Peace Walls’ Days May Be Numbered –When the first peace walls were erected in 1969, they were intended to be temporary. A British general at the time said, “The peace line will be a very, very temporary affair. We will not have a Berlin Wall or anything like that in this city.” That was then and over 40 years on there are 42 so-called peace walls to separate the two major traditions in the six counties, the most famous being the wall that divides loyalist Shankill Road and republican Falls Road in West Belfast. There had been the occasional query from some interfaces about the possibility of “doing something” about the peace walls, but until early last month the issue languished. Belfast Alliance Councillor Tom Ekin proposed a motion to seriously develop a strategy and the City Council —all parties —readily and historically agreed.

The core of Ekin’s motion called on the council “to demonstrate true civic leadership by agreeing to tackle one of the biggest problems which affects all of the citizens of the city.” The peace walls, noted the councillor, “increase alienation and inhibit regeneration.” A key motivating factor in the new attitude towards the walls may well have been the June riots in east Belfast, which were some of the worst since the Good Friday agreement. In any event, nothing will happen until the community at large has had its say on this decades-old, divisive issue.

Anglo Irish Bank Cashing Out – Many people in Ireland from bankers to the average punter believe that Anglo Irish and its free-for-all lending practices was a major contributor to the 2008 Irish economic meltdown. But amid the chaos and non-conforming loans that precipitated nationalization by the government, Anglo Irish had accumulated some prime real estate holdings that are moderately attractive to larger banks. And much of that business, estimated at nearly $10 billion and still considered solid, is here in the US, in greater Boston.

Just last month JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo were among major investment banks that made bids to buy portions of Anglo Irish Bank’s US property loans. According to a report in the Boston Business Journal, one of Anglo’s properties is the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Boston and there are other commercial real estate holdings owned by the Bulfinch Company and the Mayo Group.

In two related stories, Anglo Irish Bank is charging its former chief executive, Michael Drumm, now living near Boston, of fraud committed during his tenure in Boston leading the bank’s US loan division. A week after publicly accusing Drumm, Anglo’s current chief executive pledged to actively pursue Drumm and any bank funds that legitimately belong to the Irish taxpayers.

McGuinness Makes a Move – Martin McGuinness made dramatic news on Sept. 18 when he announced that he will be Sinn Fein’s candidate for president in next month’s election. It is expected McGuinness will take a leave of absence from his position as Northern Ireland deputy first minister to campaign for the presidency. Leading up to McGuinness’s move, it had been the oddest Irish presidential election campaign in decades. Fianna Fail, in redemption mode and afraid of a drubbing at the polls on October 27, does not have a candidate in the race. The Irish Labour Party’s candidate is that veteran rogue, Michael D. Higgins, who is leading in the polling with 36 percent; Fine Gael’s nominee is another familiar face, Gay Mitchell, who was far from his party’s unanimous choice, and is running second to Higgins with 24 percent; two independents, Sean Gallagher at 21 percent and Mary Davis at 19 percent are trailing. However, it is worth remembering that with less than a month to go, a third of Irish voters have not made up their mind or would prefer someone not on the ballot. And fully one-third of the electorate don’t believe the president’s job is all that important.

I slightly know two of the candidates, Higgins and Mitchell. I had a photo taken with Mitchell years ago that I’ll go looking for just in case. My initial meeting with the entertaining Mr. Higgins was in Boston 20 years ago when he was a visiting dignitary at our Boston Trade Festivals at the World Trade Center. On propinquity alone, I would vote, if I could, for Michael D. He would be a different kind of president from the two distinguished women who preceded him. He might even shake up the Aras a bit.

The Off Shore Conundrum – Here in the US we are constantly being reminded by political candidates of the tax revenues and jobs lost when an American multi-national closes a plant here and heads to Asia or Latin America or other low-wage corporate operations. Two companies in Ireland, one in Waterford, the other in Carrick-on-Shannon, recently experienced similar fates and a combined job loss of 1,350 jobs. Both the call center in Waterford and the credit card clearing house in Carrick-on-Shannon were considered exemplary work forces, competent, skilled when they had to be, and reliable.

