Irish Examiner USA

An Exclusive Interview With New Tourism Ireland Boss Niall Gibbons

By Catherine Wylie

To return Ireland to its pre-recession glory days with record numbers of visitors. To ensure tourists in Ireland have a fantastic experience that is unique to any other. And to incorporate the whole island in a movement which promotes an Ireland that is "fun, engaging, and spontaneous." That is the aim of Niall Gibbons who was appointed as the new chief executive of Tourism Ireland just last month.

Previously the Director of Corporate Services and Company Secretary, Gibbons has worked with Tourism Ireland since 2002.

Commenting on his predecessor, the new chief remarked, "I have to pay tribute to the previous chief executive Paul O'Toole, he did a great job getting the foundations in and we've got a great base to build on. Getting this job was the most poignant moment of my career. It feels great, and it really is a privilege taking on the position of chief executive.

"We are facing very difficult times with the economic climate on the world stage, but I think we've got a great team and I've watched that team develop over the last seven years. I'm confident that tourism is a great industry, it's a people-based industry, and it's only a matter of time before we turn a corner." Gibbons will now oversee all markets, which include countries in the Middle East, Europe, South Africa, and of course the USA.

"The key challenge that is facing us at the moment is that there has been a decline in the number of visitors to the island of Ireland over the last year. What we need to do is have a strategy in place that will see our market return to growth," he said.

"I started with Tourism Ireland just after 9/11 and that was a very challenging time with the US market. However, the UK and European markets were holding up well. We're in an economic climate now where all markets are showing a downturn. So the challenge now is to work as closely as possible with our industry partners to make sure we show the great value and great assets Ireland has to offer on the tourism stage. We must reinforce Ireland as the warm, friendly, welcoming destination that it has always been.

"All the research that we do in the international marketplace puts us ahead of the game in relation to the friendliness and warmth of our people. We must also showcase the great value that's there, particularly in the current year. There has been great offers in the accommodation sector and with the air carriers. We have to convince people there hasn't been a better time than now to visit."

Asked how he would convince a Spanish family to come to Ireland for a holiday, Gibbons says, "The proposition we have out there for Brand Ireland, is about it being spontaneous, fun and engaging. Those are the three simple things that run through Brand Ireland. Ireland is full of character and characters. The strap line is 'Go Where Ireland Takes You'. It's a place where you can get lost on a journey, and the idea of being spontaneous, fun and engaging sets us apart from other destinations. You won't get those three things anywhere else."

Ireland, which has previously been almost exclusively marketed on the thatched cottages and Aran jumpers of old, has enjoyed a new burst of cosmopolitan vitality in recent years.

Gibbons argues that this can only be a good thing: "We must reflect on all that is good about Ireland, and that includes both rural and urban. There's the urban feeling reflected in contemporary Dublin and Belfast, and there's also a rural aspect which people can experience in B&Bs and through the regional product which is very strong. It's not a question of focusing on one or the other so to speak, it's the themes of spontaneity, fun and engagement which can be found in both rural and urban experiences.

"Traditional images are important in markets such as Germany and the USA, but in markets where we would have a young vibrant customer we might tend to use the urban images."

With the recession predicted to ease off by the end of 2009, it is thought that Ireland will enjoy an increase in visitors from the USA. However, with November and December being the country's coldest months, will weather put tourists off? Gibbons doesn't think so, "The weather doesn't come into play. It's all about the history, the culture, such as castles and gardens, and particularly the friendliness of the people. The critical thing for us in the current economic climate is that we maintain our marketing presence in our key markets.

"North America, Britain, Germany and France make up 80% of all tourists who come to Ireland. We need to ensure that the product is on the shelf and that it's clearly visible. What is encouraging, behind some the more disappointing statistics, is that in the first three months of 2009 outbound travel from the USA to Europe as a whole fell by almost 14%. Ireland fell by less than 7%, which means that we've had a story that isn't as bad as other countries. We are gaining market share in other words. There are a smaller number of people going on holiday, but we are capturing a larger percentage of them. We are going to maintain that product on the shelf very prominently over the coming year, working with the airlines and carriers ensuring that we feature any attractive fares very heavily."

"Last year we had in excess of 10 million unique visitors to our website and we expect that that is going to grow significantly this year. We have been doing new things online as well, for example we have been working with sites that involve user-generated content such as youtube, MySpace and FaceBook to engage with a new audience. We even featured a St. Patrick's Day parade in Second Life, which is a bit of a unique experience where people can log in and actually go.

"We are keen to do new things online to reach a new audience, and again it's all about being spontaneous, fun and engaging.

"With booking times becoming shorter all the time for the customer, and the expanse of choice out there, it is vital that Ireland stands out. Booking online means that people can book at short notice.

"This is a global campaign which is brand and price led. For such a small island, which is effectively punching above its weight in the grand scale of things, Ireland is doing very well in the world market."

Since the Good Friday Agreement has spelled an end to the Troubles, there has been greater investment and the North has became an unlikely holiday destination. So how important is the North to Tourism Ireland? "The North is critical. We have two key objectives: One is to increase visitors to the island of Ireland, and secondly to support Northern Ireland and help it realize its tourism potential. We have worked very closely with all the stakeholders in Northern Ireland. There is enormous potential there and enormous challenges.

"One of the key issues for us to ensure that the North features prominently across all our campaigns, and you will see through our advertising that it is. There are niche segments that are relevant to Northern Ireland, such as Scot's Irish, marketed here in the USA which are important."

Tourism Ireland has this year launched the 'Go where Ireland takes you' campaign, and Gibbons expresses his confidence that this campaign will be in place for some years to come: "I think the culture of the island is the DNA. We can do a lot with advertising, but underneath that people want to be able to experience the people, the warmth, the music, the food, the craic. And I can see us connecting with that for years to come."

Gibbons went on to tell us about the details of his job and what he does on a day-to-day basis: "I'm one week into it, and I've been to New York, Galway, Shannon and Belfast twice. In relation to my job, there are number of key things. Number one is communicating with our industry, so that what Tourism Ireland is doing in the international marketplace reflects what is going on in our industry on the ground. Secondly I have to work very closely with our teams in the marketplace to ensure that they're motivated and what we are doing is cutting edge. And finally, it is ensuring that the island of Ireland is right out there, that it is at the top of mind for the consumer and that they are left in no doubt that it is a great place to go on holidays."

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 1:02 AM | Permalink

By Joe Kavanagh

Perhaps at no time since the late 1960s has the word "change" been so en vogue. Companies advocate how they are going to change the world, analysts and talking heads wax lyrical about how our financial systems must change if we are to avoid another economic meltdown and - much as I admire him - President Barack Obama ran his entire campaign based around change, without ever actually articulating in depth as to what those changes would be.

Generally speaking however, while people might be in love with the idea of change, they are not quite so open to its application, particularly when it promotes something radically different to conventional wisdom.

Whether it was Aristotle's contention that the world was not flat, or Copernicus' assertion that the sun did not travel around the earth, the history of the human race has been a story of resistance to change, where its most stringent advocates have more often been dismissed as quacks or, worse still, taken out back and hung from the highest tree.

The entire phenomenon is not unlike the animal kingdom, where the members of a species will set upon one of their own kind, often violently, if that member happens to look or behave differently to the rest of the pack.

Thankfully, most cultures today are a little more tolerant of those who come to the table bug-eyed with big ideas but resistance to their claims remains, and fans of music are no different.

Lest we forget, upon hearing rock'n'roll for the first time, most music industry insiders and radio programmers were of the firm belief that it was a spurious fad that would soon pass, a reaction similar to the one endured by hip hop from the moment it began to trickle out of the South Bronx in the 1970s.

While her moniker makes her sound like the fifth Teletubby, and her incipient career means that she certainly has a way to go before she can truly be described as genre-defining, Micachu has unquestionably hit the ground running, with an album that challenges musical etiquette even as it seeks to redefine its parameters.

Mica Levi was born and raised in Surrey, in 1987, the daughter of a full-time cello teacher mother, and a college professor father who lectures in London's Royal Holloway College, where he specializes in Music in the Third Reich.

Surrounded by such acute musical influences, it was hardly surprising that she took up the violin at four-years-old, but particularly telling that she began writing her own compositions only months later.

