Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley insults Irish in boycotting Irish leader Enda Kenny

 

Niall O’Dowd – Irish Voice -  Saturday, May 11, 2013 

 

So much for Cardinal Sean O’Malley the hope of the millions of moderate Catholics worldwide who almost became pope according to some reports.

The Boston cardinal has now shown his true colors in boycotting Irish leader Enda Kenny when he gives the commencement speech in Boston College next weekend.
Irish officials are said to be deeply upset at the cardinal who had indicated he would not attend but would make no statement, a sensible way around the issue. That was the state of play until yesterday when O’Malley made a deeply controversial statement which is said to have taken Boston College leaders by total surprise.

Kenny’s crime is following the ruling of his country’s Supreme Court which ordered that abortion legislation be drawn up in very narrow circumstances such as when the life of the mother is in clear danger.

The tragic consequences of not legislating were laid out in Galway recently when a young Indian woman died after a doctor refused to terminate her non-viable fetus, fearing she would be prosecuted and Savita Halappannvar suffered an infection and death soon after.

Kenny took his courage in his hands after that and decided to finally enact the laws that the Irish Supreme Court had dictated had to be enacted all those years before in 1992 in the infamous X case when a young underage girl, raped and made pregant by a neighbor was refused permission to travel to Britain for an abortion.

The bill he drew up is as narrow a focus and interpretation as is possible in law, doing the bare minimum and severely constricting the right to an abortion except in desperate cases.

The usual Irish solution which might horrify O’Malley, is that unlike in the X case thousands of Irish women, many raped or victims of incest get to go to Britain for their terminations. That way Irish society can pretend such dirty truths do not happen to them.

Kenny knows all that and tried to do the humane thing and also enact the law as he is designated to do under the constitution.

As he remarked himself, the law in Ireland is the constitution not the bible. He deserves enormous credit for standing up.
But for his sins Kenny is now feeling a belt of the crozier from the suddenly hard-line O’Malley.

The fact that O’Malley is taking his instructions from Irish Primate Cardinal Sean Brady who covered up for the worst pedophile in recent history, Father Brendan Smyth makes the matter even more mystifying.

O’Malley has a stellar reputation in Ireland where he confronted the pedophile issue openly and honestly as part of a brief for American bishops sent from the Vatican.

Now I believe many Irish will look again and see the iron fist of church intolerance under the benign presence.

To boycott the Irish Prime Minister is to insult Irish people everywhere which is what O’Malley has just done.
In the process he will drive Kenny’s popularity through the roof most likely. “There’s nothing like an attack on a country’s leader from afar done completely in the wrong context” said one senior Irish government official I spoke with. Kudos for Boston College for standing up to the pressure to discard Kenny as commencement speaker. It is good to see one Irish institution in Boston show some courage in the face of extremists.

 

Comment:

 

This article is the typical ranting of the “secular progressive sycophants” of which Mr. O’Dowd is a shining example. As is the practice of persons of his ilk, he prematurely lays the blame at the feet of Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley. The case is reminiscent of a similar one that occurred at Notre Dame University a few years ago. President Obama, a strong supporter of abortion, was invited to give the commencement speech there. When strong objections were raised by pro-life supporters, Notre Dame was asked to reconsider their choice of speakers and they flatly refused. Mr. Obama not only gave the speech but was also given an honorary degree thereby enraging Catholics all across this nation. It would appear that the same situation applies here. It begs the question of who is at fault. Is it the fault of Mr Kenny for accepting an invitation to give a commencement speech and be awarded an honorary degree from a very prestigious “supposedly Catholic” institution of higher learning? I submit that the answer is no. Is it the fault of Cardinal O’Malley for upholding the teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to the sanctity of human life? Once again I submit that the answer is no. As it was in the Notre Dame issue, the fault lies wholly with Boston College for inviting a speaker whose public position on the key issue of abortion is in opposition to that of the Catholic Church. Shame on Boston College, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and all “supposedly Catholic learning institutions” for not screening their speakers and recipients of honorary degrees more judiciously to insure that they are not in opposition to the teachings of the Catholic Church. When Mr. O’Dowd insults a Prince of the Catholic Church, he insults all Catholics. He owes Cardinal Sean P. O’ Malley a written apology for his reprehensible accusations.

