Last month's assassination in Dubai of a major Hamas leader by a hit squad, possibly Israeli secret service Mossad agents, that included five men with forged Irish passports, has erupted into a diplomatic firestorm between Ireland and Israel. Ireland's Foreign Affairs Minister, Micheal Martin, has met with the Israeli foreign minister in Brussels to express the Irish government's outrage while the public debate continues to rage on in the press.

This latest episode of using forged or fake Irish passports as cover to cloak the identities of agents involved in clandestine operations is not, sadly, unusual. Mossad as well as Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda have used fake Irish travel documents in the past. The Irish government has said that the Dubai incident was "very serious" and had put the safety and security of Irish citizens at risk.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan's former National Security Advisor, Robert "Bud" McFarlane, and four other men arrived in Tehran with Irish passports posing as the flight crew of a plane carrying military equipment that Iran had supposedly purchased from international arms dealers. McFarlane and his companions had Bibles autographed by Reagan, a cake shaped like a key, and a number of Colt pistols as gifts for Iranian officials, according to the-then speaker of the Iranian parliament. This use of Irish passports drew spirited and angry protest from the Irish government of the day.

The McFarlane debacle eventually was exposed in bits and pieces and Reagan, claiming memory loss, had to explain that he had no recall of authorizing what came to be known as the Iran-Contra affair. There were calls for his impeachment but his popularity, signs of the growing dementia that would eventually kill him, and the lack of a "smoking gun" allowed him to avoid that Clintonian fate.

As a relevant footnote to this latest Irish passport cover use by assassination team members, it should be noted that during an 18-month period in 2008 -2009, according to the Irish Foreign Affairs Department, more than 50,000 passports were either stolen or lost. Of that total some 7,400 were stolen, or an average of over 400 a month, which allows for a plentiful supply of Irish passports or passport details that could be useful to international terrorists. This is a problem not unique to Ireland.

Developer, Broke, Looks To Graveyards - In an effort to revive his flagging fortunes, the developer Bernie McNamara is looking into buying property parcels in County Dublin to turn into burial sites.. There are currently only 37 graveyards in the entire country, or so it's reported, and many have or are near to full capacity. McNamara, a former high flyer during the halcyon Celtic Tiger days has admitted to owing roughly $2 billion and has been looking for a way to make a comeback.

McNamara's business plan is not that far removed from the 1969 political satire "The Mundy Scheme" by Brian Friel. In that play a fictional prime minister of an economically struggling Ireland decides that he has to make a bold move to improve the economy. His idea, which he has to "sell" to his cabinet, is to turn the vast and under-populated West of Ireland into a pricey international graveyard catering to wealthy Yanks who yearn to be buried in the land of their ancestors. This, Friel's prime minister figures, will help turn around the country and ensure that along with the new-found wealth will also come for him a long and fruitful tenure and the love and admiration of an adoring populace.

It's all great fun, full of sparkling, witty dialogue and a closet peek at what it might be like inside Irish smoke-filled backrooms. The play hasn't had a major staging in years but even reading Friel's play is one long laugh.

US Banking Giant On Grecian Griddle - Investment banker Goldman Sachs is on the carpet with European Union officials over huge questionable financial transactions with Greece, a country now so economically ravaged that the EU is conceding that it will likely have to bail it out. There is widespread dismay in European financial markets that a large part of Greece's problem, which affects the Union and member states' finances, is the way that Goldman Sachs managed some $15 billion in bond sales to Greece. There are also questions about currency swaps by Goldman Sachs that helped Greece raise a billion dollars secretly, a matter that regulatory EU agencies knew nothing about, enabling that country to hide the extent of its massive deficit.

The euro, the EU common currency in most member countries, recently hit its low point of the past year. A report soon to be published suggests that the weakened euro means potential trouble for Greece and also, surprisingly, for Ireland, despite the decisive action by the Irish government to get a handle on its budget and strong remedial moves on the Irish banks.