As she progressed, she also began studying viola and classical composition at the Purcell School of music, where she earned a scholarship to the renowned Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which saw her move to Bow, east London. Running parallel to her classical music tendencies was a growing love for electronic music, brought about when she chanced upon the music of hugely-influential, Limerick-born, Richard James, better known by his stage name, Aphex Twin.

Her fascination with the genre soon saw her spending "an unhealthy amount of time" working on her own electronic compositions, often sitting in front of a computer screen throughout the night as she attempted to complete a new loop.

Working under the name Micachu, her skill and competence soon brought her to the attention of the local Grime and Garage scene, leading to an unlikely alliance between the middle-class composer and urban street kids, of which she once recalled: "We hung out a lot actually. It was quite strange. They were crazy boys, in trouble with the law all the time. We were from such different musical social backgrounds, but it didn't really seem to matter."

In time her ambition and connections saw her put together a mix-tape, Filthy Friends, with a group she referred to as The Cluster, which included disparate names like The Streets' Mike Skinner, jazz act Troyka, pop act, Golden Silver and MCs such as Man Like Me and Ghostpoet.

Releasing it as a free download on her MySpace site, the immaculately-tailored release went on to become one of the most talked about releases on London's underground club scene, due to its innovation and originality.

Her growing profile also brought her to the attention of producer/composer/label boss, Mathew Herbert, himself something of a maverick in the music world, who often operated outside the conventions of standard musical practice (such as composing a house music piece entirely from the sound of World War II bombs).

Signing her to his print, Accidental Records, he encouraged her leftfield approach to electronic music and nurtured her natural inquisitiveness.

Seeking to hone her sound, she set about forming a band known as The Shapes, enlisting the help of college classmate, Raisa Khan, on keyboards, and drummer, Marc Pell, who answered an advertisement she placed on MySpace.

The group made their debut in May of last year with the release of single, Lone Ranger, which was followed up two months later with the more accessible, Golden Phone, a track that truly touched off a buzz in the UK and beyond.

The group finished out the summer by playing festivals such as Bestival and the V Festival, in addition to accompanying Mystery Jets on tour, at the latter's personal request.

With the buzz about this exhilarating new band beginning to percolate up through the ranks, the trio returned to the studio last fall, in order to continue working on their full length debut.

Where most acts are content to simply work on creating their own sound, it should be noted that so devoted is Micachu to her craft that she has followed the path of her idol, avant-garde US composer/hobo/philosopher, Harry Patch, by actually inventing her own instruments, in order to create the specific sound that she envisages.

So it is that despite not yet reaching her 22nd birthday, by virtue of her own imagination, some power tools and a soldering iron, she has already invented a range of instruments including, a xylophone made of light bulbs, a modified guitar with a bass string and hammer action called a "Chu", a bowed instrument made from a CD rack and an instrument called a Cloud Chamber, which is made from Pyrex plates and not only plays notes but also detects particles of ionized radiation!

Her thirst for innovation and creativity is such that she carries a mini-disc player everywhere with her, in case she should come across a sound that she likes and she has also used glass bottles and a vacuum cleaner as instruments on her album. Early this year, advance copies of her album were sent out to several labels and, almost predictably, a bidding war ensued, with Rough Trade coming out on top.

In March, the fruits of her labor were revealed with the release of Jewellery, a celebration of invention that has been accurately described as "gloriously messy", while another referred to it as the musical equivalent of a David Lynch movie, in so far as it only makes sense after repeated encounters. In her own words: "It's pop music, definitely. I don't know, maybe experimental pop. That's probably the simplest. I don't really know what it is. I'm not saying I'm doing something amazingly new and different but I'm a bit greedy in that when I bring songs to the band I'm taking a lot from everything I listen to. I'm a sucker like that. Like, if I'm into something, like garage or R&B, I try and write music like that. It gets all mixed up and makes it pop because it's not one specific genre."

Challenging without ever being contrived, it is not just different for the sake of being different, but the first stop on an artistic journey that promises to be as thought-provoking as it is rewarding.

Micachu recently confessed: "I'm still trying to work out what I want to do...but I'm getting there I think." A wise person once said that "happiness is journey, not a destination" and if the same is true regarding the world of music, then Micachu is undoubtedly one of the finest and bravest explorers out there.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 1:05 AM | Permalink

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Dermot Ahern T.D., this week published the Civil Partnership Bill 2009.

The Bill provides for a statutory civil partnership registration scheme for same-sex couples together with a range of rights and duties consequent on registration including maintenance obligations, protection of a shared home, pension rights and succession.

On registration of a civil partnership, the civil partners will be treated in the same way as spouses under the tax and social welfare codes.

The necessary legislative provisions, to be provided for in Finance and Social Welfare Bills, will be brought into effect at the same time as the civil partnership registration scheme commences.

The Bill provides, for unmarried opposite-sex couples and unregistered same-sex couples, a redress scheme to give protection to a financially dependent person at the end of a long-term cohabiting relationship.

The cohabitants scheme will put in place a legal safety-net for people living in long-term relationships who may otherwise be very vulnerable financially at the end of a relationship, whether through break-up or through bereavement.

Announcing the publication, Minister Ahern said: "Publication of the Bill implements a commitment in the Agreed Program for Government to legislate for Civil Partnerships.

"The Bill provides very significant rights to civil partners which raises complex legal issues in the context of the special protection which the Constitution guarantees to marriage and in relation to the equality rights protected by Article 40.1 of the Constitution.

"The Bill has been carefully framed to balance any potential conflict between these two constitutionally guaranteed rights.

"This balance is achieved by maintaining material distinctions between civil partnership and marriage, in particular between the rights attaching to both, while at the same time reflecting the equality rights protected by the Constitution."

The Bill will give legal recognition to cohabitant agreements enabling cohabitants to regulate their joint financial and property affairs.

It will provide legal certainty as to the status of cohabitant agreements made by couples who wish to regulate their financial and property affairs but who do not wish to marry or enter a civil partnership and who do not wish the redress scheme to apply to them.

The Bill draws on both the Report of the Law Reform Commission on The Rights and Duties of Cohabitants and the Colley Options Paper on Domestic Partnership.

Concluding, the Minister said: "This Bill will put in place a legal regime that reflects the many forms of relationships in modern Irish society.

"It provides legal protection for cohabiting couples and is an important step, particularly for same-sex couples, whose relationships have not previously been given legal recognition by the State."

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 1:08 AM | Permalink

A 'Green New Deal' that aims to establish Ireland as a leader in certain green technologies is a centerpiece of the Irish government's 'smart economy' strategy to stimulate the economy, according to Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan, T.D. The Minister was speaking at a seminar, 'France-Ireland: Shared Perspectives on Innovation and Renewable Energies', which was jointly organised by Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the Franco-Irish Chamber of Commerce and Athema, in Cercle de l'Union Interalliée, Paris.

"A smart economy is a green economy," said the Tánaiste. "Putting energy efficiency at the heart of this strategy will protect us from the inevitable rise in the cost of energy 'inputs' and the pollution 'outputs' arising from our economic activity."

The Green Deal includes an Action Group on Green Enterprise to identify and pursue opportunities for jobs and economic growth; major investment in energy infrastructure, renewable power, and energy efficiency; incentives for energy efficient investment; support for companies and farmers to sell electricity they generate back to the grid; and targeting opportunities in areas like ocean and wind power, and electric vehicles where Ireland could establish a competitive advantage.

A key feature of the smart economy involves building the innovation or 'ideas' component of the Irish economy through the utilisation of the knowledge, skills and creativity of people, and their ability and effectiveness in translating ideas into valuable processes, products and services. Ireland's objective is to develop a smart economy and become known as the innovation island.

"Notwithstanding the current international economic environment, the Irish Government is committed to Ireland maintaining its global competitiveness and that is why we continue to place innovation at the heart of our economic development agenda and have invested heavily in its development," she said.

The Tánaiste later told a business networking dinner for French and Irish business executives in the Irish Embassy in Paris that more than fifty leading French multinational companies had chosen Ireland as an investment location, spanning manufacturing, research and innovation, technology support, electronics and financial services.

She said that Irish companies were increasingly investing in the French economy, with more than five times as many Irish-owned companies establishing a presence in France last year as did in 2007.

