Boston-Aided Foyleside Centre Thrives -- Opened 15 years ago in the city of Derry, it was a super shopping complex that initially drew criticism from many in the North when construction began. They said it was too large, too tempting a target for the paramilitaries, the glass atrium facade would never withstand IRA attack, and on and on. But it was built, a stunning 400,000 square feet of retail shops that defied the odds and might never have come to fruition if it hadn't been for critical links established in the 1980s between Boston and Derry.

The relationship between the two historic cities started with the nonprofit Boston Ireland Ventures and a series of BIV-sponsored Ireland Trade Festivals at John Drew's World Trade Center on the Hub waterfront. They came from Derry and Galway and introduced Boston and New England to Irish products, crafts, tourism, and culture. The annual October events brought together the leadership of the Irish cities, north & south, with Mayor Ray Flynn and Boston civic leaders, including BIV officials Frank Costello and Michael Donlan and the city's BRA director at the time, Steve Coyle.

Soon joining discussions with Derry officials was O'Connell Brothers Construction of Quincy who began serious talks with Derry leadership about building a mammoth retail center along the Foyle River in central Derry. With the continuing advice and input from the Flynn administration and others in Boston and the development expertise of O'Connell Brother, the Foyleside Shopping Centre officially opened in 1995. I was asked to be one of the speakers and brought greetings to the citizens of Derry from Ray Flynn and his successor, Tom Menino.

That's a bit of the background of how the North's largest shopping center came into being. Yet there is more good news for Derry and Foyleside with the recent announcement of an ambitious $260 million expansion of the venture. The addition, which would increase Foyleside's square footage by fifty percent, is being called a "huge vote of confidence" in Derry city and the North, especially with the island's economic woes. The expansion will create 500 well-paid jobs in the construction sector and up to 300 new and permanent retail jobs. The project is expected to start this year and will take more than two years to complete.

Ted Kennedy Remembered In Wexford -- There is a buzz here in the Bay State about the new Kennedy Center for the US Senate in Boston and the initial $20 million funding for the Columbia Point project that has been filed by Senator John F. Kerry. However, 3,000 miles away, the Irish also reacted personally to Senator Kennedy's death with the announcement of an enhanced Kennedy memorial at the family's ancestral home in Dunganstown, Co. Wexford. The Irish project will include a state-of-the-art visitors center and improvements to the area and is budgeted at $2.2 million. It will honor Ted Kennedy and the Kennedy family in what has been to date a rather simple landscape and family homestead. My wife and I visited in the early seventies the modest - actually tiny -homestead building which is located just yards from the more modern home that for years housed the Kennedy cousins, the Ryans. The day we were there I took a photo of Jean beside the homestead and as we were about to leave we were startled to see Mary Ryan, the much photographed family matriarch and host to President Kennedy in that memorable June 1963 cousins reunion, walking out into the yard. We didn't want to disturb her so we said nothing and as I recall I simply raised my arm slowly in a quiet salute, nodded and walked on to our car parked nearby.

New Abuse Report Roils Irish Catholics -- First there was the Fern report, than the Ryan report, and now comes the Murphy Commission findings of further extensive clerical abuse and documented charges that offending Irish priests were aided by bishops in being transferred from parish to parish to avoid public disclosure. The Murphy report, in what was the most damning aspect of their investigation, morally indicted at least half a dozen Irish bishops who, the report says, directly facilitated offending priests' transfers time after time over a number of years.

Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick, after stonewalling calls for his resignation, finally turned in his mitre following a Vatican visit by the Archbishop of Dublin. The Murphy report called Murray's actions "inexcusable." At deadline at least four additional bishops from Dublin, Kildare, and Galway and possibly several more were being mentioned publicly as likely to resign under Vatican pressure.

One perspective on the dramatically different reactions of the Irish bishops and their American counterparts might be the following quotes from Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, a leader in the effort to expose the abuse in Ireland, and retired New York Archbishop, Cardinal Edward Egan, answering questions about his stewardship in Bridgeport, Connecticut before coming to New York.

Archbishop Martin: 'The sexual abuse of a child is and always was a crime in civil law; it is and always was a crime in canon law; it is and always was grievously sinful. One of the most heartbreaking aspects of the report is that while church leaders -- bishops and church superiors – failed, almost every parent who came to the diocese to report abuse clearly understood the awfulness of what was involved."

Cardinal Edward Egan, responding to a question about a priest in the diocese he supervised who was charged with child abuse by 12 parishioners: "I am not aware of those things. I am aware of the claims of those things, the allegations of those things. I am aware that there are a number of people who know one another, some are related to one another, have the same lawyers and so forth."

