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http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Fine-Gael-blasted-over-Sinn-Fein-link-46578137.html
Kenny says party will not form partnership with Sinn Fein
By ANTOINETTE KELLY, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Sunday, May 31, 2009, 2:59 PM
Niall O'Dowd: Who's afraid of Sinn Fein?
Fine Gael is embroiled in a row in Ireland over whether or not it would form a partnership with Sinn Fein.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny (FG-Mayo) said his party has no intention of such a partnership after a British newspaper quoted Fine Gael's Director of Elections Frank Flannery saying his party would indeed consider such an arrangement to form a government.
Justice Minster Dermot Ahern (FF-Louth) said he found it "stomach-churning" that Fine Gael would consider such a move.
Meanwhile, a new poll in Ireland show an even bigger drop in support for Fianna Fail.
The Red C poll shows the party down three points to 21 percent - half the support it boasted in the run-up to the 2007 general election. Fine Gael is some distance ahead with34 percent while Labor has 18 percent.
Sinn Fein is up three points at 10 per cent with Independents and others at 10%. The Greens are also on a slide with just 4 percent of the poll.
Voters go to the polls Friday for the European elections, local elections, and two by-elections - in Dublin Central and Dublin South.
Voters are expected to use the occasion to show their lack of support for the Irish Government.
http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS+FEATURES-qqqm=nav-qqqid=42118-qqqx=1.asp
Sunday, May 31, 2009 By Pat Leahy, Political Editor
Taoiseach Brian Cowen will embark on a few days of frantic campaigning as he attempts to rally the traditional Fianna Fáil vote to save the party’s local and European Parliament seats - and perhaps his own job - in advance of Friday’s elections.
Today’s Sunday Business Post/Red C tracking poll shows a further decline in the Fianna Fáil vote from the last poll a fortnight ago, confirming the cratering of the party’s vote in the low 20s. It is perilously close to dropping into the teens.
The party can expect some ‘candidate boost’ at the local elections, with voters giving their preferences to councillors who they perceive to have worked hard on the ground.
But this can amount to no more than a few percentage points. At 20 per cent of first preference support when voters are asked their intentions in the local and European elections, Fianna Fáil is facing a hiding like nothing it has ever experienced.
Voters were asked three questions about their voting intentions: in the local and European contests on Friday, and in a putative general election. In all cases, substantially fewer numbers responded positively about Fianna Fáil than just two weeks ago. This suggests that the campaign is making Fianna Fáil more unpopular.
While the government was surely not helped by its hesitant and, at times, confusing reaction to the Ryan Report into chi ld abuse in industrial schools, the fall in support for the party also indicates that the unchanged model of Fianna Fáil electioneering - going around the country announcing things - is meeting an unresponsive audience.
Cowen is very obviously speaking to a Fianna Fáil audience now, imploring the party’s voters to turn out on the day and prevent a meltdown in its vote. Noel Dempsey’s extraordinary appeal to Fianna Fáil voters to come out on polling day to give two fingers to the media indicates the leadership is getting desperate.
But today’s poll suggests Cowen is either making little headway, or that the Fianna Fáil core vote is much smaller than we had all previously thought. Cowen is a tribal politician but, for many voters, the day of tribal politics is passing.
The reports from the canvass confirm the evidence that the anger against the government - and against Fianna Fáil in particular - is not abating. However, it would be foolish to dismiss the strength of Fianna Fáil’s local organisation on the ground, or the party’s ability to muster its vote on the day.
The surge in the Fianna Fáil vote in the final days of the 2007 general election campaign defied the doom-mongers.
But this seems different, much different - more than just those who dislike Fianna Fáil disliking them even more. Fianna Fáil faces the greatest electoral threat in its history. There are two questions now: how bad will it get and what will the fallout be? Eoin Ryan’s European Parliament seat is in jeopardy, and he may not be the only one.
Ryan has one thing working in his favour - the splintered nature of the left-wing challenge for his seat. Joe Higgins, Patricia McKenna and Mary Lou McDonald will need to transfer effectively if one of them [McDonald is in pole position] is to take the Fianna Fáil seat. On a bad day, Liam Aylward’s seat in Leinster could be in danger, too.
But the most obvious message of the European numbers - where voters were asked their preference for individual candidates, as well as parties - is that, in every single constituency, the last seat will be a scrap between several candidates.
Loss of any of the party’s MEP seats - allied to a share of the vote which is closer to 20 than 25 per cent in the local elections - and the eviction of dozens of sitting councillors would be deeply traumatic for Fianna Fáil. The decline of the main government party’s support in the course of the election campaign would provide further evidence that the Taoiseach has a serious problem communicating with the Irish people, a criticism now heard at all levels of the party.
