One would think that in this horrible economy, those employed with a halfway decent job would hold on to it and yet union members are foolishly electing to strike thinking that union leadership have their best interest at heart.

Last week, Caterpillar workers went out on strike for better wages and health care after negotiations fell apart. I would suggest that they do their homework and look up the case of the Stella D'Oro factory workers in the Bronx and wake up to reality.

I watched an HBO documentary, "No Contract, No Cookies," which chronicled the 11-month old strike of workers protesting their unfair wages. The company owners maintained that the hourly wages of $18 to $22 an hour and nine weeks of paid leave made the factory unprofitable and demanded significant reductions in wages and benefits.

That's when the union bosses stepped in and organized a hard fought strike with picket lines throughout the fall, winter and spring as the recession deepened.

The union sued the company and won their case in court, winning the right to return to work. Not one worker broke ranks and the documentary showed the glee on their faces as they learned the result of their suit. Happy ending? Not quite.

Soon after they returned, the owners closed the factory.

In an interview with the Huffington Post's Jonah Green, director Jon Alpert said, "The factory was quintessentially American with the immigrant composition of the workforce and the fact that this type of job opportunity was a beacon for them. And it was not only a beacon but a safe harbor that they landed in when they got to America."

According to the narrative of the film, many of the workers were long term, some having worked there over 30 years and the program was generally sympathetic to their plight.

Many were immigrants from third world countries but I had a hard time feeling their pain and I think they all deserved a good shaking for being so stupid for genuflecting to the union leadership instead of facing reality. It was quite clear from the movie that they had no idea what capitalism means.

At some of their rallies they were spouting clearly Marxist sentiments claiming that the company was theirs because they had worked there for years. The routine premise of the picketers was," Workers Unite!" and to me that conjured up images of the Russian revolution of the proletariats.

Americans need to be reschooled or in the case of young public school students schooled for the first time on what a business is. It is not a charity but is generally established primarily to make a profit. If it is successful it will be able to hire and pay good wages to hard workers. If it isn't it will either have to cut expenses or shut down. Workers have to also consider the reality of their companies' viability in the current market.

Are their products or services scheduled for obsolescence? If so they have to search for one with more permanence because a business like a buggy whip factory will fade away in modern times.

Many wiser immigrants obtain employment in non-skilled but well paying jobs as service workers in hotels and restaurants. They pool their incomes and eventually buy homes and open their own businesses.

The American dream is alive and well for those who understand how it works and are willing to work hard for it.

It is a real folly to cede control over one's life to union bosses who spout leftwing mantras and promote class envy. It is highly doubtful that the Bronx union bosses lost their jobs along with those unfortunate Stella D'Oro workers. But not all unions are evil in fact, the Hotel, Motel Trades Council in New York provides excellent healthcare for their members and pensioners in various union health clinics around the city.

Many others, however, are an anachronism that exploit their membership and most are in league with one political party funding election campaigns with union dues but without worker input.

The S.E.I.U. (Service Employees International Union) is using thuggery to enforce its agenda and if we ever get a Justice Department that will actually enforce our laws, its days and its members will be numbered.

One of my early jobs was working in reservations for a non-union Canadian airline which provided me with a good salary and healthcare so when the Teamsters moved in to unionize us, I mobilized an opposition which scuttled their efforts.

I circulated a petition enumerating all the benefits our employer provided for our department and warned that we could not afford to lose them if the union decided to strike for a grievance in another department - in this case the airport.

The decision by my co-workers to turn down the Teamsters was near unanimous.

After I quit to raise my family I learned that the Teamsters were successful in unionizing the entire airline but the company ended up filing for bankruptcy after a number of contract negotiations increased the company's expenses. Many workers were forced into early retirement and entry salaries severely lowered.

In this stagnant economy union workers are no longer indispensable. Unemployed workers are legion and will swoop in to take over the jobs from those unwise enough to strike. 'Unfortunately, unions still have strong influence over workers who haven't learned the lessons of past strikers.