But the question from afar is: Why did they leave? And the answer given, here or there, is almost always the same in every situation: cheaper employee and operating costs. At the 600-employee Waterford operation, the Irish workers’ annual wages were up to 30,000 euro, or $41,000. The same job in India or the Philippines has an annual wage of less than 2,400 euro, or $3,300. Don’t call in the CPAs. The difference per worker is $37,700 each year. And $37,700 x 600 is $22,620,000. This is the dollar amount the company will save on employee wages alone in a single year.

One answer, or at least an emerging answer in Ireland, to the globalization threat is lifetime learning or the continuing upgrading of worker skill levels to make them more attractive to potential employers and investors, domestic or international.

Did You Know … that Ned Kelly (1854-1880) was the son of a convict exiled to Australia who took up the family trade that included robbing banks and killing policemen? He became an iconic figure, remembered after his hanging as a Robin Hood or Jesse James-type character who clashed with British colonial forces and became a legend among the rural Irish underclass. In August of this year, his body was discovered in a prison’s mass grave and DNA confirmed the remains as Kelly’s. “As game as Ned Kelly” is now a common expression in Australia.

The 2 Billion Euro Question – The question simply stated is: Will agreements made by the Khadafy government in Libya be binding on the rebel forces there once the government changes? The agreement calls for Libya to pay victims of the IRA somewhere in the vicinity of 2 billion euro ($2.7 billion) in reparations for the Libyan Semtex explosives used by the provos during the Troubles.

British Prime Minister David Cameron certainly believes that an agreement continues to exist, saying compensation for IRA bombing victims “was a vitally important issue” and high up in his priorities. Adding pressure to the British government are plans to have a delegation of IRA victims visit Libya to press their case and show solidarity with the rebel insurgents.

The original negotiated agreement in which Moammar Khadafy promised the payment was made by the Libyan leader back in the day when he was sanitizing his relationship with the West and attempting to portray Libya and its leadership as responsible members of the world community.

Turf War: Conservation vs. Culture – A smoldering dispute between rural turf-cutters and the Irish government is threatening to become a cause celebre as the March 2012 ban on cutting turf on bogs designated as Special Areas of Conservation moves closer. For centuries, families have harvested turf and the practice has provided a social outlet over the summer and an important source of fuel for the rural Irish.

County Kerry turf-cutters have become the voice of many across the west and the midlands in the struggle against what they see as unnecessary regulations and a threat to an age-old heritage. As one Kerry native told The Kerryman newspaper, “I’ve cut on the bog all my life and my family have the plot since 1911. This affects families, most of us are descendants of small holders ... turf-cutting is in our blood. They talk about plots on other bogs far away, but that’s no use to us. This is our home and the only turf cut is burnt no more than hundreds of yards away from the bog.”

Turf-cutters argue that they are the victims of their own success —working to preserve the bog for so long through careful, caring management of the cutting over the generations.

The Economic Front – While the European Union keeps a close eye on the perilous day- to-day situation in Greece, Ireland has lately displayed some encouraging signs of financial stability. Inflation in Ireland slowed to 2.2 percent in August, just barely over the official target of 2 percent. Britain, on the other hand had an August inflation rate of 4.5 percent.

There was also some good news for Irish homeowners as the European Central Bank moved to keep interest rates at historic lows. The action by the ECB was not unexpected given the level of debt and current low consumer confidence. There was a note of caution from the outgoing ECB president, who said that the European economy faces “particularly high uncertainty and intensified downside risks.”

The European Commission also had words of praise for Ireland’s handling of the bailout loan agreement, citing the successful recapitalization of the banks at a lower cost than had been projected. Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan described the Irish program as being “well on track.”

Not all anniversaries are keepers – It was ten years ago last month when the schoolgirls at Holy Cross School in north Belfast were under daily attack. It’s hard to even write that line, but the thought that little girls, pre-teens being the oldest, were subject to verbal abuse and physical attacks by loyalist “protestors,” many of whom lived in adjacent middle class homes surrounding the Catholic school, is almost impossible to imagine.

Think of it: You’re ten years old and to get to your elementary school each morning you have to run a gauntlet of thrown bottles, bricks, and other missiles. Separating the schoolgirls from the attackers, many screaming expletives, were a line of RUC police forming what became known as the “corridor of hate.”