The Tánaiste said that in 2008 France was Ireland's fifth largest merchandise trading partner and Ireland is the third largest importer of French goods per person - after Belgium and Switzerland.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 1:16 AM | Permalink

By Charley Brady

He was obviously another member of the amnesiac party, Fianna Fail.

Talking of which, here's my favourite text of the week:

"Fianna Failed obituary. The Soldiers of Disaster - formerly known as the Soldiers of Destiny (1926-2009). Savaged to death at local and European elections. Sadly missed by builders, developers, cowboys and bankers. Remains reposing in large tent at Galway Racecourse. Remains reposing in the Church of St. Bertie the Chancer. No flowers by request. Only money in brown envelopes accepted."

Except that, like another bunch of gangsters, they haven't gone away, you know. Okay, I'm the first one to admit when I've said something wrong.

So to all of the people who have little better to do than to celebrate Bloomsday by dressing up in straw boaters (God help us) then can I just say that I'm truly sorry for having included James Joyce as one of my favourite bores in last week's column.

I didn't know that you characters who have undoubtedly never even attempted the first twenty pages of "Ulysses" were so touchy. Tell you what: try reading his rather steamy letters to Nora instead. Now they're much more interesting.

As it turns out you are quite correct, much to my horror, because I loved John Huston's final film, his adaptation of Joyce's "The Dead", a few years back. It was wonderful; and the sublime Anjelica Huston's performance was truly haunting.

There is a soliloquy by her at the end of the film that is just simply astonishing, especially with that closing shot. It just seems to sum up all the grief and sense of loss and regret that any one of us has felt at one time or another.

So forgive me. I was wrong. As for the rest of Joyce's stuff, no apologies.

Ditto Sam Beckett. Philistine that I am, I never understood a damned word the man said. And now that the first two volumes of his early letters are out and he unequivocally says that he didn't understand what the hell he was on about either, I feel... oh, vindicated.

Liked his boxing, though, as well as his lifestyle.

And neither he nor Joyce could wait to get out of Ireland. The way things are at the moment, as life goes full circle, I can't say that I blame them.

Continuing on from last week: after I had posted my copy of the article in which I talked about the cockroaches in Northern Ireland who had driven 114 Romanians from their homes there, they attacked the church in which the Romas had been given sanctuary, breaking windows - which is all that louts know how to do.

What wonderful additions to the human race you are; and now you must be so proud that all but two of the Romas have gone home. So I guess that the bully-boy tactics of unreconstructed cretins do work after all.

Especially as there has been a conspicuous silence about this.

So since they were driven out by low-lives like you neo- Nazi, swastika waving rat-bags because "they were taking our jobs" you will no doubt be applying for those same jobs. Yeah, in a sow's ear you will. That might actually entail... oh, what's the word I'm looking for... oh yes - work - one of the few four-letter words that you have never come across. Congratulations: they got what they deserved, didn't they? You drove them out.

But the neutering of the press in Ireland goes on and on. As I have said in previous articles there is an insidious clawing away at the freedom of journalists to write as they wish to write. Any idiot knows that we have to pull our claws in occasionally but this week's finding that the "Evening Herald" must pay €1. 8 million for the defamation of the character of Monica Leech is so disproptionate as to have entered the realms of a John Grisham novel.

She was called a "pretty PR woman", but this was somehow blown up, because of her boss Minister Martin Cullen and slippery wording from her very bright law team to mean something else entirely

Tell you what, for that amount of loot they could call me worse than I even call myself - and that's not pretty.

And at this point I'm going to digress a little.

There is a daily newspaper here that seems to draw so much antipathy for reasons that I simply don't understand. It is called "The Irish Daily Mail" and it is the one newspaper that you can depend on to get a good, factual read from. They have solid journalists like Richard Waghorne, Philip Nolan, the great Mary Ellen Synon, Mary Carr and Brenda Power, none of them bowing down to the consensus and often opinionated to a degree that would enrage you.

There are more, but that is just a flavour of the work that this despised paper produces.

Why it is hated so much by journalists from other papers is a mystery to me; and it's not just here.

I recall a couple of years ago doing a travel piece in the beautiful Carcassone region of France. Some English journalists and Your Humble Narrator were meeting up afterwards to relax. (Well, you know how we hideously underpaid and overworked dudes like to relax). To the abject horror of the others I was caught reading the English version of "The Mail".

Same reaction as you would get here. I just don't get their thinking. Maybe, like Mr. Joyce's work, they've never actually read it?

It's a hell of a lot more satisfying than establishment papers like the "Irish Times", that's for sure. Hell, that might as well be the propaganda arm of the government. But like Mr. Joyce I am doing a digression within a digression.

So in returning to Monica Leech, please permit me to quote from veteran reporter Paul Drury: "On Wednesday evening, a High Court jury awarded Monica Leech €1,872,000 in her libel case against the 'Evening Herald'. It was, by any standards, a bad result for Irish newspapers - by far the largest such award ever made, twice the previous record, and proof positive that, under current legislation Irish judges are unable to suggest a scale of awards to libel juries, the system is no better than a lottery.

"Yet this newspaper was the only national daily to devote an editorial yesterday morning to the obscenity of this award - ten times, as we pointed out, what Miss Leech would have got if she had lost both her legs in a car crash. We were the only paper to show any solidarity whatsoever with the Herald. Some of our rivals, like the Irish Independent and the Examiner, even managed to give the impression that it wasn't terribly important. Even worse, if you read the 'Daily Star' or the 'Irish Times', you would be forgiven for thinking that they thought the award was GOOD news."

I couldn't agree more and since I was one of only three journalists to speak against the witch-hunt for Kevin Myers several months ago, I feel it's legitimate to comment on the increasing territorial attitude of journalists.

Sure, everyone is competitive and that's no bad thing. I can't count the number of times that I've had something written only to find that someone else has gotten in with a similar view first. You probably heard my curses in New York as I had to re-write.

We all get inspiration from each other, but one thing that I do and always will do is to acknowledge the original source. Yes, once you have printed something then it is in the public domain, but to me it is just common courtesy to say where you got the idea from.

How far that is from Paul Drury rightly saying: "[I edited the "Herald" for five years but our relationship] has grown colder in recent years... as the "Herald" frequently plagiarises The "Irish Daily Mail" stories even on occasion our headlines; yet they never miss an opportunity to sneer at us in the most disparaging terms..."

Again, I've noticed this and may I just add that I have no affiliation whatsoever with these newspapers. I just like a good factual read and a sense of fair play.

The ludicrous finding for the amount of money to be given to Miss Leech is yet another increasingly concentrated attempt to halt free speech.

Meanwhile, back in Wonderland, the government is continuing to desperately bring out the guns on the second Lisbon Treaty. Of course, we expected Saint The Edge of the Danish band U2 to tell us that we had to vote "Yes" this time. Like his mate, Bono, he is everywhere and all things to all men; but to have Robbie Keane, a soccer player who doesn't even live here and certainly doesn't have the brains that he was born with, lecture us and tell us to get our act together and to vote "Yes"... Well, this is the moment that you think that you have gone completely insane.

Read the Treaty have you, Robbie? I mean, I hear that you're a really deep political thinker.

I was going to add a few words on the hysterical reaction to the death of Michael Jackson. But do you know what? I can't really be bothered.

Hope to see you all next week.

Same bat-time!

Same bat-channel!

You can reach Charley at chasbrady7@eircom.net

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 1:28 AM | Permalink

Ulster SFC Semi-Final
Antrim 0-13 Cavan 1-7

By Denis O'Brien

The Glens of Antrim rang with celebration over the weekend as Antrim gained entry to their first Ulster football final in 39 years when they deservedly saw off a late Cavan challenge in Clones on Saturday evening.

Apart from late periods of the first and second halves, Antrim were in control in this Ulster semi-final with Cavan left to chase the game throughout.

In the final quarter of the game, Antrim were looking good when leading by six with a limited Cavan struggling to make an impression. However, Cavan were thrown a lifeline with a 58th minute goal by substitute David Gibney.

Moments later, sub Larry Reilly sent over an inspirational point to leave the Breffini trailing by two to set up an exciting finale.

Antrim, who seemed to be tiring, never panicked though and hit back with a late Paddy Connaughton point to stretch the lead to three.