If the defeat is anything like the poll suggests, it is likely to herald calls for his replacement. There is a subterranean conversation in the party about whether it could feasibly replace Cowen after only a year in office; at the moment, most think it could not.
But if the election results are as bad as many fear, the urge to do something - anything - may become irresistible. Fianna Fáil certainly values loyalty, but not above all else, and not above power. The simple truth is this: if the result is bad enough, they will come for Cowen.
Fianna Fáil’s hope now centres on two things: that the repeated poll findings in this newspaper and the Irish Times underestimate the support for the party, and that the party can stage a recovery in the last days of the campaign. Both are flimsy, but not entirely unrealistic, hopes.
If a government is hugely unpopular, respondents to polls are often reluctant to say they will vote for it. In addition , some voters may seek to reward or support local Fianna Fáil candidates, even if they are angry at the government.
There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that local elections are dominated by local issues, even if the debate concentrates on national issues. So Fianna Fáil may do a little better than it fears. However, the conditions do not appear to be present for a late surge in support.
But it is the European elections that are more politically important for Cowen and his future. If Fianna Fáil holds its four seats, Cowen has a defence: that he successfully held the line in a time of unparalleled hostility towards the party. If European seats go, many TDs will see a vision of their fate in the plight of Ryan and Aylward.
Whatever the final outcome this week, the days of Fianna Fáil’s dominance of Irish politics are coming to an end. This is likely to be the last election - at least for the foreseeable future - when the most important question is: how will Fianna Fáil do? Fine Gael is replacing Fianna Fáil as the largest party, and the Labour Party is chasing it hard for second place in the polls.
Fine Gael’s strength in today’s numbers is across all areas and demographics; its lead over Fianna Fáil is between 12 and 14 points.
Even if the government survives the two big challenges of the rest of this year - the fallout from these elections and the autumn budgetary process - it is hard to see the Fine Gael lead being overhauled before the next election.
The party won’t be in power to make unpopular decisions; it just needs to continue playing smart opposition politics. Its leader is clearly a drag on its support, but in a climate where his rival for Taoiseach is even more unpopular, this ceases to matter so much.
The Labour Party is poised for substantial gains in the local elections and is also likely to be in the shake-up for European Parliament seats in Leinster and Munster, where the prospect of gains is now less remote.
However, a more important task for Eamon Gilmore is to position potential Dáil candidates in places like the Dublin commuter belt, where Labour needs to take seats at the next general election. Gilmore is at a moment of possibility for the Labour Party, which is at least the equivalent of the early 1990s.
It’s difficult to overestimate the importance for Sinn Féin of retaining McDonald’s European Parliament seat, though today’s numbers indicate that she will struggle. McDonald may yet be rescued by a fortunate sequence of transfers from other left-wing candidates, but she is handicapped by the weakness of Sinn Féin, although the party shows some progress today.
McDonald is an impressive candidate - articulate, personable, media-savvy - but she has been dogged by her poor attendance record at the European Parliament. Her poor record is explicable by the simple and obvious fact that her political importance to Sinn Féin is in Dublin, not in Europe.
However, she flopped badly at the last general election, and if she now loses her seat, the nagging worry in Sinn Féin - that it is forever destined to be a minor player in southern politics - will be reinforced. Plus, the deputy leader will be out of a job.
The Green Party sees a marginal slip today - not in itself significant, but worrying for a party whose candidates often win the last seats. The party has only 18 councillors, but if its ranks are culled, the leadership will face questioning by its grassroots, and the pressure will increase on Green ministers to secure more concessions in a post-election renegotiation of the programme for government.
Unrest among Green supporters would do nothing for their TDs’ ability to live with painful budget cuts, either.
http://www.4ni.co.uk/northern_ireland_news.asp?id=94352
PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde (pictured) has denied allegations that police were 'dictated to' by loyalists prior to the brutal sectarian murder of Coleraine man Kevin McDaid.
Responding to concerns raised by the McDaid family, detailed in a solicitor's statement, Sir Hugh said: "We run the Police Service of Northern Ireland, no one else. My officers will not be told what to do by anyone."
Father-of-four Mr McDaid, a Catholic, was beaten to death close to his home at the weekend.
Nine men appeared in court yesterday charged in connection with the murder, and the attempted murder of another man. They all deny the charges.
Last night a 53-year-old man, arrested in connection with the attacks, was released pending further inquires.
Mr McDaid's family has suggested loyalists threatened violence in the area unless certain demands were met by the police.
In a statement, the McDaids said it was a "fundamental tenet of a civilised society that individuals such as these should not dictate the terms of law and order".
The family said they were "further concerned that given the prior knowledge of the threat, neither we nor our neighbours were properly protected by the police.
"We want the community to support the police, but equally police must also support the community."
Despite acknowledging "substantial talks" had taken place between both sides before Sunday's violence, Sir Hugh said: "No one dictates terms in terms of keeping the peace to the Police Service."