The Chicago Tribune reported last week: "Union machinists walked off their jobs at Caterpillar's Joliet plant Tuesday morning after overwhelmingly rejecting a six-year contract, but the company said it was prepared to use managers and retirees to maintain production. The labor dispute in Joliet follows a high-profile conflict between Caterpillar and the Canadian Auto Workers late last year. Caterpillar had employed hundreds of CAW-represented workers at a London, Ontario locomotive plant. The company closed the plant after failing to come to terms with the CAW."

What are the odds that the leaders of the Canadian Auto Workers union who initiated the walkout lost their jobs as well?

Union workers need to wake up and fast and take a good look at those disguised socialists endangering their livelihoods and killing the American Dream. C

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com]]> http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/08/union_members_better_wake_up_f.html http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/08/union_members_better_wake_up_f.html Opinion Sun, 08 May 2012 10:45:07 -0500

Max Gordon Moore (Jack/Don Juan), Jonathan Hammond (Mendoza/The Devil), and Janie Brookshire (Ann/Ana) in George Bernard Shaw's 'Man and Superman' at the Irish Rep (James Higgins)

By Gwen Orel

One of Shaw's most Shavian plays is running in a crackling co-production with the Irish Repertory Theatre and Gingold Theatrical Group, the company that produces the monthly reading series "Project Shaw" through June 17.

David Staller, who runs Gingold Theatrical Group, helms "Man and Superman," and demonstrates not only his deep love and understanding of the great Irish playwright, but also his strong theatrical sense.

Written in 1903 (though not produced until 1905), "Man and Superman" is long - four acts, including the "Don Juan in Hell" dream sequence, which often is produced as a stand-alone, and cut from productions of the play. That act was first produced with the play in 1915.

Staller has cut the play down to just about two and a half hours (allow for three, with an intermission), without losing any of the play's beats.

That alone would be remarkable, but his accomplishments do not end end there.

He's put together a remarkable cast. As the first outing in what is to be "Shaw New York," a festival of Shaw events around the city, the excellent "Man and Superman" suggests that this series will be a worthy addition to the city's cultural offerings.

If you've only read the play or seen flat amateur productions, you really need to go and see this one at Irish Rep.

While a great play, it's not so perfect that it can't be done badly - and it often is.

In the play Shaw creates a vehicle for his philosophy, and handled badly, the play can be sluggish.

The title is taken from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (the Nazis loved him too), and Jack Tanner (Max Gordon Moore) declaims about him too, specifically, about the "Life Force" and the nature of man.

But actually, Tanner, a self-styled revolutionary, though a gentleman with an independent income, shows more interest in the way the life force drives woman to seek a mate. And therein is the play's fun.

It would be extremely tedious to listen to characters, however clever and attractive, talk about the Purpose of Man for three or four hours.

But watching the characters chase each other romantically, while the one who claims to most immune is clearly the, as his chauffeur calls him, "marked-out victim," is hugely entertaining.

At times the dialogue could stand a bit more variation in volume and intensity but overall this "Man and Superman" zips brightly along.

George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), a theatre and music critic as well as a writer, is just too much of an entertainer to let the philosophy get in the way of a good yarn.

He also can't resist a few jabs at the English middle class, spoken by an Irishman.

The story begins after the death of Mr. Whitefield, and the discovery that he has entrusted both his old friend Ramsden (Brian Murray) and free-thinking Jack to be the guardian of his daughter Ann (Janie Brookshire).

Jack is the author of "The Revolutionist's Handbook," a volume included with published versions of the play.

Lines from it are recited by characters (a conceit of Staller's) at the top of each scene change.

Like the aphorisms of Oscar Wilde, Shaw's observations are funny and deep at the same time: "Lack of money is the root of all evil." "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." "There is no love sincerer than the love of food."