Northern Police Issued Bomb Mirrors - The BBC News Service has reported that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is issuing special mirrors that will be used by police officers and civilian staff to scan underneath their vehicles for bombs before starting them up. Breakaway or dissident republican paramilitaries that have split with the provisional IRA in a "unity now, Brits out" campaign of violence have increased their use of car bombs. Mirrors or electronic bomb detectors will be supplied to some 10,000 PSNI employees. The two breakaway factions that include many members who once were allied with the provos are the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA.

These "patriotic" dissidents seem to have little or no concern for the lives of the several thousand Catholics (over 2,700 currently in the PSNI) when they plant lethal car bombs under vehicles. It's far from perfect, but the police service today in the North is 27 percent Catholic. In 2001 Catholics made up a mere 8 percent of the force.

Did You Know ... that Europe's first lifeboat service —and likely the first in the world -- was established in 1801 by the Dublin Port Authority in Dun Laoghaire Harbor? Five stations were initially set up in the harbor area and a Howth station was added in 1816. The lifeboat service rescues people involved in shipwrecks and sailors in distress. The acclaimed service was set up following a complete survey of the harbor waters by British Admiral William Bligh (1754-1817), who gained some fame earlier in 1789 when he was captain of his own ship, the Bounty.

Rome Meeting Underscores Church Crisis - They met for two days with Pope Benedict at the Vatican in mid-February. Led by Cardinal Sean Brady, they were there for the pro forma Vatican press release deploring the sins of clerical abuse of children but nothing of the bishops' complicity, the fate and future of the 24 Irish bishops summoned to Rome, and nothing on the acceptance of the outstanding resignations that are on the table. There was no mention made of the evil and long-standing practice of shuffling offending priests from one parish to another, nor of the decades of Catholic bishops coughing into their abundant silk sleeves or counting tiles on the parquet floor with averted eyes as priests went on the prowl and kids paid the price. And not a word about the papal nuncio, the Vatican's ambassador to Ireland, and his near-criminal refusal to cooperate with the latest Murphy report on predatory priests and consenting bishops.

The public probing of sordid church business is far from done. And it deserves to be ongoing and thorough in the face of a ponderously evasive Catholic Church hierarchy. Platitudes, promises, and pieties won't cut it any longer. Looking at articles that ran in Ireland's two major home grown daily newspapers (Irish Times analysis: 'Vatican's Textbook Case of How Not to Manage the News'), (Irish Independent editorial: 'An Opportunity Missed in Rome') it is clear that the reservoir of good will and patience the Irish Church has enjoyed for centuries is at a shameful low.

Cousins' Village Deserves Better - I was dismayed in looking through the Kerryman newspaper not so long ago to discover that the harbor in the home town of my mother's parents, the Flahertys and the Griffins, in Castlemaine, where we have spent good days, is under environmental assault via sewage from the Milltown sewage treatment plant. The plant in Milltown is trying to cope with three times the amount of waste that it was built to treat but it can't do it so. Castlemaine Harbor, Tralee Bay, Valentia Harbor, and Kilmakillogue Harbor are being polluted on a regular basis by waste from an over-filled, dysfunctional treatment plant.

The root cause of the enormous increase in sewage being treated (or rather not being treated) in Milltown is the unfettered development, the thousands of new homes built in Kerry in the past decade with seemingly little or no concern for zoning, sight lines, or adequate water treatment facilities. This zoning free-for-all that came about because of demand by newly affluent Celtic Tiger success stories can be seen throughout rural Ireland. Folks with some newly acquired assets want a home with a view and a few extra acres and local zoning and planning agencies are loath to withhold permission to those who want to build. But that is a dangerous end game with a long-range downside.

One of the byproducts of the pollution is that previously healthy fishing waters, like Castlemaine Harbor, are being strangled and the local shellfish industry adversely affected. A local official summed up the dilemma: "Given the length of time to develop infrastructure, the question is do we stop development altogether?" Well, given the price Kerry is paying in pollution and disappearing fishing areas the answer might very well be, Yes! Maybe a moratorium?

