ups will showcase their innovations and forge partnerships with the vibrant American start-up industry. ”

In San Jose, he will interact with the Indian community on September 27. “The Indian diaspora has left no stone unturned in strengthening India-USA ties. We are very proud of the accomplishments of our diaspora that has made immense contributions to both our societies,” he said, adding hope his US visit will be fruitful and further deepen bilateral bonds.

Primark opened its first U.S. store this week at Downtown Crossing in Boston. The first Primark store (known as Penneys in Ireland) opened in Dublin in 1969. Primark operates 292 stores and employs over 62,000 people in ten countries: Ireland, Spain, The Netherlands, Portugal, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the UK and the US.
Primark’s Downtown Crossing store spans four floors across 77,000 square foot of selling space. It comprises 73 cash registers, 84 fitting rooms and 530 mannequins. There is free wifi throughout the store and ‘recharge’ areas where customers can relax and recharge their phones. The men’s recharge area features a large screen showing ESPN to ensure sports fans don’t miss any action whilst shopping!

Jose Luis Martinez de Larramendi, Primark US president, told the Globe earlier this year, “we wanted to be in a cosmopolitan environment and Boston is a cosmopolitan and international city.”  George Weston, CEO of Primark’s parent company Associated British Food, also said that Boston is an ideal place for Primark due to the city’s large Irish population (we’re the most Irish city in America, thanks), and the array of college kids in the area.