By Bill O’Donnell
Irish Deaths Abroad Will Be Recognized – How hard is it to get a death certificate when an Irish citizen dies in Ireland? The quick answer is that it is easy: a doctor, and a coroner in some instances, signs off and a proof of death is formally issued. However, if you are an Irish citizen who dies abroad, say in the US, historically there has been no legally mandated process to recognize and register the death of Irish citizens abroad. That lack of process will soon be a relic of the past when the Irish parliament, Dail Eireann, completes passage of legislation this year that will remedy this long-standing omission.
The making of this new law is the result of the efforts of a Galway couple, Liam and Yvonne O’Reilly, whose son Keith died tragically in Chicago four years ago. The couple were shocked when they were unable to register Keith’s death in Ireland, so they decided to do something about it.

Spurred by the efforts of the Galway legislative contingent and by Galway Mayor Padraig Conneely working with the Irish Minister of Social Protection, a proposal was drafted that has the necessary Dail votes to become law before the end of the year. Soon the death of any Irish person who dies while abroad will be registered in Ireland and a death certificate will be produced.
Kerry Goes Upscale With Vogue Fashion Spread – If you bring together world famous photographer Annie Leibovitz, the glorious Kerry countryside, and an array of beautiful models and handsome Hollywood actors, you’re sure to have a winner. And the September issue of Vogue magazine is for certain a winner. Leibovitz, celebrated for her photos in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and, since 1983, in Vogue is arguably the best-known living photographer. The Irish fashion “shoot” features the Polish-born international model Daria Werbowy, who lives part of the year in West Cork.
Much of the scenic background framing the beautiful people in stunning clothes was shot in and around the Killarney Lakes region. Alison Metcalfe, Ireland’s North America chief for Tourism Ireland, was reportedly awed by the Irish landscape, saying, “Publicity is a very powerful tool in marketing the island of Ireland and with American Vogue having more than 11 million readers, this type of positive exposure is invaluable.” Hey, we’ve known that for years.
McConville Family Looks To A Civil Suit – Discouraged by the failure of officials after 40 years to expose and try her killers, the family of the murdered Belfast mother of 10, Jean McConville, reportedly is seriously considering mounting a civil legal action. There are reports, too, of a secret benefactor offering to underwrite a civil court action. The identity of the benefactor is unknown and many surmise that the funding may originate with anti-Republican elements, likely British, who would very much like to see Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams as the target of such a lawsuit. Adams has consistently denied any involvement in the McConville killing, and further denies that he was a member of the IRA at any time.
A successful civil action targeting Adams and other former IRA operatives would have no criminal finding; a civil action relies on less stringent evidence rules, using grounds of “probability” rather than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold in criminal cases.
If a civil lawsuit is brought against Adams or others it is likely that the tapes of the Boston College Project, especially those of Delours Price and Brendan Hughes, could become part of the civil action. It’s a messy situation and a long way from being over for the McConville family, Gerry Adams, and the Republican movement.
Foreign Affairs’ Sean Donlon in Summer School History Lesson – A former Irish Ambassador to the United States and chief officer of Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Department, Sean Donlon was one of the “best and brightest” in that department. He was a point man in many of the decisions in the 1980s and 1990s leading up to the Good Friday Agreement.
Donlon, speaking recently at the Parnell Summer School in Wicklow, confirmed what had been widely rumored around the time the US State Department issued a visa to Gerry Adams in 1994 – that there was broad disagreement on issuing the visa that included an adamant British Prime Minister John Major, who never forgave President Bill Clinton for pulling rank on State and agreeing to the Adams visa. As a matter of fact, Major and the British were described as “incandescent with rage,” with the prime minister, Donlon says, refusing to take phone calls from President Clinton for weeks.
Donlon also revealed that Ted Kennedy was initially opposed to the Adams visa because he had lost two brothers to violence. John Hume, relates Donlon, convinced Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith that the visa was crucial, and she advocated for it when speaking to her brother. The Irish diplomats who supported issuing the visa, knowing the State Department would side with the British, then intensified lobbying in Washington and Ted Kennedy, the National Security Agency, and the Clinton White House came together and a pathway to peace opened up.
Derry Celebration Attracts Over 400,000 – Four times the number of residents who live in Derry came to the historic walled city for the national Fleadh, or fesh, and gave themselves and the hundreds of thousands who participated a cultural shot in the arm. Derry, the European City of Culture for 2013, has had a spectacular summer, and morale in the “town we knew so well” is sky high.