That last also appears in the play. Tanner tells Octavius Robinson (Will Bradley), who loves the mischievous Ann, "There is no love sincerer than the love of food. I think Ann loves you that way: she patted your cheek as if it were a nicely underdone chop."

Tavy's sister Violet (Margaret Loesser Robinson) has made a secret marriage, refusing to reveal the name of her husband.

When Jack discovers that Ann, once a childhood playmate who demanded he tell her everything, is really after him, not Tavy, Jack flees with his chauffeur Straker (Brian Sgambati) to Spain.

Motorcars were new at this time, and the play gives us not one but two, when another party carrying Ann, her mother Mrs. Whitfield (Laurie Kennedy), Violet and the American millionaire Hector (Zachary Spicer) follows in close pursuit.

In Spain, Jack and Straker are kidnapped by brigands led by the lovelorn, Jewish Mendoza (Jonathan Hammond).

In the mountains, before he and Straker are rescued, Jack dreams of being Don Juan in Hell.

Like "The Wizard of Oz," all the dream characters are played by people in Jack's "real" life: Ann is now Dona Anna, from Mozart's opera (Straker had whistled tunes from it earlier), the woman whom Don Juan loved and whose father he killed in a duel. The devil is played by the brigand. And so on.

The message of the witty but strange dream sequence is that Hell is much more pleasant than Heaven, because in Heaven "you see things as they are."

Right at the end, Dona Ana realizes that her purpose is to find "a father for the Superman."

This revelation sets up Act Four, in which Ann goes in for the kill, and we also meet the Irishman Malone (Paul O'Brien).

Shaw's superman philosophy is less revelatory than, really, a lot of words.

In a post-Holocaust world, the idea of the "superman" has been tainted, and the notion that a woman's deep purpose is to reproduce feels not just antiquated but unknowingly misogynistic (believe it or not, G.B.S., some women feel their purpose is, like yours, art, politics, etc). But the philosophy is endurable because Shaw can't help deflating it.

After Jack complains about the marriage market to Ann, finishing with a Declaration of Independence that "The man who pleads his father's authority is no man; the woman who pleads her mother's authority is unfit to bear citizens to a free people," Ann replies calmly, "I suppose you will go in seriously for politics some day, Jack ....You talk so well."

Even the Statue in Hell (played by Ramsden, in Jack's dream) says "your flow of words is simply amazing, Juan."

Others see right through him, and so do we.

He knows a lot, but then again, he's just so dumb.

His love for Ann is plain to everyone but him, and the romantic Tavy, who idolizes Ann and alone among everyone onstage, cannot see through her lies and manipulations.

Ann wisely says of him, to Jack, "men like that always live in comfortable bachelor lodgins with broken hearts, and are adored by their landladies, and never get married. Men like you always get married."

Brookshire's Ann is winsome, selfish and irresistible.

As Jack, Max Gordon Moore is almost bizarrely articulate, with boyish good looks that lend him an air of vulnerability.

Robinson plays Violet less as "hard as nails," as she's described, than sweetly practical.

It's an interesting approach, but it does not quite work. Bradley's handsome Octavius gallantly falls for every romantic puffery he sees.

If you liked Antonio Banderas as "Puss in Boots," you'll fall for Hammond as Mendoza/the Devil.

The older characters particularly shone in modulation and subtlety.

Kennedy's Mrs. Whitefield flutters; she has insight but no authority over her willful child.

Paul O'Brien, as Malone, blusters some terrific lines.

Determined at first that his son Hector should marry only a titled person or a peasant, like his mother, a "barefooted Irish girl," he's quickly won over by (spoiler alert) Violet's managerial control.

When Violet refers to "the famine," he replies furiously, "the starvation. When a country is full of food, and exporting it, there can be no famine."

His revenge on the English is to buy it out from under them.

But Violet gets around him entirely. Hector, she says, is "romantic and faddy - he gets it from you, I fancy - and he wants a certain sort of wife to take care of him."