Despite Cavan gunning for a last gasp equalizer Antrim held out for a famous victory and the right to meet All Ireland champions, Tyrone in the final.

Although hitting a series of early wides, Cavan's Seanie Johnston eventually got his side going when lofting over a fourth-minute point. A good reply from a fisted effort from Antrim full forward Sean Burke tied the sides in an energetic start to the game.

The teams then traded scores through Johnston and Thomas McCann before a very composed and assured Antrim attack hit five unanswered scores with Terry O'Neill, Michael McCann (0-2), James Loughrey and Cunnigham all on song.

During this period, Antrim had Cavan's half back line in serious trouble as the half forwards were creating opportunities running at the defense at every chance.

Thomas McCann then had a goal chance when one-on-one with Cavan keeper, James O'Reilly, but the Breffini man was equal to the task when pulling off a fine save.

Antrim were guilty of a pair of wides and for all their possession should have been further ahead.

In the best period of the game for Cavan a late flourish saw them shoot three points in succession to leave them behind by just 0-7 to 0-6 at the break.

Any notion that the Glens men were going to implode quickly evaporated on the restart when points from Michael McCann, Cunnigham (0-2) (both of former Boston vintage) and Aodhan Gallagher pushed Antrim five clear once more. Gallagher's score came from a pass from wing back James Loughrey who had won the ball with a great catch.

Cavan needed a score badly but weren't able to make any inroads through a tight Antrim defense.

With the lion's share of possession Antrim should have increased their lead however poor shooting left them down once more.

Justin Crozier's 52nd minute point restored Antrim's rhythm to leave two goals between the sides with Cavan failing to register a single score yet in the second period.

Then Martin Reilly saw a goal effort saved before minutes later Cavan pressing again won a '45. Martin Reilly drove the ball to the edge of the square where the ball broke to sub David Gibney who pounced on the breaking ball and he bundled the ball over the line much to the delight of the Breffini faithful.

Larry Reilly's fine effort a minute later left two in it with the game in the balance but Antrim showed plenty of composure with Cunnigham's late point.

The Glens men will be no push-over in the final. They combine well as a unit and have plenty of forwards who are able to take a score.

And, they also have that essential element that is critical to modern football - speed.

Teams & Scorers:
Antrim: P Graham: C Brady, A McClean, K O'Boyle; T Scullion, J Crozier (0-1), J Loughrey (0-1); N McKeever, A Gallagher (0-1); T O'Neill (0-1), K Brady, P Cunningham (0-4, 3f); S Burke (0-2), M McCann (0-2, 1f), T McCann (0-1). Subs: K Niblock for McKeever (59 mins), C Close for K Brady (64)
Cavan: J Reilly, M Hannon, D Sheridan, M Brides, J McCutcheon, E Keating, P O'Reilly, N Walsh, C Galligan, S Brady, R Flanagan, C Mackey, S Johnston (0-4, 2f), R. Cullivan (0-1), M Reilly (0-1). Subs: P Brady for P Reilly (21mins), R Dunne for McCutcheon (40), L Reilly (0-1) for S Brady (44), D Gibney (1-0) for Mackey (54), J O'Reilly for Keating (62)
Referee: J Bannon (Longford)

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 1:44 AM | Permalink

This past weekend saw the first ever Irish festival take place at the Aviator Complex in Brooklyn. 

Featuring performances by acts such as The Wolf Tones, Seanchai, the Pat McGuire band, The Moonshiners, Mary McCabe, Brian Monahan and Jameson's Revenge, revelers enjoyed an Irish atmosphere in the New York sunshine. 

Patrick McGuire, of the Pat McGuire band, who now lives in Moycullen Co. Galway, expressed his delight at the introduction of an Irish festival in Brooklyn and echoed the words of the other musicians in his hope that it would become a successful annual event. 

Chris Byrne of Seanchai commented, "It may be difficult for the first couple of years, but they seem to have it together here."

Brendan Burke, designer of the 'Wild Rover' clothing range was present at the two-day event to promote his Irish themed t-shirts. 

Stepping away from the more tradition images of Ireland, such as shamrocks and harps, Burke's aim is to continue creating an edgy, street style for Irish Americans. 

He spoke about getting the idea for his design, "I was on the subway listening to the song 'Wild Rover' and it just came to me.  I couldn't wait to start!"

Writer Malachy McCourt was honored with The Gleeson Award on the first day of the festival. 

The award, which is new and named after Brooklyn's own Jackie Gleeson, aims to acknowledge those who use the arts, entertainment or literature to showcase the vibrant spirit of Brooklyn natives. 

Malachy McCourt is a Brooklyn born author, actor, wit, raconteur, and restaurateur, and like Jackie Gleeson, has traveled far and wide, but has always retained his Brooklyn roots and attitude. 

Speaking to The Irish Examiner, the writer of 'History of Ireland' amongst seven other books, said, "Despite Ireland's reputation for literature being worldwide, none of the Irish festivals have any place for Irish literature, but yet today we have four nobel prize winners in attendance. Kevin McCabe, the organizer, has immediately included literature."

Other writers in attendance included Mary Pat Kelly, author of 'Galway Bay', Dan Barry, New York Times columnist and writer of 'City Lights' and 'Pull me up', and Malachy McCourt's brother Alphie. 

Malachy McCourt referred to his book 'A History of Ireland' as a history written by a triumphant loser, and went on to express his wish that the festival becomes a permanent fixture in the annual calendar of Brooklyn.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 2:10 AM | Permalink

Project Children, the organization which has brought young children and interns to America since 1975, welcomed 115 children from all over the North of Ireland last Thursday. 

Set up by Denis Mulcahy to alleviate the burden and unpleasantness thrust upon the children of the Troubles, the project involves American families who offer to look after an Irish child for a month. 

Staying in places such as Syracuse, Atlantic City, and Long Island, Tom Kinirons , the Long Island co-ordinator told the Irish Examiner that he is in charge of 21 children on Long Island this summer.  "I usually start looking for host families in March," he says.  This is the fourth year Mary Laxton and her family has hosted a child, and this is their second consecutive year to welcome 12-year-old Niamh Mowbray from Belfast.

Mary remarked, "When I heard about it I just thought it would be a wonderful thing to do, and it was." 

Niamh's father, Patrick Mowbray, took part in the scheme over thirty years ago, staying with Mike Jordan who still volunteers for Project Children today.   

Thirty nine interns arrived at JFK on the same flight the previous Thursday, and are working all over the USA, in New York, Colorado, Michigan and Florida.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 2:15 AM | Permalink

Martin Cullen T.D., the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism attended an event at the Old Jameson Distillery in Smithfield, Dublin last week to mark the publication of a report commissioned by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland entitled "The Contribution of the Drinks Industry to Irish Tourism," authored by Anthony Foley, Economist at Dublin City University Business School.

Speaking at the Distillery, a popular tourist trail attraction in Dublin, Minister Cullen said: "Tourism is the largest indigenous Irish industry and the hospitality sector makes a significant contribution to the way in which tourism supports the Irish economy.

"This country's extensive network of public houses provide facilities and services for tourists and contributes to the tourism experience in a significant manner.

"I know from research conducted for the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland that 95% of pubs provide food, 35% provide live entertainment and 14% provide entertainment specifically for tourists."

The Minister added: "Fáilte Ireland research shows that 45% of overseas tourists rate traditional music as a very important determinant of choosing Ireland as a holiday location.

"As popular traditional music venues, pubs provide visitors with memorable cultural experiences as well as providing a unique environment in which visitors can meet and converse with local people.

"Visitors who come here want to become immersed in our living culture particularly music and dance and will seek out the traditional Irish pub.

"We have a long, proud tradition and an international reputation in brewing and distilling," he continued, "and that heritage is shared with visitors at venues like the Guinness Storehouse and the Old Jameson Distillery which rank among the most popular visitor attractions in the country.

"Other industry visitor attractions on the island include the Jameson Experience in Cork, Locke's Distillery in Kilbeggan, the Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre and the Bushmill's Distillery in Antrim."

Minister Cullen also acknowledged the support of the industry to Irish festivals and sporting occasions: "As well as enhancing the visitor experience, the drinks industry also supports festivals and events - key drivers of local tourism.