The McDaid family, which has made a formal complaint to the NI Police Ombudsman, thanked the officers who tended to Kevin at the scene.
They said they were "grateful to the members of the PSNI who attended to Kevin after this horrific assault and who attempted to administer CPR as he lay dying at our feet."
The family appealed for calm in the area, insisting the attack should not been seen as Mr McDaid's lasting legacy.
"It is not what he would have wanted. Kevin lived helping others.
"His short life was spent trying to bridge the divide that exists in our community.
"His death at the hands of people who have nothing to offer our community should not be allowed to undo his life's work," they said.
Meanwhile, some offensive comments posted on a Bebo page pertaining to represent the Coleraine-based Pride of the Bann loyalist flute band have been removed.
It has been reported a number of comments referring to the weekend's violence were posted on the site.
Calls have been made for the page to be removed by Bebo.
One contributor commented on the page: "Pride of the band are we were not scared of the ruc.. we'll show use wot we can do."
Since initial media reports, it appears other posting have been removed, including one which read: "Well done lads!! respect what happened on sunday but maintain ur faith. proper order!!"
A spokesman for Pride of the Bann Flute Band told the Belfast Telegraph: "Pride of the Bann Flute Band Coleraine, have no site on Bebo.
"If there is a site claiming to be Pride of the Bann, band leaders have asked that whoever set this site up to remove it immediately."
(PR/BMcc)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iXGPhKE_gkSDwpStZUuG_smMo-oA
By Jessica Murphy – 1 hour ago
MONTREAL — In 1857, immigrant workers excavating land to build Montreal's Victoria Bridge stumbled upon a gruesome discovery.
Coffins filled with human remains. Thousands of them.
The workers had unwittingly laid bare a mass grave for 6,000 Irish who landed in Montreal dead and dying of the typhus fever that ran rampant on the overcrowded ships they'd boarded to flee the famine decimating their homeland.
Two years later, the workers of Irish, Chinese, Ukrainian and Native American backgrounds set a 27-tonne granite boulder dredged from the river over the site as a headstone.
The hulking stone still sits metres from the bridge's entrance, balanced on a grey pedestal between two lanes of traffic, protected by a crumbling wrought-iron fence decorated with shamrocks.
Though stained black by exhaust fumes, the inscription dedicating it to those who lost their lives on the coffin ships remains clear.
Almost from the beginning, the city's Irish community has held an annual walk to the stone to remember the men, women and children who died escaping poverty and hunger.
"It's been 150 years and we still haven't forgotten," said Victor Boyle, the national president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians - an all-Irish, all-Catholic and all-male organization that can trace its roots back to 16th-century Ireland.
"I hope we'll never forget."
The modest ritual begins with mass at St. Gabriel's Church, built in 1895 in a neighbourhood of former industrial slums where many of Montreal's Irish first settled.
The community then walks the two kilometres to the stone where the bodies still lie, buried beneath the asphalt. A priest says a few words and then local schoolchildren lay a wreath at the base of the monument.
The simple ceremony still draws people from all over North America.
Kevin Mann is a New Brunswick native living in the U.S. He joined the walk to the stone to connect with his
Irish roots.
"We all have history, we all have stories," he said.
"I'm here in solidarity. My family made it - we're healthy, able to produce more people. We're going to see those who didn't make it, and there are thousands, here at the stone."
He recalls stories of the migration - and possibly one of the largest ever recorded was that of the Irish people to Canada during the famine - and how many boarded the ships in Ireland already starving.
"Some even died walking to the port in Ireland," Mann said. "They died with grass stains on their lips because that's all they had to eat."
Some 100,000 were buried at sea, but those who made it across the Atlantic stopped at the Grosse Ile quarantine station near Quebec City.
"They came with the clothes on their back, and sickness," said Boyle.
The quarantine station was overwhelmed with the ill, so the immigrants that seemed healthy were waved through to Montreal.
But by the time the ships arrived in the city, many of their passengers lay dead and dying on the decks. The authorities, unable to handle many so many bodies, had to forego individual burials and instead laid them to rest in a mass grave.
Brian McBrien, 67, says he's walked to that grave every year since he was six years old.
"All the Irish people here, we treat (those buried) as family," he said.
Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Seeking+hope+they+found+death/1645325/story.html
Sunday marks the 150th anniversary of the planting of the Black Rock, which honours the remains of 6,000 Irish immigrants who died of ship fever
BY RENE BRUEMMER, THE GAZETTEMAY 31, 2009
The Irish came by the tens of thousands in 1847, packed like cordwood below deck in fetid ship holds meant for timber. They were fleeing famine and seeking salvation in the New World. Instead they found death, dying by the thousands at sea, in quarantine near Quebec City and finally in Montreal, victims of disease and neglect.