RANDOM CLIPPINGS

Hollywood super star Meryl Streep is heading for Donegal to Creeslough to do some ancestor research and find out more about her great grandmother, Grace Strain, who was born there in 1865. Streep became interested in her Irish links when she was filming "Dancing at Lughnasa." ... The Irish-born polar explorer Ernest Shackleton has left a potent legacy from his 1909 Antarctic exploration. Found by scientists recently were five buried crates of hundred year-old McKinlay whiskey and Whyte's & Mackay scotch, all in good shape. ... Shoppers abandoning higher prices in the south have been flocking to Newry and Belfast for lower costs there. Dublin officials figure that the bargain hunters have cost the Republic over a billion dollars in lost revenue this past year. ... The Irish police, the Garda, have been told by their chief inspector, Boston's Kathleen O'Toole, that major changes are overdue for the force and are coming soon. ... The Irish Times's Fintan O'Toole, Ireland's "angry man," is outselling the retired Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the Irish book stores and deservedly so. ... One of Ireland's major banks, the Bank of Ireland, received a multi-billion dollar government bailout to save it, but turned its back on Leinster House when it was suggested that the bank might show its appreciation by turning over its historic old bank headquarters in College Green. Nothing doing, the bank said. ... Is there any chance of the "Question Time" that President Obama and Republican congressional leaders engaged in a while back becoming a regular feature here like the PM's time in Britain? ... Is the Maze Prison's H-Block hospital wing going to be designated as a listed protected historic site? Ten hunger strikers died there in the 1980s and nationalists think it should be listed and preserved. ... Boston Scientific is cutting thousands of employees worldwide, and their Galway facility is taking a hit to the tune of 175 production workers. ... Our nominee for some kind of "Jerk of the Year" award has to be Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson. This genius has been charging prisoners in his house of correction $5 a day for the privilege of bunking there. The Mass. Supreme Judicial Court just said nay, nay. Good for them.

Congratulations to Ted Kelly, longtime CEO of Boston-based Liberty Mutual ,with his plan to build a $300 million office tower with 500 new jobs in Boston. Kelly has been operating in Ireland for years. He was there early and has been a visionary entrepreneur both here and in Ireland. ... Boston probably doesn't need the money but Waterford, Ireland, does, so they are hosting the Tall Ships that should boost the local economy by nearly $50 million come 2011. Good move. ... A Derry city councillor with an eye on history and the city coffers is calling for the creation of a cultural tourist trail in the walled city that would recognize historical sites therer. It's called a "Journey to Peace" and they do it in Belfast, so why not. ... Kylemore Abbey, a regular stop whenever I am in Ireland, is closing its famed school at the end of the school years this summer. Next to the Cliffs of Moher, I'm told, the astonishingly scenic abbey is the most photographed site in all Ireland. ... Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy did not throw in his chips because he thought he might lose. With his father now gone from the Senate, he simply didn't have the proverbial fire in his belly. He struggled with his demons and made some embarrassing mistakes but he was a good, productive member of Congress who made a lot of friends during his eight terms in office. We wish him well. ... Happy to see the Gael from Scotland, Susan Boyle, singing along with the other stars like Mariah Carey, Rod Stewart, Bon Jovi, and Miley Cyrus in the "Helping Haiti" video. This most improbable success story is one for the books. Her recent album, "I Dreamed a Dream," has sold 3.5 million copies and she is doing her fame thing in venues around the globe. Great voice, grand story.

Beam Me Down, Scottie - Scott Brown, the Bay State's newest US senator, can enjoy a successful tenure as Massachusetts junior senator but he better do his homework and forget the right wing babble. Brown is quoted in the Boston Globe as saying that "...it's time to admit that while the $787 billion stimulus had the best of intentions, it failed to create one new job." (Jan. 14). The four top economic research firms in America "estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far." The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers those estimates to be conservative. (David  Leonhardt, N.Y. Times, Feb.16)

Leaving On A High in Mellow Mallow - Garda recently found in a small rural village near Mallow a cottage industry with a new twist. Usually it's pot plants in the wilderness, or other times it's a poteen distillery hidden away from law enforcement. This local entrepreneur was selling pot-laced biscuits and butter right next to his poteen still when the garda raided his booming business. The enterprising businessman was also offering something he called Creme de Grass, pot-flavored poteen, with one customer recalling that the unique brew "had quite a strange effect on the auld head."

A Spirited and Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all!