Intelligencer
Bush to Visit Ireland
PRESIDENT George W. Bush is set to visit Ireland this summer as part of a major U.S./European summit exchange of ideas.
Ireland holds the presidency in Europe for six months until the end of June, and Bush is expected in Dublin most likely in late May or early June.
Bush first visited Northern Ireland just before the Iraq war where he and British Prime Minster Tony Blair went over their plans for the imminent invasion.
Bush has also struck up an amiable relationship with Taoi-seach (Prime Minis-ter) Bertie Ahern, who has met with the president during the St. Patrick’s Day period in Washington every year since Bush was inaugurated.
According to reports the EU/U.S. summit is almost certain to take place outside Dublin, with Dromoland and Ashford Castles named as possible locations.
All the IRA’s Fault
IT was only a matter of time, we suppose, before the British got around to blaming the IRA for the casualties in Iraq. A year or so ago the IRA was allegedly at the center of the Palestinian network which was blowing up innocent Israelis – according to the right wing press in London.
Now the Daily Telegraph, the paragon of the right, has discovered that the IRA is indeed lurking behind the militias who are killing so many soldiers in the Sunni Triangle.
The Telegraph reported last week that “direct attack on security forces personnel is a well-tried terrorist technique. As with so many other forms of atrocity, it was invented by the Irish Republican Army during the Troubles of 1916-21.” Hmmm.
“The IRA set out to make Ireland ungovernable and chose the Royal Irish Constabulary as a prime target. The campaign caused great ill feeling at the outset because the RIC was almost exclusively Catholic in composition,” the Telegraph continued.
Of course, the French Revolution or the American Revolution never witnessed such tactics as targeting the soldiers of the enemy; no way.
What next? The IRA will be blamed for Pearl Harbor on the grounds that they might have given the Japanese the idea?
George the Disney Healer
WHEN news of the Comcast attempted takeover of Disney hit the airwaves beleaguered Disney CEO Michael Eisner quickly turned to an invaluable friend.
Step forward former Senator George Mitchell, he of the Irish peace Process and now very much the man in charge of saving Eisner’s skin in the coming takeover battle.
Mitchell is the presiding director of the Walt Disney Company and was present in Florida last week when the story broke about the takeover bid.
Mitchell was immediately engaged in seeking support among shareholders for the widely distrusted Eisner who is now in great difficulty. One report had Mitchell quietly meeting with key stockholders while Eisner kept the press at bay. Finally Mitchell made a public speech praising Eisner’s leadership and asking that he be kept on.
This must all sound familiar to the 70-year-old Mitchell, who spent several years in Belfast cajoling and encouraging fractious politicians to see things his way. For that reason we’d bet on Eisner to survive.
John O’Sullivan Passes
JOHN O’Sullivan, former chairman of the American Ireland Fund, died recently at his home in Larchmont, New York.
O’Sullivan, a former top executive at Marsh and McLennan insurance company, was a dedicated supporter of all things Irish and played a major role in establishing the American Ireland Fund as the preeminent organization it has become.
He was in the vanguard of a new breed of successful Irish American businessmen in the 1980s and ‘90s who decided to give back to their ancestral land and who made very effort to help Ireland through its significant economic difficulties back then.
Testament to O’Sullivan’s popularity was the huge crowd who showed up at his funeral Mass in Larchmont, including leading members of the American Ireland Fund. O’Sullivan will be sorely missed.
Moore’s Irish Roots
LAST week’s New Yorker magazine had a fascinating profile of left wing author and commentator Michael Moore in which his Irish roots were frequently mentioned.
The magazine covered a speech Moore gave in Liver-pool to a packed auditorium in which he referred to his great grandparents passing through the city on their way to America. A member of the audience interrupted him and asked if he knew that 5,000 Irish had died of cholera in the city around that time and that his ancestors were lucky to get out.
Moore allowed that he did not know that part of Liverpool’s history, but that it further made him aware how lucky he was that his people made it to America at all.
He’s Back!
REPORTS of Jim Barker’s demise have apparently been greatly exaggerated. The New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade honcho was ill before last year’s march and soon after moved to Chicago to be with family members.
However, word is that Jim is still very much pulling the strings behind the scenes at the parade and that we can expect him Lazarus like at this year’s event, and in fine form.
Barker has already outlasted most of his critics so it is hardly a surprise that he is still calling the shots. Maybe on of these days he might even award himself the title of grand marshal too. Now there’s a thought.
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