Throughout the street violence and protests that overwhelmed much of Belfast for weeks, Derry was quiet and civil, aware that the recent Apprentice Boys of Derry march and the city’s festivities had effectively joined the varying communities in a meaningful cultural embrace from the Bog Side to the Waterside. Loyalist flute bands, the Police Service Pipe Band, a “Riverside” troupe, etc. played in venues heedless of sectarian boundaries while some 20,000 musicians turned the city into a music-filled wonderland.
Relevant or not, it should be noted that Derry has an 80-20 Catholic majority while factious Belfast, with its “peace walls” and interface pressure points, is a city where zero-sum rival end games are the order of the day. But Derry, for the moment and this unforgettable summer, is something to behold, and if I may be forgiven saying so, a city to be emulated.
Ireland can do with more of that.
Providence Bishop Admits He’s a Republican –One of the biggest fakes among northeast Catholic clergy is undoubtedly Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, RI, who, while whacking gays and same-sex marriage with vitriol to spare for years now, can tell a group of young Republicans that “the Catholic Church has respect, love, and pastoral concerns for our brothers and sisters who have same-sex attraction. I sincerely pray for God’s blessings upon them, that they will enjoy much health, happiness and peace.” Whowee squared!!
Aside from the vicious anti-gay campaign he has led, we finally have some idea that this ambitious “beam-me-up bishop” is dysfunctional and confused because he is one of New England’s vanishing tribe, a Republican out of the closet. Tobin has not simply castigated gays he has also added (in a Christian way, of course) a warning to Catholics not to attend same- sex marriages ceremonies. This is the same bushwah that canon-challenged clerics used to frighten naive youngsters and others about attending non-Catholic church services. BTW, how is that ancient dictum doing these days?
The Catholic Church has been in the bag to the Republican Party since at least George W. Bush (yes, the same guy who took us into a needless, evil war) virtually forced his way into see a sickly John Paul II at the Vatican in search of an enhanced Catholic vote. Which, sadly, he got.
Mary Robinson in a Reflective Mood – The former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and, earlier, a member of the Irish Senate and a internationally known lawyer and legal scholar, spoke candidly in a rare interview on BBC Radio about her presidency, her doubts about taking that job, her tiffs with Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey, and about her shyness and the solitude she faced at points in her career.
Mrs. Robinson initially shied away from running for president, believing it to be largely a ceremonial post. But after looking closely at the Irish Constitution she realized a president could do much more. She spoke about the opposition she encountered as the first female president of Ireland, some from Haughey, who she claimed tried to rein her in. In her first meeting as president with Haughey he had copies of legal opinions in hand and argued that she was doing more than the Constitution called for. Soon Haughey realized he was being undone and threw the legal papers on the floor, saying “Ah, that’s lawyers – you get what you pay for.” “After that, Robinson said, I didn’t have a problem.”
On the European Union, Robinson says “I think Ireland [being in the EU] has gained a great deal.
Asked to select some musical CDs that she might take to a desert island, Robinson’s final choice was a popular favorite, “The Parting Glass” by Tommie Makem and Liam Clancy, to which she added the expression “Bas in Eireann,” suggesting a wish to die in Ireland.
Robinson, who published her memoirs this year – “Everybody Matters: My Life Giving Voice” – still has issues with her Catholic Church. “I had been thinking for a long time about the paternalistic and authoritarian natures of the way the church operated, particularly in Ireland at the time. All of that I was questioning.”
Your Final Departure, Streamed and Online – It is hardly a groundswell at this point, but there is an incipient practice in Ireland by some funeral homes to provide condensed funerals online or streaming, especially for emigrants who live a continent away but would, through the wonders of technology, want to participate. Cork funeral director John Keohane says some funeral parlors are increasingly hiring video producers to record funerals and make them available, live or on tape ,to loved ones thousands of miles away.
Keohane says it makes sense. “In light of emigration and the growth in technology, Skyping and the like, it seems a way to go.” The recording of funerals, notes the Irish Examiner, presages other changes. Rather than the Rosary, a wake and a three-day service, there is a slow shift to quicker, condensed services and a return to personal eulogies that have often been criticized by some clergy.
We may be entering an era of TV services that allow people to “attend” funerals from the comfort of their smart phone or laptop. That has also been reported happening, even in YouTube modes, in some Dublin parishes and a Cork city parish. Is this one answer to cluster parishes?
