Cuture counts, even 36 floors up

The Irish Echo ambassador in Boston, John Foley (he answers the phone, "Foley Law" — there must be a mini-series in that), brought me out for a sandwich in the Green Dragon yesterday, just yards from Quincy Market and beside the former markers of the centre of Boston.

It was in the Green Dragon, reputedly, that a sharp-eared youngster heard the Red Coats discuss their attack on the American forces and raised the alarm, thus saving the day.

Later on Tuesday, I went out to Quincy for a meeting of the undocumented. One of those I met was a young lady from Armagh (she's now 31, hasn't been home in nine years as she's no Green Card) who told me how a con artist milked her for $5,000, claiming he was getting her legal status. He had her undertake a medical and go to New York to get her fingerprints taken. All his meetings took place at Yale University. Turns out he was a chancer preying on the undocumented. He's now in jail, when they arrested him, he was still wearing his Yale top, posing as a graduate lawyer.

This morning, I had breakfast on the 36th floor of 100 Federal Plaza one of the great buildings of Boston, in the rooms of the Boston College Club. Host was Gary Hanley of Invest NI and among the speakers were Valerie Watts of Derry City Council and Micheál Ó hÉanaigh of Donegal County Council. The time is ripe they said for leveraging Derry's qualities to attract investment, not least the new peace bridge from the Waterside to the Cityside. One of the conclusions of our discussion: culture counts. Investors like to go to areas where the esthetic is appealing. Culture counts!

This is the view from the Club and here's John Foley and me. You're right, he is twice the man I am and has a better suit. And we're lucky we caught him in his summer suit because he hasn't worn it since Joe Cahill died — how does he know: when he picked it up from the dry cleaners, the owner said he had left a memory card of Joe in one of his pockets.

Back home in Derry

Nice piece in the Derry Journal. And on BBC.

Met this morning in Boston with representatives of the Moynihan Group, Boston Irish Business Association and Valerie Watts, ceo of Derry City Council, to tie up loose ends for our conference.

And on the Government Monitor website here is a comprehensive round-up of our Boston plans.

To Quincy tonight for a townhall meeting with the Irish undocumented who are now hoping for comprehensive immigration reform to enable them to stay in the US.

Gearing up in Boston

Hope to meet later today in Boston with Bill Ghormley (first Gormley with a 'h' I've met but makes sense if you want Yanks to pronounce the name right) of Xconomy which operates one of the few successful digital media operations I've seen, by combining their website with a strong events calendar.

Also a nice plug here in the Belfast Telegraph for tomorrow's Gateways To Tomorrow conference.

Gateways is a go!

Details of the Irish Echo Gateways to Tomorrow conference are spelt out in this news items from Irish Echo this week. On my way and looking forward to building up mutually beneficial links with Boston for the northwest.

September 30, 2009 A reinvigorated effort to build economic bridges between the U.S. and Ireland will be launched in Boston next week at the "Gateways to Tomorrow" conference hosted by the Irish Echo.

The conference, which features high-profile speakers from Boston and northwest Ireland, including State Senate President Therese Murray of Massachusetts and Minister Conor Murphy of the power sharing executive in the North, will build on the work of the recent Global Economic Forum held in Dublin last month, and on last year's Investment Conference in Belfast.


While focusing on economic, academic and cultural linkages, the conference will also hear from IAUC President Kate McCabe and General James Cullen, founding president of the Brehon Law Society, who will speak on the lessons of the Irish peace process.


Mary Louise Mallick, First Deputy Comptroller of New York State, which has invested $30 million in a new fund targeting underserved areas of the north of Ireland, will also address the gathering.


Among the organizations sponsoring the conference are the University of Ulster, Magee, Derry City Council, Donegal Council, the Derry regeneration body ILEX, and the Northern Ireland Bureau in Washington D.C. U.S. political figures addressing the conference include Massachusetts State Treasurer Tim Cahill and Rep. Gene O'Flaherty, while Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray will be chief honoree at the Golden Bridges luncheon finale to the conference.


To register, go to www.irishecho.com/conference.