There were so many corpses, trenches were dug to dispose of the dead in what is now Point St. Charles. Twelve years later, labourers building the Victoria Bridge would uncover the bones of their brethren and insist the remains be protected. To make sure of it, they planted a massive 30-tonne, 10-foot high boulder dredged from the St. Lawrence River over the burial site, and inscribed it, in part: "To preserve from desecration the remains of 6,000 immigrants who died of ship fever."
Sunday marks the 150th anniversary of the planting of the stone, and as they've done every year for more than a century, Montreal's Irish community will march in the hundreds to the Irish Stone on Bridge St., just before the entry to Victoria Bridge, to honour the dead, those who tried to save them, and the descendants who survived and prospered.
"They came for a new life and found a grave," said Don Pidgeon, historian for the United Irish Societies of Montreal for the last 19 years. "We do it for them, and to remember all the Montrealers who risked their lives to help."
- - -
The population of Ireland surged from about 5 million in 1800 to 8 million in 1841. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution robbed many of their livelihoods of sewing, spinning cotton and wool and metal work, forcing them to rely on agriculture in overcrowded territories. Potatoes were the main sustenance for much of the population, one-third of whom lived in one-room shacks with no beds or chimneys.
In 1845, potatoes were struck by a fungal infection that caused half the crop to rot in the earth. In 1846, the blight returned, wiping out almost the entire crop, followed by one of the harshest winters in living memory, and the people starved. With the British government unable (some say unwilling) to provide adequate social assistance, emigration became the only option. Many were forced from their homes by landlords worried about non-paying tenants.
Most would have preferred the well-established promised lands of New York and Boston, but America had set strict standards and fares for passage to the U.S. were too high for the impoverished. But British traders who shipped lumber from Quebec City and St. John's were happy to have emigrants paying a low fare to serve as ballast for their return trips to Canada. Many passage brokers told passengers food would be provided for the 45-day journey, which was untrue.
Meanwhile, a typhus epidemic was raging through Ireland. The disease, marked by severe headaches, high fever, rashes, delirium and death, is passed to humans through lice. Crammed as many as 400 thick in the holds, the Irish were easy prey on vessels that came to be known as coffin ships. An estimated 5,000 died on the trip over in 1847, their corpses flung overboard.
Canadian immigration officials, who had no say in emigration policies determined by the British colonial authorities, were sorely unprepared and underfunded for the deluge of emaciated Irish. At the immigration depot on Grosse Île, an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence 50 kilometres east of Quebec City, the medical officer in charge of the quarantine station prepared beds for 200 invalids, thinking 10,000 emigrants had departed from Britain. That summer, more than 100,000 would flee to Quebec.
By the end of May, there were already 40 ships lined up for three kilometres, awaiting to discharge passengers. The ships kept coming till the river iced over in October.
"I never contemplated the possibility of every vessel arriving with fever as they do now," wrote Dr. George M. Douglas. Of the 427 passengers and crew on one ship, the Agnes, only 150 survived.
The ill overflowed the quarantine stations, lying outside on the grass and sand beaches. Healthy passengers were stuck waiting on the ships for 20 days, a death sentence for many. Bodies were pulled from the holds with hooks and stacked on shore. Between 3,000 and 5,000 died on Grosse Île.
By way of comparison, one chronicler noted that German immigrants arrived on their boats well-fed, healthy and happy.
Overwhelmed health officials started waving many ships with "healthy" passengers on to Montreal.
They disembarked, malnourished and diseased, dying in the streets and on the wharves, begging for water on the steps of churches. Worried about an epidemic, authorities constructed three wooden "fever sheds" 150 feet long and 50 feet wide at Windmill Point, near where Victoria Bridge now stands in Point St. Charles. The sick and dying lay two or three to a bed, side by side with the dead, leaving hundreds of orphans behind. The number of sheds grew to 22. Military cordoned off the area so the sick couldn't escape.
Seeing the ill dying alone, the Grey Nuns went to help, attending to the sick and carrying women and children in their arms from the ships to the ambulances. Thirty of 40 nuns who went to help fell ill, and seven died, writes historian Edgar Andrew Collard. Other nuns took over, but once the surviving Grey Nuns had convalesced, they returned. Priests also came forth, many falling ill after leaning in close to hear the last confessions of the dying.
When a mob of frightened Montrealers threatened to toss the fever sheds into the river, Montreal mayor John Easton Mills quelled the riot, and later went himself to help in the evenings, giving them water and changing their straw bedding. The father of a large family, he died in November.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Montreal urged French Quebecers, linked to the Irish by their Catholic faith, to help the orphans. Many came from the country to adopt one or two children, accepting them in to their families, in some cases passing their land on to them.
- - -
More than one million died in Ireland of starvation and disease during the great famine; another million and a half emigrated. The country's population has never been as high since.