 

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Knights of Columbus – 4^th Degree

Irish lobby gear up for visa battle in bid to make undocumented Irish legal in U.S.

ILIR set for major campaign to help more irish come to U.S. and legalize those here

 

CAHIR O'DOHERTY  - Irish Voice Reporter

 

As the Senate Judiciary Committee kicks off what is expected to be a lengthy process of debating and amending the immigration bill on Thursday, the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR), the group dedicated to creating a new legal pathway for the Irish in America, is gearing up for a major battle.

They will hold a fundraiser on Thursday, May 23 to bolster its lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C.

“This is now probably the last opportunity the Irish American community has to address the long term issue of legal access to America for Irish immigrants,” ILIR president Ciaran Staunton told the Irish Voice.

To make the push for comprehensive reform, ILIR has organized in almost every state with Irish American communities, Staunton explains. “This is the last opportunity for Irish America to pry open the golden door for those who want to come here from Ireland,” he adds.

Since the last big effort to achieve reform several years ago with Senators Edward Kennedy and John McCain leading the effort, ILIR has stayed working on Capitol Hill, Staunton explains. A perception among some (or more accurately most) in the Irish community that the lobby group had wound down many of its operations is inaccurate said Staunton.

“In the last number of years we’ve built up relationships on both sides of the aisle with very senior people in the House and Senate. The last two major immigration initiatives in 1965 and 1986 in the United States had huge effects on the Irish community and their effects are still being felt,” he said.

“The 1965 Act locked us out,” Staunton explains. “We weren’t at the table for the 1986 Act other than to get the Donnelly and the short term Morrison visas. So when the hearing on the new bill commences in Washington ILIR will retain consultants and lobbyists on both sides of the aisle, and we will also follow up on all the support it has secured around the country.”

Behind the scenes the relationships ILIR has built with senators and other leaders has continued.

“This is not the time for the previous big demonstrations we took to Washington,” Deirdre Foy, a volunteer ILIR activist explained about the large-scale rallies ILIR organized during the Kennedy-McCain efforts.

“This is the time to quietly win over lawmakers to our side. Now is the time to fundraise to support our continuing efforts.”

To that end the second annual Annie Moore Awards, named in honor of the Irish girl who was the first passenger registered through the immigration station at Ellis Island in 1892, will be held to honor prominent Irish Americans for their ongoing efforts on behalf of the Irish immigrant community.

This year ILIR has chosen to honor Brendan Murray, president of the Newport Group, a leading financial services firm, with the Patrick J. Donaghy Award, named after the retired chairman and founder of Structure Tone.

 

Comment:

 

One can only hope that every other group and individual in the U.S. who has labored long and hard to resolve the plight of our undocumented Irish nationals currently living in the U.S. and to secure a “fair and equitable U.S. immigration policy for the Irish” will take note of the recognition that Mr. Staunton has so generously bestowed on their efforts in this self aggrandizing diatribe. He has long been a “poster boy” for the old adage, “self praise is no recommendation” and it appears as though he still subscribes to that theory. I can assure you that when immigration reform finally becomes a reality, it will be the result of years of dedication and hard work by many more concerned groups than ILIR and many more individuals than Mr. Ciaran Staunton.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Obama: 'Planned Parenthood Is Not Going Anywhere'

Huffington Post Staff Writer – 26 April 2013

President Barack Obama became the first sitting president Friday to address Planned Parenthood's national conference, where he reassured the organization and its supporters that he will continue to fight on their behalf.

"When politicians try to turn Planned Parenthood into a punching bag, they're not just talking about you," he told the crowd of 1,200. "They're talking about the millions of women you serve. When they talk about cutting off your funding, let's be clear: They’re talking about telling many of those women, 'You're on your own.' They're talking about shutting those women out at a time when women need it most, shutting off communities that need more health care options for women, not less."

Obama was originally scheduled to address Planned Parenthood's annual gala Thursday night, but he rescheduled the speech in order to attend a memorial service in West, Texas. The scheduling change fueled some speculation that Obama was distancing himself from the family planning provider, but he dispelled those rumors Friday.

"I'm sorry I could not be at the party yesterday," he said during his speech at a Marriott in Washington, D.C. "I understand it was a little wild. But as all of you know, obviously, we've gone through a pretty tough week and a half. I was down in Texas letting the people of West, Texas, know that we love them and care about them in their time of grieving."