"While almost €4m is invested by Fáilte Ireland directly in supporting festivals around the country, in addition to assistance from the Arts Council, there is also considerable support given by the drinks industry to many of these festivals. Cultural and sporting events are all beneficiaries of support and sponsorship from the hospitality sector."

Minister Cullen added: "The drinks industry also benefits from its links with tourism. Manufacturers, distributors and retailers of drinks products all gain significantly from tourism.

"As your report this evening shows, more than a third of expenditure by overseas visitors is on food and drink, the highest category of all tourist spending."

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 2:18 AM | Permalink

The Summer may be here at last, but did you ever see so much rain? As I said last week, the US Open was like a swimming pool.

Now it's time to enjoy this fine weather and what is better than going to an outdoor event this summer?

That's exactly what we are doing this Wednesday when we visit Fitzpatrick's Grand Central hotel's Wheeltapper Restaurant and its outdoor courtyard where the Irish Business Organization are having their annual  Summer Party from 6pm to 9pm.

This event is a great way to meet friends and also to network and make contacts and, of course, enjoy a few cocktails.

On Sunday July 12 a special tribute and remembrance will be held for a great sporting husband and wife team, parents of three children, who died in a auto accident recently.

The memorial mass will be held at Gaelic Park (240th Street & Broadway in the Bronx) at 10am. The mass is in remembrance of two former Gaelic Sports greats Joe O'Connell from Causeway, County Kerry and Ann Coleman from County Galway and New York Young Ireland's Camogie team. For more information call Kathleen McDonagh at (718) 499-9482.

For all you concert-goers here is something special for you: Tom Jones will be performing at the Capital One Bank Theatre at Westbury on Long Island. He'll be there on Friday, July 17 & Saturday, July 18 at 8pm on both days. Tickets begin at $61.50 and are available exclusively online at LiveNation.com, charge by phone at (877) 598-8694, at the Westbury box office, and at participating Blockbuster stores or you can call (516) 247-5206.

Tom Jones had numerous hits as you will all remember, including "It's Not Unusual," "What's New Pussycat," "She's a Lady," "The Green Green Grass of Home," and lots more.

His songs have appeared in many movies and he has made several cameos in them too.

For all you golfers, as I mention in my column last week, the Emerald Guild Society's 10th Annual Timothy J. O'Connor Memorial Golf Outing takes place on Tuesday July 7 at the Links at Uniondale.

For more information call Garrett Doyle at (212) 751-3667 or Michael O'Reilly at (212) 945-4346. All the proceeds go to charity.

The Tom Suozzi Nassau County Excutive 15th Annual Golf Classic and Dinner will be held this Monday, July 6. For more information, call Danielle Oglesby on (516) 393-9080.

For all you soccer fanatics here is something special: Spiritoso Restaurant on McLean Avenue in Yonkers are running a bus up to Boston Gillette Stadium to see AC Milan play Internazionale on Sunday ,July 26. The bus will pick up travelling fans in Yonkers and Mamaroneck at 9am and returns at midnight.

For tickets (which are priced at $170 or $200 and that includes transportation, food, beverages and admission to the game) call (914) 237-4075 for reservations.

Biddy Early's Pub & Restaurant and Lilly O'Brien's Pub and Restaurant (both on Murray Street in Tribeca) which are owned by John Carey are happening places to go for a relaxing time, for some fun, food and great drinks.

You can enjoy a mixture of contemporary Irish dining, some of the finest ales, live GAA, live entertainment in a genuine Irish atmosphere and service from a friendly Irish staff... now what more can you ask for?

McGarry's (on 9th Avenue and West 33rd Street, (212) 810-2115) is another thriving establishment that is run by none other than Mick Sheridan.

You should all stop in for lunch, dinner or just for a drink at this New York Irish Pub which is only a few blocks from Madison Square Gardens.

Have you visited Stout (on West 33rd Street, just off 7th Avenue) yet? Let me tell you, what a place that is! It's also very much Irish-owned and it must be one of the biggest Irish pubs that you will ever visit in the city of New York.

With its cobble-stone floors and stone walls and high ceilings, the place is breathtaking and it boasts a very friendly staff who are just waiting to greet you as you step inside the door and you'll never know who you're going to meet as well.

It happened to me last week when I called in for a pint and, of course, looking for the innkeeper herself, Noelle Mooney, but someone said she was at the Mets game, huh?

I did get to meet an old friend, Teddy Whelan, father of Martin and Mark Whelan who are owners and partners in Stout, F.AT.S, Maggie's Place and St. Andrews, who were over to see how everybody was doing as Ted is now living back in Dublin; the man has never changed.

Paul Hurley has informed us that when you're over on the West side that you have to call into P.D. Hurleys  River Cafe on Pier 84 (12th Avenue and 44th Street) since this is a rocking hot spot in the summer and is a must visit with its outdoor restaurant though reservation are advised. It is also right next door to the Circle Line and the Intrepid Museum, so as I said give them a call at (212)643-6233 when you're going over.

See you all next week.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 2:22 AM | Permalink

Following the publication of the Ryan Report, the Dublin 4 intelligentsia and chattering class have embarked on a frenzied irrational campaign to crucify the religious orders which administered the Irish State sanctioned system of industrial schools and orphanages. Due process be damned!

The Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy and other orders should be disestablished forthwith and their assets confiscated by the state. Priests, brothers and nuns, even if they had no personal complicity in the outrages, must be ostracized and expelled into an internal exile.

Rabid irrationalism from the intelligentsia on this issue is very much the norm rather than the exception. In typical overreaction, Sunday Independent columnist Emer O'Kelly denounced members of religious orders as "greedy, bloodsucking, cruel, dishonest, unprincipled, immoral men and women." Settle lady. Settle! Pardon us for thinking that the Fourth Estate should leaven the public discourse with objective intellectual discernment.

Such rabidity would be understandable coming from the abuse victims themselves. However, it is completely out of bounds from an arrogant self righteous intelligentsia, which was a chief enabler in sacrificing the Irish soul on the materialistic altar of the Celtic Tiger.

Flailing and floundering, the punditocracy is unable to come to terms with the economic collapse of said feline, and its own complicity in it.

In a supreme effort at psychological displacement, unable to countenance their own failures, the chattering classes and talking heads lash out blindly by putting a bull's eye on the back of every nun, priest and brother. Actual culpability is irrelevant!

Outrageous abuses - sexual, physical and psychological - have been illuminated by the Ryan Report. However, a sense of context and relativity is badly needed.

Recently, the horrific episode was described as "Ireland's Holocaust". The implication being that the religious orders provided the apparatus, the Mengeles and the Hoess and the ordinary SS functionaries, that ran the "camps" and perpetrated the horrors. But, if the contemporaneous judiciary committed the child victims to the custody of the abusers, did it not play the role of a co -conspiratorial Reich court system?

The Gardai and the social service system? Were they not the Gestapo and the SS who gave effect to the judiciary's decision by loading the trains? Perhaps they were just "following orders"?

And what of the politicians and senior civil servants? The Eichmanns? They funded and conspired in the administration and maintenance of the system.

The State supplied the resources and provided the victims. Without that support the abuses could not have occurred.

When it comes to assigning culpability, there are more than enough perpetrators to go around and they are not all wearing clerical garb.

Was the expenditure of millions of euros really necessary to reveal what was already a great open secret? The State, of course, will assert an incredulous deniability. However, Irish society smelled the stench from the "camps".

While there is plenty of evidence that politicos and civil servants were cognizant, Sean and Siobhan Citizen also had a strong inkling. And, the contemporaneous media also knew but were damming in their complicit silence.

Awareness was so pervasive that it was common for parents to threaten their misbehaving children with dispatch to these institutions. And, the institutionalized themselves, who were furloughed into the local communities to provide slave labor for local farmers, provided ample anecdotal and empirical evidence.

But State, Church and the establishment conspired in the maintenance of an environment of unquestioned authoritarianism. Group think reigned supreme.

In that context, ostracization, ridicule and ruin would have greeted any potential whistleblower, religious or lay, who dared to challenge the status quo.

It is rank dishonesty to demand accountability only from the religious orders for this Kafkaesque nightmare.

The punditocracy should be insisting on bringing the entire range of actors to book? Shouldn't the complicit agencies of the State also be in the dock? Without State complicity the industrial schools and orphanages could never have operated. As a more enlightened talking head opined, "It was a conspiracy between government, judiciary and Church."