What was not done in Boston and in the US - authorities taking a hard look at the possibly criminal involvement of bishops and others in supervisory church roles - is taking place in Ireland now as I write this. That sends a clear message to all that predator priests and the bishops who supervise them are subject to equal justice. A healthy wind is gathering force in the Irish Catholic Church and not a moment too soon.

Druid Theatre Company Travels The World -- The celebrated Druid Theatre Company, winner of several Tony Awards for "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" on Broadway in 1996, and a majestic force in the Irish theatrical tradition, is in the midst of the longest theatre tour in modern Irish history. Druid, marking its 35th anniversary since its humble beginnings in a narrow alley in Galway city in 1975, has been on tour with the play, Enda Walsh's "The Walworth Farce" since September, performing in Britain, Canada, and the United States. Following the company's holiday break Druid will again be on the road, in Australia and New Zealand, ending in Sydney.

All in all, Druid, overseen by Tony winner and long time artistic director Garry Hynes, will conclude its seven-month world tour in April, followed by new productions at their home base in Galway.

Church Weddings On The Decline -- Less than 15 years ago, 94 percent of all Irish weddings were performed in church. The Central Statistics Office now estimates that within two years, in 2012, over 50 per cent of Irish wedding ceremonies will be performed not in church but rather in hotels, country homes, resorts, castles, and the like.

New laws today allow weddings not only in churches and government registry offices but virtually anyplace the couple desires. But there is still a strong tradition of church weddings in rural areas, where as many as 90 percent of marriages still occur there. Dublin, the center of urbane Ireland, now records almost half of its weddings in a civil environment.

Did You Know ... that Merrill Worcester, a wreath-company owner in tiny Harrington, Maine, has taken it upon himself to place wreaths every December on 5,000 veterans' graves at Arlington National Cemetery? Worcester donates the wreaths honoring those buried at Arlington, pays to have them trucked to Virginia, and decorates the selected headstones with the help of volunteers. His personal project began in 1992 and he has expanded his effort to recognize those who served in the military with his "Wreaths Across America" program that now provides seasonal wreaths for veterans cemeteries in all fifty states. Worcester, whose wreath-laying program takes place each year on the second Saturday in December, plans to eventually place wreaths on all Arlington graves, which number at last count some 300,000.

All Not Serene At Stormont -- There is no blood on the floor (yet) but the chuckle Brothers regime of Martin McGuinness and Reverend Ian Paisley is history now that Paisley's deputy, Peter Robinson, has succeeded the Big Guy as First Minister. The slice of the iceberg showing is the devolution of police and justice in the North, which currently is being administered from London to nobody's great delight, but the disenchantment between the Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party goes far deeper. McGuinness, a former IRA commander wants immediate devolution, local control by Stormont of police and the Ministry of Justice; Robinson has chafed at replicating Ian Paisley's easy alliance with Irish republicans and has expressed reservations (and worse) about allowing Sinn Fein and former IRA operatives in government to oversee and/or administer policing and the Justice department in the North. I thought it was called power-sharing.

There has also been disagreement over funding from London for local policing and Justice operations and what both Robinson and the Alliance Party contend is a lack of an agreed plan on how to administer these two critical government offices. Another major roadblock to this final but pivotal piece of the Northern puzzle is who will be the new Minister of Justice? The only nominee before closing the nominee selection process was Margaret Richie, a SDLP minister in Stormont and a candidate also for SDLP leader. The most acceptable candidate would be the Alliance Party's David Ford, but he has said repeatedly that he is not a candidate.

Devolution will, in any event, not take place by McGuinness's Christmas deadline. Maybe the New Year will mean a dose of more light and less heat, and Alliance could still end up running the justice ministry if that's what it takes to keep the power-sharing government alive. Take a card!

One final note: McGuinness, the highest ranking former IRA leader in the Northern Irish government, was selected in the unionist Belfast Telegraph poll as the most popular minister in the North's government. He ran first at 27 percent, Peter Robinson polled a dismal 7 percent, and was also selected as the second most disappointing figure in government.