Grosse Île, site of the largest Irish famine graveyard outside of Ireland, is now known as the Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site of Canada.
And in Montreal, on a busy street in an industrial neighbourhood near a Costco superstore sits a rough, uneven 30-tonne stone, blackened with age, fittingly sombre, erected by labourers to ensure the suffering of their countrymen who came in search of a better land not be forgotten.
One hundred and fifty years later, their countrymen will march to the stone once again.
The "Walk to the Stone" organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians begins with a mass at 10:30 a.m. at St. Gabriel's Parish, 2157 Centre St. in Point St. Charles, followed by the walk and a complimentary buffet at the church hall.
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2009/may/31/we-knew-this-was-coming/
Kevin McDaid was beaten to death outside his Coleraine home because Catholics dared to fly their flags, writes Michael Clifford
Back in the old days, a curfew bell used to ring through Coleraine nightly at 9pm. The bell tolled for the town's Catholics, instructing them to return across the river Bann to their ghetto in Killowen. By the time the practice ended in 1954, the tolling had been relegated from instruction to tradition, but still held huge symbolic significance. The town council's decision to discontinue the practice was informed by budgetary considerations, rather than any attempt at conciliation.
Last Sunday, a few tricolours were raised above Somerset Drive in The Heights area of Killowen. Nearby, at home, Kevin McDaid was living through his last day, one that would end with a vicious beating.
The Heights area is now described as mixed, but is probably as nationalist an area as you will get in a Protestant town. The flags were ostensibly raised for a sporting occasion. Celtic and Rangers were playing on the final day of the Scottish Premier League. Both had a chance of winning the title, depending on results. As it was to transpire, Rangers took the title for the first time in four years. These things matter greatly in the working class estates of Northern Ireland.
Flying flags is second nature in the north. Travel through Armagh and observe the pockets of minority Protestant villages or estates where the Union Jack is prominent, flown with pride and defiance.
Such displays by the local minority tradition are not permitted in Coleraine. The Taigs are expected to keep their heads down, to know their place. The town is a stronghold of the UDA. Torrens Knight is a local, celebrated killer. He was convicted of murdering 12 Catholics in two incidences – one of which was the Greysteel massacre – in 1993. When he was released under the Good Friday agreement, Knight was carried shoulder high through one pub in the town centre.
Coleraine sits near the mouth of the Bann in Co Derry. It is described as a "bustling town", and includes in its precincts a campus for the University of Ulster. Roughly 80% of the population is Protestant.
Flying the tricolour
On Sunday, the tricolour went up in The Heights, but it was raised for more than just a sporting occasion. Confidence has infected the Catholic minority in the north over the last few years. Many are buying into the notion of parity of esteem. The bad old days of oppression, followed by organised murder on all sides, is over. Catholics in areas like Coleraine are eager to assert their identity. Doing so is supposed to be an entitlement under the new dispensation.
Word spread fast that the tricolour went up. DUP MLA Adrian McQuillan said afterwards that he was in contact with the police on Sunday afternoon to inform them that flags had been erected. "I just asked the police to keep an eye on the situation and make them aware of it," he said.
At some point, word came through to Scott's bar in New Market Street in the town, a favoured watering hole of loyalists. Over 100 patrons were in the bar, watching the football and drinking. Between the drink, the football and the flags, tensions began to rise. The police were eager to quell any potential for trouble. At least one officer entered the bar, and engaged in some form of negotiation with individuals. It is understood that an agreement was hatched. Nobody would go up to The Heights looking for trouble, and the flags would come down the following day. It is unclear when exactly the exchanges took place.
Up at The Heights, they were expecting trouble. A makeshift barricade consisting of a horsebox was erected at the entrance to Somerset Drive. Over in Scotland, Rangers won the day. Ordinarily, it might be expected that victory would lead to celebrations. In Scott's bar, celebrating were interpreted by some as inflicting viciousness on the Taigs.
The cars drove into a lane off Somerset Drive sometime after 9pm. Up to 40 men got out, wielding pick axe handles and baseball bats. Some of them began to take down the tricolours. At home, around the corner, 49-year-old Kevin McDaid heard the commotion. McDaid was a plasterer by trade, but latterly, he put most of his energy into community work. The immediate area had had its share of social problems and there have been tensions between the two traditions. The father of four was to the fore in attempting to build up the community. His wife Evelyn is Protestant.
McDaid knew two of his sons were around outside. He went out and was immediately set upon by the mob. Another local man Damien Fleming received a similar trashing. Evelyn McDaid attempted to intervene and was beaten black and blue. A pregnant woman from the area appealed to the attackers to stop. She also was beaten.
McDaid's son Ryan picked his father up as the mob retreated. They stumbled around the corner to the back door of the family home. McDaid collapsed and died soon after. The official cause of death was a heart attack.