To extrapolate these abuses from the context of their time is intellectually dishonest.

In the struggle for survival, which epitomized the early decades of the Southern State, society was brutal and harsh. Authority was sacrosanct. Corporal punishment was endemic in the national and secondary school systems. Many Irish people, whose school years occurred before the 1980s, will have their repertoire of class - room horror stories.

For many young minds, school was a place of tension, fear and arbitrary violence. Indeed, more Irish children suffered physical and psychological abuse at the hands of lay school teachers than ever did from religious educators.

So, should we now indict several generations of Irish lay teachers even though most, within the context of the times, were simply strict disciplinarians, demanding taskmasters and concerned educators, rather than perverse abusers?

A veteran garda sergeant, who had joined the force in the 1950s, bemoaned the fading of an informal, effective method of dealing with juvenile offenders. It had been acceptable practice at the beginning of his career for a garda to take aside a youth who might have been "acting up" and give him "a bit of a hiding" to "straighten him out".

The sergeant elaborated that usually the deviant saw the light. The youth's family was not embarrassed, as there were no formal proceedings to be reported in the newspaper. And, there was no criminal record to handicap the young deviant in later life.

This methodology, no doubt, squashed many a budding criminal career in its infancy. Yet, no doubt, in some cases, brutality and abuses of process resulted.

However, should we now indict several generations of gardai en masse for the excesses of the few, and for doing what was contemporaneously acceptable?

A mature reflection on the role of religious orders in Irish life will reveal their enormous contribution. The selflessness and self sacrifice of brothers, nuns and priests ensured that quality secondary education and further academic opportunity were available to generations of Irish children who otherwise would not have had that opportunity. Religious educators were tough and demanding. Certainly, some individuals were abusive and perverse.

Only the unsophisticated observer, or those with motives other than justice, would extrapolate what is effectively a now alien dimension of Irish social history out of its context and condemn an entire class of people.

Institutions, religious or lay, did not perpetrate abuses, individuals did. Certainly, any perpetrators that can be identified should be prosecuted. So, too, should complicit State agents, who knowingly delivered children into such horrors. And no! Millions need not be squandered enriching the barrister class in doing so!

The net should also be widened to include investigation and prosecution of abuses perpetrated in the national and secondary school systems, with full consideration being given to the context of the time.

This must be a quest for justice, and not yet another dimension of an ongoing campaign of anti religious zealotry.

Patrick Hurley blogs at: irish-american-news-opinion.blogspot.com

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 2:24 AM | Permalink

Connacht SFC Semi-Final
Galway 1-13 Sligo 0-12

By Denis O'Brien

It took until injury time for Galway to finally overcome a battling Sligo in a game that they, the fancied Tribesmen, could have easily lost and they were flattered winners in the end.

After taking a two-point lead into the second half, Galway saw that margin vanish nine minutes after the restart. The game ebbed and flowed from their till a minute from normal time when Padraig Joyce looked to have finally sealed the deal for Galway when putting over to increase the margin to two points.

But Sligo, who had been battling from midway through the first half, would not go away and two frees from the excellent David Kelly tied the sides once more.

Then in injury time, a costly giveaway free in Sligo's half sent Galway into attack from which the influential Joe Bergin made hay as he shot between the posts to give Galway the lead on the 72nd minute.

Sligo never got a chance to respond as Galway broke the kickout with the ball falling to wing back, Jonathon Davey who was dispossessed near the sideline by Padraig Joyce.

The ace forward looked up and gave a great pass inside to the unmarked Sean Armstrong who went around goalkeeper, Philip Greene before crashing the ball to the back of the Sligo net.

Game, set and match, Galway.

Galway raced into an early lead with a brace of scores from Joyce and Armstrong catching a very flat footed Sligo defense off guard.

Adrian Marron replied for Sligo before Galway who were full of running, struck three unanswered points from the excellent Joyce, young wing back Gareth Bradshaw and the lively corner forward, Armstrong to increase the lead to four.

Sean Daly got one back for Sligo but with Joyce, Armstrong and the pacey Mathew Clancy causing problems upfront, Galway once more extended the lead with three further points to now lead by six.

The first of those points came from Armstrong whose goal bound shot was deflected over the crossbar by a fine save by Philip Greene.

Galway were then hit with a blow when Clancy went off with a leg muscle injury and they seemed to lose their way somewhat after this as Sligo finished the half on a high note hitting the next four scores, the last two coming from former Boston players, Ross Donovan and Jonathon Davey.

Sligo corner forward David Kelly, who was creating trouble with every touch, helped to stem the tide during that period with his side now trailing by two at the break.

Sligo sub Kevin Sweeney missed a gilt-edged chance of a goal shortly after the resumption when put through and bearing down on goal, he struck the ball directly at keeper, Adrian Flaherty who saved the ball. The resulting '45, saw Kelly expertly convert.

Marron then leveled the game with a point before the game was thrown on its head with a double sending off when Sligo's Mark Ewing got a second yellow while Galway's Gary O'Donnell foolishly punched Davey in the ribs when the two were on the ground over the sideline. He received a red card for this idiocy.

The sides were level on two further occasions before Galway's injury time 1-1 sealed victory for the Tribesmen.

Sligo's David Kelly and sub Stephen Coen, both operating at corner forward, were influential and looked dangerous in the late stages.

Galway's performance lacked polish and their full back line in particular was under pressure.

They will need to improve on this performance when Connacht final opponents and old rivals Mayo come calling on July 19.

Teams & Scorers:
Galway: A Flaherty, D Burke, F Hanley, N Coyne, G Bradshaw (0-1), D Blake, D Meehan, P Conway, G O'Donnell, C Bane (0-1), P Joyce (0-3), J Bergin (0-1), S Armstrong (1-3), M Meehan (0-4, 2f), M Clancy. Subs: JJ Greaney for Clancy (15 mins), M Sice for D Meehan (43), B Cullinane for Bane (56), K Fitzgerald for Hanley (61)
Sligo: P Greene, C Harrison, N McGuire, R Donovan (0-01), M McNamara, N Ewing, J Davey (0-1), T Taylor, E Mullen, E O'Hara, A Costello, S Davey (0-1), D Kelly (0-4, 2f 1 '45'), M Breheny (0-2, f), A Marren (0-2, f). Subs: K Sweeney for S Davey (31 mins), P McGovern for Harrison (h-t), S Coen (0-01) for Marren (53).
Referee: D Fahy (Longford).

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 2:57 AM | Permalink

Another Friendly Set Up With Manchester City

Assuming that he passes a medical exam, former Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura will be joining the Spanish Premier League's Espanyol on a two-year contract.

The 31-year-old, whose contract with Celtic had expired at the end of June, decided against returning to Japan to play with his old club Yokohama F Marinos and will be unveiled as a member of Espanyol's squad on July 10.

Nakamura, who was PFA Scotland's Player of the Year in 2007, helped the Bhoys to three consecutive League titles, a Scottish Cup win and two League Cups.

Celtic could still be in with a chance to sign AS Nancy's Marc-Antoine Fortune after Hull City's manager Phil Brown confirmed that his club has not yet been able to agree terms with the 27-year-old striker.

Celtic coach Peter Grant, confirmed that the club was still interested in the player saying that: "Marco is a quality player and we were very impressed by just how well he did for us last season.

"People say he didn't have a fantastic scoring record. But look at the goals from midfield after he came in.

"The goals the other boys scored because of the way he played was phenomenal.

"Marco had a great ethic about him in his training as well as his playing. He was a privilege to work with," he concluded.

Celtic will meet one of the Premiership's star-studded sides when they travel down to the City of Manchester Stadium on August 8 for the latest pre-season friendly.

With a list of multi-million pound transfer targets being mooted to join the likes of Robinho, former Celt Craig Bellamy, Shay Given, Roque Santa Cruz and Gareth Barry at Manchester City, the friendly promises to be a tantalising prospect as well as a stern test for Mowbray's Bhoys.

The game will come hot on the heels of Celtic's pre-season trip to Australia, their July 22 encounter with Cardiff City, their games in the Wembley Cup and the first home game of the new season against Sunderland on August 1.