And it isn't long before Malone is saying, in a strong accent, "that'll be a grand woman for Hector."

It's the Irish love of a dominant mother figure, really, but it's also very funny.

Shaw sneaks some other complaints about the English into the mouths of other characters: Tnnaer complains about the "pious English habit of regarding the world as a moral gymnasium built expressly to strengthen your character in;" the Statue observes that some people sit in Heaven "not because they are happy, but because they think they owe it to their position to be in heaven. They are almost all English."

James Noone's white and gold set design sets the characters in strong relief, and Theresa Squire's costumes, along with Robert-Charles Valiance's hair and wig design, are a treat for the eyes.

Staller's final tableau has the characters posing for a photograph.

It's a photo to be cherished, a memory to savor, like the production itself.

Man and Superman, presented by the Irish Repertory Theatre and Gingold Theatrical Group, runs at Irish Repertory Theatre through June 17. Performances Wed., 3 and 8 p.m.; Thurs., 7 p.m., Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 3 and 8 p.m., and Sun at 3. Tickets at (212) 727-2737 or www.irishrep.org. Irish Repertory Theatre is at 132 W. 22nd Street, bet. 5th and 7th Avenues.

Gwen Orel runs the blog and podcast New York Irish Arts]]> http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/08/living_a_super_life_at_the_iri.html http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/08/living_a_super_life_at_the_iri.html Features Sun, 08 May 2012 10:47:55 -0500

Kilkenny's Eoin Larkin lifts the trophy (INPHO)

Allianz Hurling League Final: Cork 0-16 Kilkenny 3-21

Kilkenny claimed their 15th Allianz Hurling League Division I title at Thurles on Sunday afternoon, scoring three first half goals to obliterate Cork in a one-sided game.

The Cats were 1-4 to 0-0 ahead before Cork had a chance to draw breath, Eoin Larkin having plundered their opening goal after just five minutes.

Cork were in disarray in the opening stages and conceded a second goal after 10 minutes, when Colin Fennelly drilled a shot past the helpless Cork goalkeeper, Martin Coleman.

"We were very nervous early on and we seemed a bit over-awed by the occasion," said Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy.

The Rebels' full-back line was in dire straits, with Larkin giving their rookie full-back, Stephen McDonnell, serious problems. Brian Murphy was eventually moved to No. 3 after 20 minutes to take care of the Kilkenny captain but most of the damage had already been done.

Barry-Murphy's side desperately attempted to force their way back into the game, with their stand-in captain Patrick Horgan at least hitting the target from frees, as the rest of their forward line struggled to make any inroads against a superb Kilkenny defence. Horgan had a 21-yard free saved by David Herity and again the Kilkenny 'keeper saved smartly when Horgan attempted to catch him off guard with a long-range free on 32 minutes.

But Cork were dealt a hammer blow just before the break as TJ Reid grabbed Kilkenny's third goal on the stroke of half-time, leaving his side 3-11 to 0-6 ahead. Again Larkin did the damage, but his shot was saved by Coleman and Reid swept home the rebound.

Barry-Murphy brought Conor O'Sullivan on for the struggling McDonnell at the break, while Darren Sweetnam replaced Lorcán McLoughlin. Sweetnam was one of the few Cork players to do himself justice on the day, the Leaving Cert student scoring two points from play and bringing some much-needed aggression to the Rebels' midfield in the second half.

Horgan and Niall McCarthy scored the opening points of the second half, but there was to be no way back for the Leesiders. Having trailed by 14 points at the break, that gap was no different at the end of the game. Horgan, who scored 0-9 (0-6f, 0-1 pen) for the Rebels, drilled a penalty over the bar in the closing stages.

Kilkenny were simply outstanding and had one of those days when everything seemed to go right for them. Their full-forward line were unplayable at times, with Colin Fennelly and Larkin scoring 1-4 apiece. In fact, every single Kilkeny midfielder and forward scored from play, whereas four of Cork's starting forwards failed to score and more than half of their return came from Horgan.