Sometime after the daily confrontations stopped, several Boston area members of the “Friends of Belfast” and I were privileged to visit Holy Cross and speak with teachers and look in on classroom exercises. Even today it is hard to get a grasp on the reality that the wee children who sat at desks facing us, scrubbed and innocent to all appearances, had been so tormented by their neighbors. But doubters have only to view the archived television footage of the notorious events of those weeks in 2001.

For anyone who cares to look deeper into those terrible days of a decade ago, there is a marvelous (and, yes, triumphant) account in a first rate book by journalist Anne Cadwallader, “Holy Cross: The Untold Story.”

Random Acts, Hints Of Hope – Nobody who has lived through the long years of the Troubles expects the new era of peace to be a walk in the park, and it certainly hasn’t been. But there are moments that buoy the spirit and cast a positive glow on the business of learning to live together.

They caught some flak from their own for a simple act, but what resonates at the end of the day is that two senior Ulster Unionists, UUP Leader Tom Elliott and Northern Minister for Regional Development Danny Kennedy, acted with compassion and courage. Their sin, according to the Orange Order, of which both are members: Attending the funeral Mass for murdered constable Ronan Kerr. The good news is that the Orange Lodge that filed the complaint against the two men was the only lodge in the North to complain.

Some history was made in the small south Limerick village of Galbally in late August when the townspeople staged their first cricket match in over a century. Incidentally, Galbally, on the Limerick-Tipp border, is steeped in a long and proud GAA tradition but hosted the exhibition by the newly created Thurles Cricket Club.

In Derry last month, more than 100 police officers from the PSNI signed up to learn Irish. Ulster Unionist Basil McCrea attended the event, which was billed as a good faith bid to remove the Gaelic language from the political divisions of the past. The plan, supported by the Northern Cultural Minister, hopes to create 1,000 new Irish speakers by 2015.

At the recent Sinn Fein Ard Fheis, Presbyterian minister David Latimer became the first Protestant clergyman from the North to address a Sinn Fein conference. Latimer called Deputy First Minister McGuinness “one of the true great leaders of modern times.” McGuinness returned the favor by referring to the unionists as “brothers and sisters to be loved and cherished.”

RANDOM CLIPPINGS

After six months on the job as coalition leaders, Enda Kenny and his Fine Gael party continue to enjoy solid public support at 44 percent, up from 36 percent; Fianna Fail is at 15 percent, down slightly; Sinn Fein is up at 13 percent; and coalition partner Labour is at 12 percent, dwon from 19 percent. … Northern Irish police, in demanding access to media footage from riots, are setting a dangerous precedent and a direct threat to photographers and other journalists. … The strangest story to appear in any Irish media in recent years was the revelation that “The Ginger Man” author JP Donleavy’s two daughters were fathered not by the writer but by the Guinness brothers. … Anybody who buys the AT&T spin that their merger with T-Mobile will benefit their customers has never done business with the telephone giant. … We have National Grid and never lost power during Hurricane Irene, so it’s nothing personal, but I thought the comments by and attitude of Marcy Reed, president of the company’s Bay State operations, were arrogant and self-serving.

Caught growing cannabis in his garden by police, Sneem resident Tom Scott had a reasonable response to the charge, saying the pot was for his own personal use. A slight problem: the pot, some 354 plants, was worth $194,000. Busted! … Lawyers are paid fees as they work for different clients on a case-by-case basis. Irish lawyers working briefly for the Moriarty Tribunal all received liberal fees, some as high as thousands per day. Their newest wrinkle: seeking “severance pay” Yes, severance! … The three major Irish agencies reaching out to immigrants in the Bay State received more than over $500,000 from the Irish government to help with their good works. … Aer Lingus is 25 percent owned by the government but can be bought if the price is right. … It was a tight race, but Killarney beat out Tralee as the location for the new GAA Museum, which will be sited at the town’s Fitzgerald Stadium. … It has been confirmed that the late Brian Lenihan, finance minister during the bailout, was strong-armed by the president of the European Central Bank into agreeing to the bailout terms even as he was struggling with the terminal cancer that killed him.

The Irish golfer Darren Clarke had a great summer in winning the British Open. It got even better when the retail chain, Sports Direct, gifted him with a $3 million bonus. … An Irish-owned travel company (hihohotels.com) is an instant major player in the hospitality industry with links to more than 100,000 hotels in 14,000 locations worldwide.