According to a statement on Celtic's website: "The run of matches will make for a busy and challenging start to the campaign, while drawing in the club's army of supporters from every corner of the globe."

This is also the second consecutive year that the club has faced City in a pre-season friendly, with the Blues visiting Celtic Park last August and being held to a 1-1 draw by a youthful Celtic side.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 3:01 AM | Permalink

As the fourth of July approaches I am reminded of a poem in the book 'My Road' by Marion Rose Horgan, from Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland. If you haven't already got a copy, email me and I'll let you know where you can order one. It's a book well worth having and a keepsake you will always treasure.

Marion tells us that her poem 'Independence Day' was written to celebrate the birth of her nephew, David Warren Hughes, on the 4th July 2002.

It gives an entire new feeling to the occasion. Dave Horgan and his wife Trish were expecting their fifth child in 2002. Dave, who has always been a fan of America and all things American, thought that it would be really special if the baby could be born on Independence Day.

Trish, who is the epitome of organization, was more interested in getting the baby into the world on the earliest possible date, but being the dutiful and devoted wife she is, she duly obliged and David Warren Hughes was born on Thursday, the fourth of July 2002, weighing in a sturdy 9lbs.

Dave's sister Marian Rose was icing a chocolate cake to celebrate the baby's homecoming when these lines came to mind...

Independence Day

A brand new day, fourth of July,
A newborn fills his lungs and cries.
A new star's shining in the skies
It's Independence Day.

An eaglet starts to learn to fly,
Under his mother's watchful eye.
He's looking upwards to the sky
It's Independence Day.

Life is so short, so let it be,
Brimful of opportunity.
I wish you deep serenity,
It's Independence Day.

Pair winds and fortune may you find,
And happiness and peace of mind.
Be ever patient, true and kind.
It's Independence Day

The cord is cut, now you will be
In awe of your great liberty.
May you fulfill your destiny,
It's Independence Day.

© Marian Rose Horgan

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 3:07 AM | Permalink

The number of marriages registered in 2006 was 22,089, 5.2 per 1,000 of the population. This compares with a total of 21,355 (5.2 per 1,000 of population) in 2005 and 16,174 (4.5 per 1,000 of population) in 1996.

These figures are contained in the Central Statistics Office's Vital Statistics, Marriages report for 2006, released this week.

The number of civil marriages was 5,127 or just over 23% of all marriages in 2006, an increase of 365 on the 2005 figure.  In 1996, there were 928 civil marriages (6%) in Ireland. The number of Roman Catholic marriage ceremonies was 16,211 in 2006 and accounted for 73% of all marriages in the year, compared with 74% in 2005 and 90% in 1996.

The average age of grooms in 2006 was 33.2 years, compared with 33.1 years in 2005 and 30.2 years in 1996.

The pattern for brides is similar with the average age increasing from 28.4 years in 1996 to 31.0 and 31.2 years in 2005 and 2006 respectively.

There were 20,411 (92.4%) grooms and 20,713 (93.8%) brides marrying for the first time in 2006. This compares with over 99% of grooms and brides marrying for the first time in 1996, when divorce was not yet legalized.

There were 201 (0.9%) widowers and 147 (0.7%) widows who married in 2006.

Divorced men accounted for 6.7% (1,477) of grooms while divorced women accounted for 5.6% (1,229) of brides.

There were 2,253 marriages involving at least one divorced person in 2006, including 453 marriages where both parties were divorced.

Civil ceremonies accounted for 1,851 of these marriages, 260 were Roman Catholic ceremonies, and 142 were other religious ceremonies.

The average age of grooms marrying for the first time was 32.1 years. The average age among widowers was 56.0 years, and the average age among divorced men was 46.3 years. For brides, women marrying for the first time had an average age of 30.4 years, widows 50.6 years, and divorced women 42.9 years.

The most popular month for marriage in 2006 was August, when 14% of marriages occurred, while January was the least popular month with just 3% of marriages occurring during that month.

Friday was the most popular day of the week to get married with 36% of marriages occurring on that day. The least popular day was Sunday when just over 1% of marriages were recorded.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 3:13 AM | Permalink

The Minister met with Guy Hachey, Bombardier Aerospace's President and Chief Operating Officer and other senior executives at the company's headquarters in Montreal, as part of her two-day business visit to Canada, with Invest NI.

Arlene Foster said, "I and my Executive colleagues recognise Bombardier is facing many challenges in the current global recession. I came here today to reinforce our commitment to the company and to pledge to do whatever we can to help support its Northern Ireland base through this difficult period in preparation for the economic upturn.

"Bombardier is Northern Ireland's largest manufacturing company with over 5,000 employees and we must ensure its commercial future here remains strong and viable."

Following her meeting, the Minister took a tour of aircraft final assembly lines in Montréal, to which Bombardier Aerospace, Belfast has a major input.

"It was very encouraging to see at first hand, the final assembly work being undertaken on these aircraft, components for which are manufactured in Northern Ireland," she continued, adding that she, "recently welcomed the European Commission's approval of £113.37 million UK government funding towards Bombardier's all new commercial aircraft family, the CSeries.

"The CSeries aircraft programme is a very significant project for Northern Ireland as it will generate over 800 jobs here over its 20 year lifetime.

"It is also of great importance as it offers opportunities for businesses within both the local and UK-wide supply chains, and further enhances the standing of Northern Ireland's aerospace sector and its research, development and innovation capability."

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 3:19 AM | Permalink

Undoubtedly, the biggest, and some might even say the only, story in music last week was the untimely demise of Michael Jackson, who passed away at only 50-years-old. Given that his life and death have been dissected, analyzed and opined upon from the four corners of the earth, I won't dwell on the matter too deeply in this column, but sufficed to say that the world of music certainly lost one of its most colorful talents, a man whose global stardom came at a price for both himself and those around him. Preternaturally gifted, deeply troubled and irretrievably damaged, his was a life lived in the blazing spotlight of fame, a double-edged sword upon which he eventually fell. My enduring memory of the man is of walking along Third Avenue in Manhattan one sunny day a decade or so ago and seeing him pass by in a limousine with a crazed mob of people chasing it through the traffic, risking life and limb as they sprinted through busy intersections, screaming and generally behaving like they had lost their minds. Nor was it just a group of kids either, with at least half of the crowd aged 30 or above and many donning snappy business suits. Aside from thinking "What a bunch of buffoons," I also remember wondering what, if any, kind of an existence is that for a human being and how anyone could expect him to be normal given his immersion in that world since his earliest childhood? R.I.P...

Last weekend saw what organizers are referring to as the most successful Glastonbury music festival yet, with revelers treated to some of the biggest names in music under beautiful sunny skies. Neil Young, Blur and Bruce Springsteen were just some of the hundreds of acts to appear at the venerable music extravaganza, and the latter performed for two hours 40 minutes, running over the legal curfew by nine minutes, drawing a fine of almost $5,000 for festival organizer, Michael Eavis. Delighted with proceedings in general and The Boss's performance in particular, a thrilled Eavis claimed: "I gave him 10 minutes and he took nine. I'll pay the fine - £3,000. Paul McCartney (2004 headliner) paid me back. I'm going to pay the Bruce Springsteen one myself. It's not a lot because it was fantastic. The last nine minutes were spectacular. There are limits because a lot of people live nearby and it is right that things draw to a close at a reasonable hour. Each year we get only a handful of complaints about noise." What kind of a sad sack complains about noise at Glastonbury? What do they expect given that 177,000 people descend on the place for a three-day party? And party they did, with 131 arrests, mostly for drug offences, and curiously one man was detained for public nudity. Three festival goers were also removed from the site with suspected cases of swine flu...

Amy Winehouse's career as a musician might have taken a back seat to her career as a barfly but she has not remained altogether idle, as she attempts to straighten out her act on the Caribbean island of St Lucia. The troubled singer has just launched her own line of wrapping paper and greeting cards, which will be festooned with lyrics from her Back To Black album, though quite what her involvement was in designing the products is still unclear. The project has been carried out in conjunction with her record label, EMI, which is hardly surprising given the amount of money that they've spent on her in recent times. I'm sure they're just trying to make some kind of return on their investment at this stage, and it doesn't look as if she's is in any fit state to record an album any time soon...

