No Irish Blackout

LAST week’s blackout all but proves the point that this country has become penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to safeguarding our vital resources.

How could it be that a minor incident in Ohio could trigger such a massive blackout that impacted 50 million people? I was in Ireland when this occurred, and the overwhelming belief there was that the U.S. grid system was Third World, a point subsequently made by Bill Richardson, the former energy secretary.

In Ireland, the Electricity Supply Board stated that it prepared for such a breakdown once a week and that all possible eventualities were discussed. They said the maximum time the power would be out was a total of eight hours.

Contrast that with parts of Manhattan, when people were waiting well over 24 hours to have their lines restored. It certainly seems there is something rotten in the greatest industrialized country when a simple power failure can have such extraordinary consequences.

John Burke
Dorchester, Massachusetts

Smoke Ban Blues

AS an Irish American bar employee in Manhattan I read John Spain’s article on banning smoking in Irish pubs with great interest. There were many “experts” quoted who said that it would actually help business rather than hurt it.

I suggest such people come here to New York. Since the ban my wages are down 30%. My boss has had to lay off two waitresses and patrons are leaving us in droves. Yet I still hear the politicians claim it was a good move because bar staff were in harm’s way.

I’m in harms way all right. I’ll probably lose my job if this keeps up. 

Perhaps the mayor could then prove to me how beneficial this is to me and my wife and three children. I have been in this business 20 years, have weathered every recession and even September 11, and now I don’t know if my boss or I can overcome this. It’s sad when a man’s living is put in jeopardy because of political correctness.

John Fay
Bronx, New York

The American Disease

PLEASE leave Bertie Ahern alone. His private life, or indeed that of his daughter, is of no concern to us, especially here in America.

It is awful to see the American disease – I mean the one that almost brought down President Bill Clinton – spreading to Ireland. Where a leader lays his head at night is his business and his only.

Ahern has done a magnificent job on the Irish economy and Northern Ireland. Without him there would have been no peace process, and the economic boom that Ireland enjoyed would never have happened. 

The media, of course, is stirring it up in order to try and get him out of office. They tried the same thing with Charles Haughey, who was a great leader, and they eventually succeeded. The Irish people should ensure they do not succeed again.

Paul Wilson
Santa Cruz, California

Shame on Bertie

SHAME on Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern for allowing that cheap tabloid rag Hello! magazine to hijack his daughter’s wedding. Clearly the need to money grub by his daughter and her new husband, who is already a multi-millionaire from the Westlife boy band, overcame all other considerations.

Does Mr. Ahern himself have a shred of dignity left after becoming part of the $1 million fee paid to his daughter and son-in-law for access to the wedding?

Imagine if President George W. Bush’s daughter was married and the press was denied access because the First Family had done a deal with a magazine to cover the wedding exclusively.

It is beyond tacky that the prime minister of a major European country, who will be president of Europe for six months next year, should allow his own reputation and that of his country to be dragged in the dirt in this manner. Shame on you Mr. Ahern.

James O’Brien
Rochester, Minnesota

Leave Aherns Alone

BERTIE Ahern had little or nothing to do with his daughter’s arrangements for her wedding. If she and her husband sold the rights to Hello! magazine so be it. As Cathal Dervan pointed out in last week’s issue, it is no one’s business but theirs.

If people don’t like that then they can refuse to buy Hello! when the pictures are released. After all, we here in America will turn a buck at the first opportunity. Why should we criticize the Ahern family for doing the same?

An awful lot of the complaints I read about the wedding on the Internet seem to be just sour grapes on the part of the media who were excluded. It is clear to me that the Ahern family deserved their privacy on the wedding day and that this was not a state run wedding, financed by taxpayers like that of the royal family in Britain. If they got $1 million to ensure that privacy, well, good luck to them.

Mary McKeown
Queens, New York

People Deserve Better

THE Bertie Ahern fiasco at the wedding of his daughter was a well-deserved kick in the backside for a politician who has just gotten too big for his boots.

Ahern refused to marry the woman who stood beside him for much of his political life, through triumph and tragedy. Eventually Celia Larkin got the message and dumped him for another man. It occurs to me that Ahern deserved what he got for not making her an honest woman.

Now we see why she may have dumped him. In the end it is all about serving his interests. If his family can make $1 million selling a wedding album then they will do it. There was even a phony reconciliation with his estranged wife. 

All of this is quite pathetic. One feels that the people of Ireland deserve better.

Lorraine Corbett
Chicago, Illinois

Who Cares?

It does not surprise me that all of Long Island is not in an uproar over the family crest of Cromwell (on the town crest of ) Huntington, Long Island (Intelligencer, 8/13 – 8/20).

For instance, Manhattan’s cardinal closed a church in Harlem. Like Cromwell, he did not think of any alternatives. The parish church was for the spread of Christ’s teachings. Unfortunately, the cardinal does not see it that way.

Another thing, at the St. Patrick’s Day parade, the Ancient Order of Hibernians was more worried about pleasing Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, who made a few hundred people homeless and closed firehouses, where many Irish work.

Before we look at the atrocities of Cromwell, look at the politicians of the present and ask: Are they doing what Cromwell started?

Paul Jansen
Flusing, New York

Tougher Questions

I AM always delighted to see Debbie McGoldrick’s annual list of the questions asked in the exam to become American citizens. It strikes me, once again, that one would have to have a very low IQ indeed to fail the exam.

Most of the questions on history, geography, law, etc. could be answered by a second grader. Surely a tougher test would allow a better caliber of citizen to come into the country. That would be my feeling anyway.

James Martin
Falmouth, Massachusetts