While Obama has previously avoided discussing the specifics of some state legislatures' anti-abortion proposals, he denounced several abortion restrictions specifically in his speech to Planned Parenthood.

"In North Dakota, they passed a law that outlaws your right to choose starting as early as six weeks, even if a woman is raped. A woman may not even know she's pregnant at six weeks," he said. "In Mississippi, a ballot initiative was put forward that would not only outlaw your right to choose, but could have had all sorts of other far-reaching consequences, like cutting off your access to fertility treatments and making certain forms of contraception a crime. That’s absurd, and it's wrong."

Two Republicans in Congress and multiple GOP-controlled state legislatures have already introduced bills to defund Planned Parenthood this year, but Obama assured the organization's president, Cecile Richards, and the crowd that he will continue to fight those efforts.

"No matter how great the challenge, no matter how fierce the opposition, there's one thing the past few years have shown us: Planned Parenthood is not going anywhere," he said. "As long as we've got to fight to make sure women have access to quality health care, and as long as we’ve got to fight to protect a woman’s right to make her own choices about her own health, I want you to know that you’ve got a president who’s going to be right there with you."

Comment:

This public slap in the face to more than 50% of the American people who strongly believe that life begins at the moment of conception is the most recent example of the out and out arrogance of the pro-abortion President of the United States of America. Regardless of the office that he holds, one that commands the highest respect of every citizen of this great nation, his personal disdain for the rights of the unborn is truly repulsive to a huge number of the citizens that he was elected to represent. Unfortunately, this recent speech to Planned Parenthood is reminiscent of the shame that was brought on Catholics when he was invited to give the commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame, arguably one of the pre-eminent Catholic institutions of higher learning in the United States. Following that speech, he was given an “honorary degree” from Notre Dame. Clearly, this is yet another example of those in academia being totally out of step with rank and file Catholics and those of other faiths who firmly believe in the sanctity of life and the rights of the unborn.

Note:

For those readers who are AOH members, I would refer you to the Preamble to our National Constitution. For those who are not, I would refer you to your conscience.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Knights of Columbus – 4^th Degree

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness urges people to stop celebrating Margaret Thatcher's death

“Do not allow her death to poison our minds”

IrishCentral Staff Writers - Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Member of the public among the crowds burns the front page of the Evening Standard newspaper announcing Margaret Thatcher's death.

Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness called for an end to republicans organizing parties to celebrate Margaret Thatcher’s death.

The former British prime minister died on Monday aged 87 after she suffered a stroke while staying at the Ritz hotel in London.

The Sinn Féin deputy leader said on Tuesday that people should not celebrate Lady Thatcher's death. Via Twitter McGuiness denounced any celebrations to mark the former British leader’s death.

“Resist celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher,she was NOT a Peacemaker but it is a mistake to allow her death to poison our minds ” he tweeted.

On Monday celebrations were held by dissident republicans in Derry city close to the site of the Bloody Sunday massacre. In West Belfast people gathered near a mural dedicated to the memory of former IRA hunger striker to celebrate her death.

However, McGuinness, a former member of the Provisional IRA, asked republicans to resist rejoicing over her death.

Meanwhile Unionist politicians have denounced the celebrations.

Jonathan Bell, a Democratic Unionist Assembly member for Strangford said, “While many will differ on policy, such is the nature of the democratic process, all right-thinking people will regard the carnival celebrations following Baroness Thatcher's death deeply inappropriate. At a time of bereavement there should be human compassion for those in mourning.”

DUP First Minister Peter Robinson praised Thatcher’s commitment to the Union whereas Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said her policies did a “great hurt to the Irish people.”

Thatcher became a republican hate figure after her uncompromising stance over the IRA hunger strikes in the Maze/Long Kesh prison in 1981. A total of 10 prisoners starved themselves to death in attempt to gain prisoner of war privileges, after Thatcher refused to back down.