Death threat
Ryan McDaid spoke publicly on Monday about the killing of his father. At 11.40pm on Tuesday, a police officer visited the family home and handed him a standard blue sheet, which contains the official notification of a death threat. Even in bereavement, Taigs are expected to know their place in Coleraine.
Some of the reaction spoke volumes. The DUP man McQuillan focused on the flags. "Tit-for-tat all the time. What reason can you see for there being tricolours up yesterday afternoon, a Sunday afternoon? None other than to get a reaction from the loyalist community, and they certainly got a reaction this time, which is very sad."
He later apologised for the remarks, but there was no escaping the subtext. Catholics in the town should know their place, and not be aggravating the thuggish element of loyalism.
The Police Ombudsman is investigating the attack and all that led up to it. The PSNI has confirmed that there were officers in the area, as tensions were high. How quick they responded will be a subject of investigation, as will the negotiations with loyalists who were consuming drink. There will also be a focus on how much time elapsed between the negotiations and the attack.
On Thursday, nine men ranging in ages from 18 to 50 were charged in relation to the killing. Six were charged with murder, three others with assault and affray.
"It's my firm belief that there was a UDA involvement," Sinn Féin councilor Billy Leonard told the Sunday Tribune. "And the police should never have entered into negotiations with loyalists who had been drinking. We knew this was coming. We knew that somebody was going to die and we warned the police. We knew the viciousness of these people."
Last August, a group of up to 100 entered the same area and attacked local people who were preparing an internment bonfire. Leonard says tension has been building since then.
According to PSNI figures, there has been a major rise in sectarian crime in the town at a time when incidents across the north have been on the decline. While overall figures were down 3% in 2008, the number of sectarian incidents including wounding, injury and intimidation are up 95%. There have also been a number of pipe bomb attacks.
'Know their place'
The SPLP's John Dallat puts much of the increase in attacks down to the small nationalist community attempting to assert itself, as is its right.
"Loyalists will not accept any culture in Coleraine except their own," he says. "Catholics are expected to know their place."
It has always been thus. Dallat remembers one occasion two decades ago when he was issuing campaign leaflets outside a church in the town. The parish priest, a Canon Murphy, approached him and cautioned him about leaving leaflets in a prominent position.
"He told me, 'the curfew bell may not ring loudly in Coleraine anymore, but it still rings'".
Through the week, wellwishers left flowers and messages and Celtic jerseys on the railings at the back of Kevin McDaid's house, where he fell and died. Attached to one bouquet was a simple message. "RIP Kevin. From someone who never knew you. All I ask is why."
May 31, 2009
http://www.eagletribune.com/punews/local_story_149004756.html
By Jill Harmacinski
LAWRENCE — For years, David Burke ran the city's St. Patrick's Day luncheon, using his booming voice to control the crowd and keep the event running smoothly.
Behind the scenes, in quieter tones, Burke was always busy, whether he was showcasing Irish pride, helping the needy or making plans to improve his native city.
"David's known as the guy with the booming voice, but there were a lot of things he did quietly with no fanfare. He was constantly reaching out for one reason or another," said Myles Burke, a close friend, neighbor and co-worker.
Burke, 69, regarded as one of the city's best known Irishmen, died late Wednesday night at Caritas Holy Family Hospital in Methuen.
Burke, who fought prostate and colon cancer in recent years, spent more than two weeks in Holy Family's intensive care unit after developing an infection after surgery, said Myles Burke.
Friends yesterday recalled the tremendous intensity and dedication of the proud Lawrencian and true gentleman, who never forgot where he came from.
"The whole of Ireland is going to miss him. He's been a great friend to Ireland and a great friend to me in the 17 years since I came to Lawrence," said Colie Ryan, a County Fligo native who owns the Claddagh Restaurant & Pub at 399 Canal St.
A highly decorated and respected member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish group that promotes friendship, unity and true Christian charity, Burke was widely known for his efforts to promote peace in the Motherland.
"He was very well thought of in Ireland," said Frank Ford Jr., a close friend and fellow Hibernian, noting Burke's wake and funeral will draw mourners from around the country and from Ireland.
Burke's strong pride in his Irish heritage was "evident in his daily life," said Anne-Marie Nyhan-Doherty, president of the city's Ladies Order of Ancient Hibernians.
"He once told me that if he didn't put in 40 hours per week in working in Ireland's behalf, he didn't feel that he did his job," Nyhan-Doherty recalled yesterday.
Burke's work for peace landed him at meetings with the likes of Princess Grace and high-ranking Irish officials. In 2007, the International Peace Bureau awarded Burke the Sean MacBride Huminatarian Award, a distinction previously bestowed on President John F. Kennedy Jr., Ford noted.