Sean Hannity Could Be a Media Casualty –According to Media Matters, the liberal scold that regularly monitors Fox News and many of the right-wing radio lie factories, the fact-challenged Hannity career might be in jeopardy if Cumulus Media (which also carries Rush Limbaugh with Hannity on radio) decides to jettison smarmy Sean.
On television, there are rampant rumors that not only is Seanie’s radio career in trouble but also that Fox News could just be lifting him from his 9 p.m. weekday TV slot in favor of Megyn Kelly. And why not? She has better pins than Sean. But the real problem is that we older folks, alas, are deserting Hannity in large numbers and Megyn is the cavalry to the rescue. We’ll see what Roger Ailes’s Spin Central churns out.
NAMES IN THE NEWS
The pols wouldn’t honor Knock Airport founder Monsignor James Horan by naming the airport after him two years ago, so the airport in May erected a memorial sculpture to this great man. … Gerry Adams, the Louth TD, has complained to the Dail Chairman that deputies were in the members’ bar between votes, citing “declining standards of behavior of Ireland’s elected
Representatives.” … Finally, after several years of Sean Fitzpatrick soaking up the friendly sun in Spain, the former chairman of the AI Bank will stand trial for secretly borrowing (and not repaying) $180 million. … Another incompetent, David Drumm, the frmer CEO of Anglo Irish Bank, had been in Boston running a business until recently when the Bay State closed his Delta Corporate Finance for failure to file. … A few years ago, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela admitted to a room full of Irish heavies that, unlike the IRA, he would not have handed over weapons for decommissioning. … BC grads do well away from the classroom. Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcon quarterback, just signed a contract extension worth $103 million. … Former US senator and peacemaker George Mitchell turned 80 last month; may his years and tribe increase. … Scott Brown was supposed to bring his message to Iowa. He forgot his message but told the traveling media anyway he would not be running for governor of Massachusetts next year. … Some of the Kennedy haters have been taking pot shots at Caroline Kennedy’s upcoming appointment to be US ambassador to Japan. An aging Mike Mansfield (retired US Senate majority leader) took the Tokyo post in the 1960s and was the most popular envoy there in decades. … In case you missed it, the newest Rose of Tralee is Texas Rose Haley O’Sullivan, the first US winner in six years.
RANDOM CLIPPINGS
The chairman of the Northern Ireland Police Federation, Terry Spence, says that the violence in the North today is at the same level they had back in the 1990s. … Boston mayoral candidate Marty Walsh found a Spanish interpreter in Boston. Not unusual but he is from RosMuc in Connemara and a UMass grad who is fluent in Spanish … The Cong, Co. Mayo, “Quiet Man” festival (Oct. 4-6) is seeking a lookalike for Barry Fitzgerald, who was the matchmaker in the O’Hara-Wayne movie … Van Morrison, 68, a Belfast native, will receive the Freedom of Belfast to be awarded early in 2014 … Fox Entertainment has pulled out of participation in a projected mini-series on Hillary Clinton that NBC plans to broadcast. The Republicans are screaming, and if I were Hillary, I would threaten to sue over the production. Anyone who has seen some of the turgid, fact-dysfunctional TV mini-series on public figures like the Kennedys, et al, knows they are vapid, mindless, and over-burdened with fake and bad made-up dialogue … Before the RUC-PSNI reorganizaition, there were 12,500 police, now there is barely 7,000. Maybe the North should look southward as thousands line up to join the Garda in the Republic
Ryanair’s announced policy goal is to keep raising its fees for un-checked luggage until flyers stop bringing it aboard … Ireland has just announced that it has secured full market access to China for its salmon exports after four years of negotiations … Killarney
Mayor Paddy Courtney is urging young drivers to “adopt” a pensioner in isolated areas to help them get to the pubs, bingo, and so forth. A good idea to help overcome the solitude of rural seniors and cut
back on driving under. Good Man Paddy … The Irish are being warned to look out for scam artists who are preying on emigrants headed to Australia and other places. Do not pay money for jobs or housing
until you know it’s a legitimate government agency. Fake websites are also exploiting potential travelers … If you haven’t noticed, Europe’s worst recession since the 1970s is over, say the experts … Political situations can change in a day but Peter Robinson, the North’s first Minister is in a grim log roll with his party, the DUP, over his reversal on the Maze Museum issue. The former DUP leader is on some shaky ground and could be in deep survival trouble. A weak bench may yet save him.