Comment:

It appears as though the Deputy First Minister of the Stormont Government has chosen to align himself with those spineless politicians (with very short memories) who have hopelessly been attempting to “defend the indefensible”. During her term as British P.M., Maggie Thatcher compiled an abysmal record regarding the conflict in Ireland, the Malvinas Islands conflict in Argentina, the coal miners strikes in her own homeland, to mention only a few of the better known issues These policies along with her trademark hubris toward anybody who disagreed with them were the cause of her being reviled throughout the world. Not surprisingly, there has actually been “dancing in the streets” in Belfast, Derry, and even in cities in Britain following the news of her death.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Ex-IRA inmates’ group awarded £1.3m grant

 Fiona O’Cleirigh – 5 April 2013

GOVERNMENT officials in Northern Ireland and the Republic awarded £1.3 million to support ex-IRA prisoners through an organisation that failed to comply with company law.

The European Union paid most of the money, with the rest coming from the UK and the Republic. And the EU is preparing to grant the company yet more cash.

The disclosures by investigative website Exaronews.com raise questions about how the EU, the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland and the Dublin government approved funding for a company at a time when it was failing to file accounts and returns.

The funding bodies would have discovered the company’s failures to meet basic legal requirements by making cursory checks.

The cash went to Coiste Na N-Iarchimi, which translates as “committee of ex-prisoners”, a UK-registered company based in Belfast that was even struck off in 2011 after two official warnings over failing to file accounts and returns for four years.

An EU cross-border body set up by the UK and Irish governments awarded the funding as part of a project aimed at helping to integrate former republican prisoners back into society.

Lord Trimble, Northern Ireland’s former First Minister, told Exaro: “The responsibility is on the [current] first minister to explain because, otherwise, the public will feel that something very wrong is happening.”

And Lord Laird, an Ulster Unionist peer, called for an inquiry into why the funding was approved for a company that at the time had failed to file accounts. He said: “It is an utter disgrace for a company that, for years, has breached statutory regulations to have received so much money. I want a full inquiry into how this came about. I want to find out who is responsible for this. I want it fully exposed.”

Coiste describes itself in documents filed to Companies House as an “umbrella organisation encompassing groups and individuals” working on behalf of former republican prisoners and their families.

One of the company’s two directors listed at Companies House when it was dissolved was Caral Ni Chuilin, Northern Ireland’s culture minister. She was convicted as an IRA member and jailed in 1989 on explosive charges.

Ms Ni Chuilin, a Sinn Fein member of the Assembly, had been a Coiste director since the company was incorporated in 1999. During an investigation begun more than a year-and-a-half ago into the EU’s funding of Coiste, Exaro made repeated attempts to contact Ms Ni Chuilin to ask what had happened to the money and why it had failed to file accounts.

A Sinn Fein spokesman said that the situation had been “resolved” and that it was a “non-story”. He said that he was unable to give any further information in response to Exaro questions.

Five days after that contact, in December 2011, Companies House received notification that Ms Ni Chuilin had resigned on November 1, 2011 as a director of Coiste.

After further attempts to contact Ms Ni Chuilin, a Sinn Fein spokesman said that she “has stepped down from this role due to time pressures”.

The formal “letter of offer” to award £1,325,400 of taxpayers’ money to Coiste for the EU-backed project was dated in January 2009. The funds started to be paid from then in a continuous stream of tranches of up to £140,000.

The first payment of more than £60,000 was for expenditure run up by Coiste between October and December the year before. The project itself formally started in September 2008.

However, Exaro has established that, from August 31, 2008, Coiste was in breach of company law for its failure to file accounts. It missed a 10-month deadline to submit its accounts for the financial year to October 31, 2007.

Coiste continued to breach company law for four years by failing to file accounts until Exaro contacted it in December 2011.

Michael Culbert, Coiste’s spokesman and a director since March last year initially claimed that the company did not have to file accounts to Companies House.

But, after Exaro started investigating, the company was reinstated, accounts were belatedly filed and Ms Ni Chuilin resigned as a director.

The Northern Irish and Irish governments say that the EU funding organisation, the Special European Union Programmes Body, is responsible for vetting applications, while it claims that proper procedures were followed.

Note:

This article was copied from Irish Central Newshound on Friday 5 April 2013.

Comment:

Perhaps somebody could explain some justification for soliciting, supplementing  (from our National Treasury), and then donating large sums of our members charitable funds to an organization such as the one in this article. Our extreme generosity originally was meant to provide monetary support for the families of Irish  prisoners incarcerated in British prisons for their political beliefs. It was later expanded to provide assistance to those prisoners to transition back to life outside prison walls following their release in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement. The vast majority had been released by the Fall of 2000 when the gates closed at Long Kesh and other such institutions. There is, very simply, no plausable explanation why a Catholic charity in America is still making very large donations to these “prisoner retraining programs” 13 years later. We have ceased to be a Catholic charitable organization and become a “long term social services provider” to programs such as that described above.