Myles Burke is no relation to David. But he lived next door to him on Mt. Vernon Terrace for years and shared dinner with him and his wife Patricia weekly. He would often ask, "Have you done anything for Ireland today?" Myles Burke recalled yesterday.
Despite his focus on the Emerald Isle, Burke stayed deeply entrenched in the goings on of Lawrence.
The son of a Polish mother and Irish father, Burke grew up in the city's Arlington neighborhood.
Ryan noted Burke "always took" to the Irish side of his heritage.
"Every day he called Ireland. He never forgot where he came from," Ryan said.
In recent years, Burke was the driving force behind the annual St. Patrick's Day cabbage and corned beef luncheon, which was originally started by Mayor John Buckley. A member of St. Patrick's Parish, Burke long stressed that St. Patrick's Day is day of holy obligation, a feast day — not a day for partying and drinking green beer.
He was quoted extensively in a 1975 Eagle-Tribune article after collecting St. Patrick's Day greeting cards he considered offensive. "Instead of putting out cards pertaining to drinks, the could do cards about Ireland's culture, its prose and poetry," he suggested 34 years ago.
Burke worked for nearly 38 years for the Lawrence Housing Authority and after he retired, he became a volunteer staffer for Mayor Michael Sullivan.
He worked for a "cup of coffee" and "free parking" each day, often putting in 60 hours per week, Sullivan said. He oversaw the work of the city's boards and commissions and helped plan city-wide events. He constantly stressed the need for strengthening the city's economy, Sullivan said.
"He said to me all the time, 'If it's not about economic development, don't focus on it," Sullivan said.
He read five newspapers daily and prided himself on his vast knowledge of the city's history. At one time, he owned an Irish import store on South Broadway. "I never in my life have met a more positive, optimistic person who just rolls up his sleeves and goes to work," Sullivan said. "From day one, he was literally up here, doing everything. And he could do anything. All he need was a desk and a phone."
While working at City Hall, Burke started the Lawrencians Giving Thanks food drive. He was widely known as the go-to guy when someone needed help from a local non-profit or even just a hand moving.
"He would say, 'How about an Christian act of charity today? It will make you feel good,'" said Myles Burke.
SDLqIf Dave believed in a specific cause, then he would surely put his heart and soul into it and make sure everyone else did the same," said Nyhan-Doherty.
Ford said despite cancer and ongoing treatments, Burke "always stayed positive."
"That's how I will remember him ... He never got down. He was always hopeful and kept on fighting," Ford said. "To me, that's an amazing thing."
Burke's immediate survivors include his wife Patricia (Jurewicz); his son, Kevin, a Lawrence public school teacher and football coach; and a brother, Robert Burke, who also lives in Lawrence.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete yesterday.
Burke long ago donated his collection of Irish books, music and newspapers to the South Lawrence branch of Lawrence Public Library. He served on the library board of trustees.
In the future, City Council President Patrick Blanchette said he looks forward to honoring Burke's dedication to Ireland and legacy in Lawrence in some way.
"If he couldn't be born in Ireland, David Burke is certainly its adopted son," Myles Burke said.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/new-york-city-mourns-a-quiet-man-who-gave-immigrants-a-foot-on-the-ladder-1749385.html
By KIRK SEMPLE in New York and Liam Collins in Dublin
Sunday May 24 2009
They say he arrived with five shillings in his pocket and a union card. It was 1963 and Austin Delaney was in his early 20s, the son of farmers from Mayo. He had travelled alone and, like so many other immigrants before and after him, carried little more than his ambitions to make something of himself in New York.
In the ensuing decades, some would come to know Mr Delaney, who died of cancer on Friday, May 15, at age 70, as an owner of several popular bars and restaurants, most recently the Rosie O'Grady's saloons in Midtown Manhattan and the Harbour Lights Restaurant at the South Street Seaport.
But for many New Yorkers, hundreds of whom mourned him at a wake last Sunday and a funeral on Monday, he was a low-profile yet crucial benefactor to generations of Irish immigrants.
"He didn't believe you should pull the ladder up after you," Ciaran Staunton, co-founder and president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, said after the funeral at the Church of the Holy Name of Jesus on the Upper West Side.
"It was not only about leaving the ladder for others to climb, but reaching down with a hand to help."
In every immigrant community in New York, a few people emerge as linchpins -- part fixer, part rescuer, part counsellor, part diplomat. They are the leaders you might be directed to for help when you first arrive in town or when you need a loan or a job.
They make connections between strangers that lead to new businesses and romances. They mediate disputes. They can quickly raise money to cover someone's medical or legal bills or to ship a body home.
"A lot of people who came here felt like they were adopted by Austin," the Rev Frank O'Shannon, a close friend, said in a brief eulogy on Monday.
It's a story that echoed many others told over the weekend. Father O'Shannon recalled how cousins of his visited New York one summer and found jobs through Mr Delaney. "They were lousy waitresses," he said, "but they had a great time."