The one sour note for their manager Brian Cody was a second half injury to Hurler of the Year Michael Fennelly, who was stretchered off after 40 minutes with what looked like a serious ankle injury. With the Cats already dealing with something of an injury crisis - Richie Power, Henry Shefflin, Noel Hickey and Aidan Fogarty are all currently sidelined- ahead of their Leinster Championship campaign, the loss of their star midfielder to injury is the last thing they needed.

Still, it's Barry-Murphy rather than Cody who has the greater concerns ahead of the championship, and he will need to pick up his players and mend some bruised egos in the coming days and weeks. It was something of a reality check for his young Cork side.

"They were the better team all round," conceded Barry-Murphy after the game. "We were well beaten all over the field. We played them in the league in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and we beat them. Physicality wasn't a problem for us that day and I don't think it will be a problem going forward for us.

"We just have to learn. We didn't play our own game and we didn't play as well as we can. Simple as that."

For Cody, it was the sixth Allianz League title of his reign and surely one of the most clinical performances his great side have produced. ]]> http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/08/cats_claim_15th_allianz_hurlin.html http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/08/cats_claim_15th_allianz_hurlin.html Sports Sun, 08 May 2012 10:52:44 -0500

By Gwen Orel

Cathy Jordan's "All the Way Home" is a trip back to the Irish childhood you never had. It's her first solo album and it's a departure from the style she employs as lead singer and bodhrán player with Dervish and as a singer in The Unwanted. She's always been an expressive singer with a very distinctive voice, kind of a cross between Stevie Nicks and Mary Black. Here she's particularly sensitive and delicate.

The eleven songs on "All the Way Home" are all favorites from Cathy's Roscommon childhood. She learned them from parents, siblings, uncles and cousins - except for one or two she penned herself. She told me when she was thinking about creating a solo album she didn't know what she would do, but then the songs from childhood got louder and louder in her head, and she wanted to put them down before this kind of life vanished altogether. Listening to this quiet, soothing CD one can picture a young Cathy frolicking in the fields around her house, with her six older siblings. Actually, you don't have to work hard to picture her: there's a school picture of her in the booklet. For lyrics and pictures, visit her website.

With the advent of the Internet and all the distractions that make gathering around the hearth for a sing-song not the only entertainment available people worry that the tradition will vanish, although I suspect that in large musical families music will always take precedence over an episode of "The X Factor."

Included on the album are such well loved songs as "The Bold Fenian Men," "Sliabh Gallion Braes" and "Eileen Mc Mahon" - here somehow made strange and fresh by the production given to them by Swedish musican Roger Tallroth, who plays with the band Väsen. Jordan told me that she chose Tallroth in part because the songs were new to him and that while his tradition is a first cousin to the Irish tradition, it is removed enough so that Tallroth would find his own approach to the tunes. It works beautifully. The arrangement of "The Bold Fenian Men" has a spare, melancholy feel that sets off Jordan's voice like a gem. It's as if you're hearing "glory-o, glory-o" for the first time. The banjo comes in and gives it a pulse to set it moving but the lyrics hang in the air against the rhythm, keeping the song's tragedy foremost.

"Eileen McMahon," a song about a young man dreaming about a lovely girl, captures the feel of a vision. Jordan writes "it was a party piece of my father's," and its oddness and mystery show its odd charm. The sound is of something adrift on a glassy sea. It's almost a lullaby, and it's a standout. Another is Cathy's simple rendition of the traditional "The Lark in the Clear Air."

While many of the songs are well known, "In Curraghroe" is an excerpt from a poem found in a neighbor's house, which moved her because its story of leaving was one she could relate to. She's set it in a minor key, with a pensive tone. The well known "Sliabh Gallion Braes" gets a quiet setting too; sometimes sung as an upbeat anthem, here it speaks of yearning. "Ould Ballymoe" is a bit peppier; a comic song about a man meeting the girl of his dreams, who turns out to be married with children. That's a nice twist on the usual comic songs about men deceiving women.