While we're on the subject of Amy Winehouse, sources close to Kelly Osbourne claim that she recently pulled the plug on a vacation to St Lucia because she feared running into her onetime friend. Osbourne and Winehouse fell out rather spectacularly after Winehouse went to stay with the reality TV star. A source close to Osbourne told the Daily Star: "Amy rearranged all the furniture and pictures into crazy places, turning chairs over and organizing personal objects in her own version of feng shui while Kelly was out. She'd even removed some items she ranted were evil. It was the last straw for Kelly, who finally saw how out of control Amy was. She had tried to help her get over her drug problem but finally had enough." ...

Staying with the Osbournes for a moment, Jack Osbourne was allegedly attacked in London last week, while traveling home from a friend's wedding. According to reports, two men accosted Osbourne and began abusing him before punches were thrown. The story is a little fishy given the fact that Jack Osbourne is the only major witness to the confrontation, writing on Twitter: "Came home and got jumped in the street. Knuckles hurt today. I think it means I hit them harder than they hit me." Of course it does, his knuckles were probably just hurting from dragging them along the ground...

Poor old Rachel Stevens, talk about a bad month. Last Friday, the pop singer was enjoying a meal with her family at a London restaurant when a gunman wearing a motorcycle helmet chased another man into the eatery before shooting him five times in front of horrified staff and customers. Although the pinup and her family were unhurt, they were extremely shaken up, as one might expect. Stevens was also in the news early this month when she was robbed by three thugs who followed her into her home, relieving her of her engagement ring, necklace and a Rolex watch. If I were her, I would at least consider a move to the country at this point and let's hope for her sake that there is no truth to the adage that these things come in threes...

Liam Gallagher has categorically denied that he is set to star in an upcoming movie based on Kevin Sampson's novel, Powder, which chronicles the rise of a rock band and their subsequent descent into drug addiction. A spokesman for the Oasis singer claims that there is no truth to the rumor despite the fact that musician, Guru Josh, who has signed on to star in the movie, has been blogging about how honored he is to be starring alongside Gallagher. Somebody's telling porkies...

Talking of Oasis, Enemy singer Tom Clarke, moved swiftly to quash the feud between the two bands, when the Enemy began opening for Oasis on their current UK tour. Clarke, who had to pull out of several dates due to a bout of food poisoning, was recently quoted as saying that Wonderwall act are "past it", which led Liam Gallagher to refer to him as a "little f***er" in response. The two camps made their peace at the first available opportunity backstage, with Clarke telling a reporter last week: "Liam came up to me, straight up to me. As soon as I got there and got over my little illness, he made sure I knew the score. He's a proper gent and Noel is the most normal bloke in the world, who happens to have written some of the best songs ever." Easy on Tom, talk about over-egging the pudding. I'm guessing that he left a little damp spot on the floor after Liam was finished his effing and blinding.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 4:09 AM | Permalink

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Micheál Martin, T.D., has announced that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will pay an official visit to Ireland on July 7 and 8. During the course of his visit, the Secretary General will meet with President McAleese and with Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, who will host a working lunch in Government Buildings on July 7. The Minister for Foreign Affairs will also hold substantive discussions with the Secretary General and host a dinner in his honour on the same day.

The Secretary General has also been invited by the Institute for International and European Affairs to deliver an address on United Nations peace-keeping during the course of his visit. The Secretary General will also meet with the Minister for Defence, Mr. Willie O'Dea, T.D., and with the Army Chief of Staff to discuss Irish participation in UN-mandated peace operations.

Announcing the visit, Minister Martin stated: "I am delighted that the Secretary General has agreed to visit Ireland, in response to an invitation I issued to him late last year. For Ireland, commitment to the United Nations has long been a cornerstone of our foreign policy and we remain strongly supportive of its role and work in areas such as peace-keeping, disarmament, development and humanitarian action.

"Since assuming office in January 2007, Secretary General Ban has provided wise leadership to the United Nations, particularly in relation to such important global challenges as Climate Change. The UN role also remains crucial in relation to securing progress in such difficult political situations as the Middle East and Burma.

"I look forward to discussing these and many other issues with the Secretary General during the course of his visit, including UN reform and the increasingly close and productive relationship between the EU and UN in the area of international peace and security."

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 4:12 AM | Permalink

At the end of March, Ireland's amounted to €1,693 billion, an increase of €32 billion from the end of December.

The increase was due to a combination of exchange rate effects and the availability of new data.

Much of this external debt is offset by holdings of foreign financial assets by Irish residents.

The liabilities of financial institutions amounted to €723 billion. This was €56 billion lower than at the end of December and, at 43% of the total debt, was a smaller share than in the previous quarter.

The decrease was due to a large reduction in debt liabilities, particularly short-term loans, and is to an extent reflected by an increase of over €50 billion in Monetary Authority liabilities to the European System of Central Banks (ESCB).

The liabilities of other sectors increased by €28 billion from December and at €621 billion represented 37% of the overall debt, slightly higher than in the previous quarter.

The bulk of this increase results from new data included in the Balance of Payments revisions for 2007 and 2008 published this week and which will also feature in the International Investment Position figures for 2008 due for release in Autumn of this year.

As a result of the new and updated information, direct investment debt liabilities of €194 billion showed an increase of almost €7 billion.

General government liabilities increased further to €60 billion. The increase was driven by long-term bond issues more than offsetting a reduction in short-term money market instrument issues during the first quarter of this year.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 4:21 AM | Permalink

CANCER
Jun 22nd-Jul 22nd

Someone you had lost touch with or separated from is strongly thinking of you

LEO
Jul 23rd - Aug 22nd

Leo, when it rains for you it seems it pours! Trouble is brewing around you. Stay clear and stay out of the lime light or pay the consequences!

VIRGO
Aug 23rd - Sep 22nd

An unfulfilled promise breaks your heart by someone very close to you. You can endure a lot but lies, or unkept promises, is not something you can shrug off easily.

LIBRA
Sep 23 - Oct 23rd

Your sensitivity sometimes gets in the way of work or business, otherwise you can achieve a great deal!

SCORPIO
Oct 24th - Nov 21st

You seek your spiritual self, and you never knew that you were worthy of more then you thought. Great ideas come to you regarding work, business, listen to your inner self.

SAGITTARIUS
Nov 22nd - Dec 21st

Some changes you are hoping to accomplish are still to far to reach, however, you will know the right time to act!

CAPRICORN
Dec 22nd - Jan 19th

Although money matters are changing for the better, you should not slack off, or become lazy. You really need to stay right on top of things!

AQUARIUS
Jan 20th - Feb 18th

An unexpected guest may visit, and probably will stay longer then expected. Be careful for this person is very sensitive and your relationship with this person may be severed!

PISCES
Feb 19th- Mar 20th

Your kind and caring heart is taking you somewhat away from the most important matters for you. This is not good at all, you need to put things in perspective and in the order of their importance!

ARIES
Mar 21st - Apr 19th

Try thinking with your brain rather then your heart. You'll get the job done and get less into trouble!

TAURUS
Apr 20th - May 20th

Love is not the answer for what you need! You need to get back on target, so that you can reap the rewards from you accomplishments.

GEMINI
May 21st - Jun 22nd

It has not been easy for you these last few months. Best not to rely on anyone but yourself to get anything done. They will not come to your aid.

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 10:52 AM | Permalink

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 10:53 AM | Permalink

The instructions are simple, even if the puzzle isn't. You must put a number, from 1 to 9, in every box in the grid. However, each number can only appear once in a particular row or column and only once in each 3x3 sub-grid.

We hope you enjoy your weekly puzzles in The Irish Examiner.

Click here for the solution to this week's Easy Su Doku puzzle

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 10:54 AM | Permalink

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 10:55 AM | Permalink

The instructions are simple, even if the puzzle isn't. You must put a number, from 1 to 9, in every box in the grid. However, each number can only appear once in a particular row or column and only once in each 3x3 sub-grid.

We hope you enjoy your weekly puzzles in The Irish Examiner.

Click here for the solution to this week's Medium Su Doku puzzle

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 10:56 AM | Permalink

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 10:57 AM | Permalink

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 10:58 AM | Permalink

ACROSS

DOWN

Click here for the solution to this week's crossword

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 10:59 AM | Permalink

ACROSS

DOWN

Posted by Grahame I Curtis at 11:01 AM | Permalink