At fundraisers for Irish causes, Mr Delaney was munificent but demure, Mr Staunton said. "Don't say where it came from," he recalled Mr Delaney saying. "That was his thing."
Niall O'Dowd, the prominent Irish-American journalist, wrote on Irishcentral.com that "it was always done quietly: a nudge in the direction of a certain premises, a quiet word in the ear of a well-known Irish businessman that maybe this young lad out from Ireland deserved a chance".
On his arrival in New York, Mr Delaney, who dropped out of school at the age of 10, found work as a labourer in the construction trade, his relatives said.
He opened his first pub, in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx, with his brother, who had also emigrated to the United States. In 1969, Mr Delaney entered into a partnership with Mike Carty, another Irish-American bar owner, and the two began a 40-year business relationship that lasted until Mr Delaney's death.
In the 1970s, the partners opened up the first of the Rosie O'Grady's saloons in Manhattan.
"Austin was just a low-key individual who did an awful lot for people to give them a start and didn't want any recognition, he was a quiet person who did things the quiet way," said Mike Carty last week. "He did very well for himself," said Patrick Lane, manager of Rosie O'Grady's on 46th Street. "If you asked him how he did what he did, he'd say, 'It's all just luck'."
About 20 of Mr Delaney's friends and family in New York accompanied his coffin on a flight back to Ireland on Monday night. "We've been with him this long," Mr Lane said. "We're going to go to the end with him."
Mr Delaney, who lived on the Upper East Side, was a passionate sportsman and had a particular interest in horse racing, whether it was in America or Ireland. Each year he came over for the Galway Races and was a well-known figure at the track and the revelry afterwards.
Austin Delaney is survived by his sons JP and Dermot, his daughter Ann-Marie and his partner Annie Gaynor.
He was buried on Wednesday at Tulrahan Cemetery in his beloved Co Mayo, where he had been born in Carrowkeel, near Brickens. He was known affectionately in the family as 'Noll'.
© 2009 New York Times
- KIRK SEMPLE in New York and Liam Collins in Dublin
http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=19298
By Ray O'Hanlon
May 20, 2009 The death took place last week of Austin Delaney, for years one of the best known and liked Irish bar and restaurant owners in New York City.
The cause of death was cancer.
Delaney, who was 70, was a native of Carrowkeel, Irishtown in County Mayo. He is immediately survived by his son J.P., daughter Anne Marie, and son Dermot as well as three grandchildren, nephews and nieces.
A funeral Mass was held for Delaney on Monday at Holy Name Church on 96th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan after which Delaney's remains were flown back to Ireland for burial in what his newspaper death notice described as his "beloved County Mayo."
"This was tragic. Austin will be sorely missed," former Irish Echo publisher, Sean Finlay, who attended the church service, said.
"Austin was a standout and standup guy, a friend to many, many people who came to New York from his county and all over Ireland," said Finlay.
Delaney was widely known in the bar and restaurant business, not least for his founding roles in two of New York City's best known Irish hostelries, Rosie O'Grady's in midtown, and Harbor Lights at the South Street Seaport. Delaney was also a passionate follower of horse racing and was himself an owner with horses stabled in Florida.
Delaney's career, much of it established working alongside his business partner of four decades, Mike Carty, was a classic tale of an immigrant making good.
The New York Times, in a report on Monday's packed funeral Mass, stated that it was said that Delaney had arrived in New York with a union card and just five shillings in his pocket which, in 1963, would have been worth about a dollar.
Over the years, as he made many dollars, Delaney never forgot his roots or his earlier circumstances and was known for his generosity towards fellow immigrants.
"He didn't believe you should pull the ladder up after you. It was not only about leaving the ladder for others to climb, but reaching down with a hand to help," Ciaran Staunton, a fellow Mayo native and president of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, said.
Staunton said that Delaney was low key about the frequent financial help he gave to good causes, and needy individuals.
"A lot of people who came here felt like they were adopted by Austin," Fr. Frank O'Shannon said of a man who was also his friend during his eulogy at Holy Name.
"He was one great man to work for," said Patrick O'Rourke, general manger of Harbor Lights
"He made his mark in this town. He was a legend," said O'Rourke, who added that Harbor Lights had remained open the last few days.
"We didn't close down because he wouldn't have wanted us to," O'Rourke said.
"Austin was one of the last of that great foundation generation of Irish immigrants in New York in modern times, a generation that included other Mayo immigrants like Paul O'Dwyer and Frank Durkan," said attorney Sean Downes.
In lieu of flowers, the Delaney family said that Austin had requested that donations be made to O'Dwyer Cheshire Home, c/o Patrick O'Connor, Market Place, Swinford, County Mayo.
This story appeared in the issue of May 27-June 2, 2009
Updated: 10/4/2009
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