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

New outreach to Catholics as Biden meets with Cardinal Timothy Dolan in New York

Vice president attends mass and receives communion at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

JAMES O'SHEA, - IrishCentral Staff Writer

 

Vice President Joe Biden attended mass and received communion on Sunday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York where the mass was celebrated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

At a time when the administration is being sued by Dolan and the Catholic Bishop’s Conference over the Obama health care provision on birth control, the meeting was seen as an attempt to create a new dialogue.

An Irish American Catholic, Biden receiving communion was also seen as significant. Dolan’s predecessor Cardinal Edward Egan refused to give communion to those who differed with the church on the abortion issue.

Biden says he is pro-life but will not seek to impose his views on others.

Biden met with Cardinal Dolan after the mass for coffee but what they discussed was not made public.

Biden’s latest move comes at a time when the Obama administration appears to be using the VP in a new outreach to American Catholics.

Biden represented the administration at the swearing in of Pope Francis in Rome where he again received communion. He was also inaugurated into the Irish America Hall of Fame last week, also in New York, attended by many leading Irish American Catholics.

Meanwhile, Dolan revealed that he had many stories to tell about the papal conclave.

"You know I just got back from three historic weeks in Rome, and you better get used to hearing a lot of stories about those three weeks," Dolan said.

"It was quite an experience, to hear the first-hand stories of how they chose the pope and special inside information we got, it was truly a delight," said a woman who attended the Mass.

Palm Sunday is among the most significant of the Catholic holy days and begins Holy Week which ends with Easter Sunday.

 

Comment:

 

The Vice President languishes in his reputation as “lunch pail Joe”, an Irish Catholic from working class roots in Scranton, PA. The truth of the matter is that his heritage is very minimally Irish and he has not lived in Scranton, PA for 40+ years since he first took his place at the public trough as a U.S. Senator from Delaware. Although it is extremely difficult to challenge anyone’s personal feelings regarding their religious affiliation, Mr. Biden’s public positions regarding abortion and same sex marriage are in direct opposition to those of the Catholic Church. Whether or not he can continue to publically advocate his support for these issues and still consider himself a “devout Catholic” as some have described him is a matter for his own conscience to decide.

 

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America

Knights of Columbus – 4^th Degree

Irish president pays tribute to Venezuelan leader Chávez

Venezuela's fiery and controversial socialist president died on Tuesday

 IrishCentral Staff Writers,

 

The Irish president has said his thoughts are with the people of Venezuela after the death of Hugo Chávez.

The 58-year-old Venezuelan president died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer.

On December 8, he announced on State television that he intended to travel back to Cuba to undergo surgery since his pelvic cancer had "returned". His death ended his 14-year rule of the South American country.

His death was announced by Vice President Nicolas Maduro, surrounded by other government officials, in a national television broadcast.

Irish president Michael D Higgins said: “I was very sorry to hear of the death, after a long illness, of president Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

 “President Chávez achieved a great deal during his term in office, particularly in the area of social development and poverty reduction.

“I extend my sincere condolences to the family of President Chávez on their great loss. My thoughts and best wishes are also with the people of Venezuela as they come to terms with this sad news.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore also expressed his sadness upon hearing news of the death of the political leader.

"He was an important figure on the international stage, as well as in his own country, and I would like to extend my sincere condolences to his family and to the people of Venezuela on his passing."

Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, said the socialist president had worked tirelessly to improve the lives of Venezuelan citizens, reports the BBC.

“He dedicated himself to building a new and radical society in Venezuela,” Adams said.

“His progressive social and economic changes took millions out of poverty. He extended free health care and education for all citizens and his re-election last year with a huge majority was testimony to his vision.”

 

Comment:

 

The only thing to be said here is: Birds of a (radical socialist) feather, stick together! The tragedy is that too many people are fooled by their ”utopian claptrap”. Socialism, by its very nature, stifles an individual’s ambition and desire to succeed and is the enemy of democracy and of all freedom loving people throughout the world. May God Bless America and Freedom!

 

Jack Meehan, Past National President

Ancient Order of Hibernians in America