"With this conference, Irish America is leading the way in underpinning the peace process and helping Ireland's economy while reaping real benefits for the U.S. I have no doubt that this unique gathering is the most important initiative linking northwest Ireland and Boston in a generation, and will provide a template for a new win-win relationship between the U.S. and Ireland," said Irish Echo publsher, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir.

Run every mountain

The views from the Black Mountain over Belfast are beyond compare, and surely up there with Europe's great visitors. Fortunately, when you run as slowly as I do you can get to take in this amazing spactacle which I surely did on this morning's tenth anniversary Black Mountain Run and Walk organised by Dougie Adams of Caulfield's and many other endeavours.

I'm told the troubled Northern Ireland Events Company was to have its budget subsumed by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board which, all things being equal, should lead to more money coming to events such as the West Belfast Féile rather than golf outings in Portrush for the well-heeled.

However, I'm also informed that the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure under new man Nelson McCausland has yet to sign off on the move which was to have come into effect on 1 October. Of course, any delay would be unrelated to the fact that this transfer of powers and budgets could, once and for all, end the funding limbo in which Europe's biggest community festival operates.

But it's time to go one further, Belfast should have an events budget which would get behind an event like the Black Mountain 10k — and, yes, the ascent is murderous for 49-year-old legs — and turn it into a tourism and civic pride bonanza with 1,000 entrants annually.

Now that enterprising Sinn Féin councillor Conor Maskey has managed to get Belfast City Council to support a motion to place a major piece of art in City Hall celebrating the Irish language, getting an events budget to fund community uplift events in underserved areas should be easy.

And how did I do in the mountain stakes, you ask. One hour and seven minutes to cover 4.8 miles which meant, bar the walking wounded, I was last home. But I ran every inch of it so that'll do me.

(Our picture by Ed McGinley shows Paul Blaney, centre, who won in 37 minutes, with organiser Dougie Adams and me. I came in exactly 30 minutes after Paul.)

An gruagaire is fearr ar domhan

Seo Pat Hall, an gruagaire is fearr in iarthar na hEorpa, agus a chruthanas sin agam sa ghearradh gruaige a thug sé dom inniu. Ach bíonn sé de shíor ag gearán nár chuir mé isteach sa bhlag seo go fóill é.

Sin an scéal sin curtha i gceart.

Somthing's cooking

Good to see the great Belfast restaurateur Michael Deane (right), who now serves on the Northern Ireland Tourism Board board, at the Cultúrlann yesterday with Board Chair Howard Hastings (left) and Michael Rogan of the Caifé Feirste.

After lunch, Howard thanked me for organising a crowd of cafe-goers to show the Cultúrlann in all its busy splendour. I had to assure him that Caifé Feirste is busy, busy, busy every day and in fact is the most popular restaurant in Belfast linked to a cultural building.

The bigger picture shows the entire board, officials and West Belfast cultural and tourist organisation representatives outside the Cultúrlann.

Project Children 35th anniversary in Queen's University tonight followed by fundraiser for Conway Mill.

Good company

A great picture by Jim Corr of Tina Mistéil and Connla Lawlor presenting a bouquet of flowers to President McAleese after her address to the Aisling Bursary presentation.

Today, I had the thrill of attending lunch with members of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board who were having their first ever meeting on the Falls (in the Cultúrlann and led by the inimitable Chair Howard Hastings), then seeing the Strategic Investment Board top brass walking along the Falls past the Falls Library (now there's a building the SIB could renovate) as I was on my way to the Shankill Road for a meeting of the West Belfast and Greater Shankill Enterprise Council chaired by the irrepressible Pádraic White.

After that, it was out to the University of Ulster to see Vice-Chancellor Richard Barnett (he of the Invest NI report) to discuss his exciting plans to revitalise Belfast by bringing the Jordanstown campus to the Cathedral Quarter, Library Quarter, Lower North Belfast (tick one).

The collapse of the plan to locate a university on the peaceline at Springvale was a black mark against the University of Ulster, this pioneering plan gives the university, under its progressive head, the opportunity to put that injustice right — and then some. All great cities have bustling, world-class universities at their heart. When Belfast's city centre university comes on stream (to complement the already vibrant Art and Design College of UU at York Street), we'll be joining their company.