RANDOM JOTTINGS

Sinn Fein Party Leader Gerry Adams has agreed to host a TV presentation on Jesus's teachings but has been challenged to come clean first on his continuing claim that he was never an IRA member. ... Job One for our Ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, is to get President Obama to visit his ancestral home in Co. Offaly to help with tourism there. Incidentally, County Kildare has now put in a counter claim that Obama's great, great grand uncle, John Kearney, was their man. ... Students at the National University in Maynooth have joined with 1,200 others including faculty to protest former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's appointment there as a visiting professor. ... Due to be open to traffic by New Year's is the final stretch of the Galway-Dublin motorway that will cut the cross-country travel to just two hours. ... Fool me once: Some 10,000 of the faithful showed up at Knock Shrine in October to see an apparition of the Virgin Mary. No apparition, so when a second try came on a rainy December day there was scant and unruly crowd of 600. ... When finished, a new signature hall for the $160-million Titanic tourist attraction is expected to attract 400,000 a year. ... Ireland has a penalty point program for residents who drive and use mobile phones but will likely have traffic tickets and penalties for Yank blow-ins. Got it -no cell phones on Irish roads. ... Business is good for Bushmills whiskey makers who will double production by 2012 and hire help to do it. ... Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward gave a backhander to unionist hardliners like the DUP when he renewed the Parade Commission just before Christmas. ... At long last the Aran Isles' three islands are now able to surf the internet with access to high speed wireless broadband and enhanced multimedia services on everything from personal e-mail, to renewing taxes. ... The Ulster-Scots Agency, set up following the Good Friday agreement, is being criticized by the British government for excessive spending and sloppy performance and faces radical reform if it is to survive. ... The next time you are flying in Europe be sure to get current on the Euro airlines' new compensation rules. It could pay you.

MacBride Principles 25th Birthday -- There were big doings in New York in early December as the MacBride Principles and its supporters were honored for a quarter century of good works in trying to eliminate religious discrimination in employment practices of US corporations with operations in Northern Ireland. Honored for his role in helping formulate the principles and convincing Sean MacBride to lend his name to them was Father Sean McManus, Irish National Caucus president. I recall meeting with the Rhode Island speaker of the House in his office in the mid-1980s to argue on behalf of the Principles and was joined by one of the founders of the Social Democratic Labour Party, who was speaking against them. It was well known at the time that many in Britain and the North, including John Hume, were outspoken foes of the Principles, feeling that the North's often fragile economy would be harmed if companies looking to operate in the North were discouraged by "onerous" discrimination laws. Here at home, the Republicans joined with the British in opposition.

Anybody looking for more information on the story of the Principles, the history and background, could do far worse than look into "The MacBride Principles; Irish America Fights Back" by former MP and shadow N.I. Secretary Kevin McNamara.

Jet Set Shoplifters invade Ireland -- Some $600 million a year is stolen from retail stores every year in Ireland. Most of the losses are in the large retail outlets, many upscale, that are found in Irish cities like Dublin, Cork, and Galway. Retailers in the Irish capital expect to see some $60 million in unpaid goods disappear from their shelves during the Christmas season. The most surprising aspect of the major league thievery is that professional shoplifters are taking advantage of low airline fares to jet into Ireland and go on non-paying shopping sprees that retailers complain can reach $1,400 per day. Retailers also criticize the soft penalties doled out to repeat shoplifters. The public clearly loses as the store owner is forced to pass on the cost of "slippage" as it's called here, to honest customers by way of inflated prices.

Paul Kirk Disappoints On Cape Wind Motion -- I suppose it's not a shock and one should have expected it, but it was still disappointing to see Paul Kirk, the temporary tenant of the Kennedy Senate seat, come out looking for yet a further delay in the Cape Wind project to put wind turbines out into Nantucket Sound. Maybe it was a personal Kennedy family request, or maybe, like his friend and former boss, he simply believes that they belong elsewhere. All four of the Democratic primary candidates to the Kennedy seat, including winner Martha Coakley, support the plan.

The Cape Wind project is the most investigated wind farm in the world. Over the past eight years of scrutiny everyone from the Audubon Society to the Corps of Army Engineers to environmentalists have signed off on it. The gauntlet has been fierce and unrelenting, but Cape Wind still is battling. Just recently National Grid, one of New England's largest energy suppliers, signed on to be a purchaser for electricity from Cape Wind when and if it goes online. That was a resounding and timely vote of confidence for the offshore project.

RIP -- I never really knew Joe Tierney. What I heard about him, I liked, and it's always comforting to see politicians who retain a good memory for where they came from. Back in the late 1980s and early 90s, I ran an educational job-training program for Catholic and Protestant young people from Belfast, Derry, and Dublin. We were always looking for host families around Boston with good character to take in a young person for eight or ten weeks. One of our earliest and most popular families to volunteer was Pat and Joe Tierney. Everyone in our crew loved Pat and her children. They did it with a smile and went the extra mile to make a home away from home for the Irish youngsters. You remember things like that.