There are two instrumentals, a sweet one called "The River Field Waltz," written by Jordan to honor how "every field barn, road, and bridge has a name around home," and meant for a particular field, and "The Jordan Jig," an upbeat tune written by Roger for the CD.

Both original songs on the CD are about home. "The Road I Go" is a sweet hymn that Jordan co-wrote with Brendan Graham: "I'll miss it here, but I won't fear the road I go," she sings, which could be a pep talk for any young Irish person planning to leave home for awhile. On "All the Way Home," co-written with Enda Cullen and Ian Smith, she sings "Maybe it's the long road that winds around, maybe it's the sunbeams that kiss the water, maybe it's you that keeps calling me home..." and who the "you" is could be family, country, or anyone.

Tallroth plays guitars and sings on the album, and there are a host of great musicians contributing, including former Dervish band-mate, now The Unwanted Rick Epping on concertina/harmonica, The Unwanted's Seamie O'Dowd on fiddle, Andy Irvine on mandocello/bouzouki, Scottish singer Eddi Reader joins on vocals on "Eileen McMahaon," and many more. Gustaf Lyjunggren from Sweeden plays lap steel/banjo/piano and Norway's Lars Andreas Haug plays tuba. And Michael McGoldrick, one of the best Irish uillean pipers out there (Capercaillie, formerly Lúnasa) appears as well.

"All the Way Home" is a CD that grows on you. Its quiet appeal is almost retiring. If this were a houseparty, you'd be waiting for the fiddlers to come liven things up a bit.

There isn't a lot of variety in mood, but on repeated listening its consistency becomes a strength. Finally, the CD spirits you away to a place that's nice to visit - even if you can't live there.

Gwen Orel runs the blog and podcast New York Irish Arts]]> http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/15/thinking_of_home.html http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/15/thinking_of_home.html Arts Sun, 15 May 2012 01:23:05 -0500

Julie O'Neill from Gilead Sciences and IBEC President with Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Fine Gael Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton at the Business for Ireland Yes referendum launch (Photocall)

Campaigning is in full swing for the referendum on Europe's fiscal treaty to be held in Ireland on May 31, and Taoiseach Enda Kenny has rejected calls for the vote to be deferred.

The election of Francois Hollande as the new French president has opened up the prospect of a renegotiation of the treaty.

Mr Hollande campaigned on a platform that he would not ratify the treaty in France unless a pact on growth was introduced alongside the austerity measures in the budget.

The call has gained widespread across support across Europe including in Germany, where the opposition Social Democrats have forced Chancellor Angela Merkel to delay ratification until June.

The success of left-wing parties across Europe, including in Greece, has changed the dynamic of European politics, with a new emphasis on growth and not just austerity.

An EU summit has been called for May 23rd to discuss growth, with a formal protocol on growth likely to be produced from another summit in June.

Given the political flux in Europe, some including Independent TD Shane Ross and trade union chief David Begg, called for the vote in Ireland to be deferred because the public could be voting on a treaty, to which something will be added after the vote takes place.

But Taoiseach Enda Kenny said with the referendum campaign well underway, and whatever the outcome of negotiations on a growth protocol, it was unlikely that it would affect the Irish constitution.

"Clearly from the comments from other leaders abroad there now should be a growth agenda in addition to what was already agreed and we will participate in that enthusiastically," Mr Kenny said.

He said international investors wanted to see Ireland ratify the fiscal treaty.

"As we are in a program, investors and potential investors outside this country are looking at Ireland now as part of Europe. They want certainty, they want decisiveness, they want clarity of a horizon," said Mr Kenny.

"And I don't want to damage that in any way so the sooner we are in a position to give a clear signal about our own future, the sooner we are in a position to have continued certainty of investment coming into the country as I meet these people on a very regular basis."

Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, and Labour are all urging a Yes vote in the referendum, while Sinn Fein and the Socialist Party are call for its rejection.

Businessman Declan Ganley, who was considered influential in the rejection of the first Lisbon Treaty referendum, has announced that he intends to campaign for No vote.

No campaigners argue the treaty's strict budget rules enshrine austerity in our budgets for years to come.

Yes campaigners say it gives Eurozone countries reassurance that no-one country is allow their budgets to run out of control to the damage of the others.

Opinion polls show the Yes side is winning the argument, with 53% now saying they will vote for the treaty, and 31 against with 16% undecided.

One of the key elements of the treaty is that countries who do not ratify it, cannot access rescue funds through the newly established European Stability Mechanism (ESM) fund.

Ireland expects to return to international markets next year to raise money through the sale of bonds, but if that sale is not successful, the country could require a second bailout.

No campaigners have struggled to answer the question of where Ireland would be able to access rescue funds if it votes down the establishment of the ESM fund. ]]> http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/15/treaty_referendum_will_not_be.html http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/15/treaty_referendum_will_not_be.html News Sun, 15 May 2012 12:12:59 -0500

Minister of state for Tourism Micheal Ring, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar and An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny with children (LtoR) Brooke Butler age 6, Daniel Welsh age 5, Evan McCabe age 5 and Hannah Slanley age 4 pictured at the launch The Gathering Ireland 2013 in Dublin Castle (Photocall)

A new show from the producers of Riverdance is one of the star attractions of The Gathering, a year-long tourism initiative that aims to bring over a quarter of a million extra visitors to Ireland next year.

A new international GAA competition will also be held, with finals to be held at Croke Park in August.

There will also be an "International Harvest Festival" which will celebrate Irish food, and 'Love' a new music festival.

"The Gathering is serious business, with serious commitment and serious gains to be made," said Taoiseach Enda Kenny at a launch in Dublin last week.

"Every day I meet people who say to me, 'Taoiseach, we want to do something for Ireland. We want to make a difference in getting Ireland back on its feet.'

"With The Gathering they can," he said.

Along with nationally organized events, local communities and small towns are being encouraged to do something to attract emigrants from their areas home.

Several clans are inviting their name-sakes home to Ireland for a get-together - including O'Deas in Co. Clare, Gallaghers in Donegal and Fitzgeralds of Co. Limerick.

The Gathering is the biggest tourism initiative ever launched in Ireland.

It has a dedicated budget of five million euros in addition to the normal marketing budget of the Tourism Ireland.

If it's a success, it could be worth up to €170m to the economy and boost employment by creating 3,000 jobs.

The producers of Riverdance, John McColgan and Moya Doherty, have designed a brand new show aimed specifically at the diaspora.

Mr McColgan described it as "a very modern, high-tech, high energy show about emigration, and homeland, and people having to leave a home place and triumph in a new world."

Scouting Ireland is to host an international jamboree, and hopes to attract some of the 30 million scouts around the world.

International firms like Facebook, Google, KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers have committed to hosting gatherings of their employees.

Tourism Minister Leo Varadkar said the response from people at home and abroad has been fantastic with ideas for events coming in every day through www.thegatheringireland.com.

"These range from family gatherings, school reunions and even a gathering of twins," he said.

Junior Tourism Minister Michael Ring said while there would be no grants to finance gatherings, there will be a marketing budget.

Traditional festivals like the Galway Arts Festival, St Patrick's Day Festival are to be expanded.

"We're looking for your help and support on this," Minister Ring said, "We want positivity, no negativity. We want everyone working on this.

"We have a great country, great community, great people." ]]> http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/15/riverdance_sequel_to_be_part_o.html http://www.irishexaminerusa.com/mt/2012/05/15/riverdance_sequel_to_be_part_o.html Business Sun, 15 May 2012 12:15:49 -0500