To each their own

When Harold and Maude came out in 1971, my older brother went to see it (then a daring college undergraduate) and recounted the entire movie to his younger four brothers at night after the lights went out (Three in one bed, two top to bottom, the other bottom to top, and two in the other bed. Them was the days.)

It's an uplifting anti-war dark comedy about a teenage boy and a woman turning 80 with the message that you should do your own thing and f... the begrudgers.

I didn't get to see it myself until the mid-seventies but I enjoyed watching this old trailer tonight as much as I enjoyed it on first viewing.

I suspect it's going to make a comeback.



And final word on the Lock Keepers Cafe: the guys running it do a bang-up job. I've only been there once — in November of this year with Ivan Little for coffee before the Aisling bash (two 'crack' journalists and we missed the story) — and afterwards told everyone about its excellent standards. So kudos to the owners.

Reporting back

A full report of the Massachusetts-Northwest Ireland conference held in Boston on 8-9 October 2009 has now been issued.

It includes a round-up of the contributions (including the full text of the speeches by State Senate President of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray as well as the pithy comments of entrepreneur John Cullinane), pictures, testimonials and a list of delegates.

You can download the report here or read more on our conference website at www.belfastmedia.com/boston.

Fócas ar na Bascaigh

Tá alt spéisiúil ar an iris nua Ghaeilge ag Sinn Féin An Glór Poblachtach ar ainstaid na mBascach.

Leagan amach iontach tarraingteach ar an iris fosta agus é ar fáil sa Chultúrlann i mBéal Feirste ar £3.

An dá thaobh den scéal

Chuir Sinn Féin ráiteas amach ag cáineadh na n-amadán in oifig an phoist a scríobh an ráiteas biogóideach seo ar chlúdach litreach.

Ach de thaisme, chuir siad an pictiúr mícheart leis an ráiteas an chéad uair...mar sin féin is taitneamhaí i bhfad an chéad phictiúr, seo an dá cheann duit.

Ré nua

Rinne mé rud inné nach ndeárna mé ariamh aroimhe — cheannaigh mé an Daily Blueshirt, le go bhfuighfinn Foinse.

Tá an Indo sa Chultúrlann go fóill más mian le duine ar bith é a thabhairt leo ach thug mé liom Foinse. Tuilleadh fógraí de dhíth ach colúnaithe mhaithe gan amhras.

B'fhearrde bun-scríbhneoirí ná ailt aistrithe ach tiocfaidh sin de réir mar bhisíonn cúrsaí fógraíochta déarfainn.

Creidim go bhfuil tógáil ar dhíolachán an Irish Independent ó thosaigh siad a chur Foinse taobh istigh d'eagrán na Céadaoine.

Bímis buíoch ar son an bheagáin: Níl sé ar eagrán an Domhnaigh. Dia idir sinn agus go mbeadh orainn an nuachtán sin a cheannacht.

Mighty Quinn back

And Christine Quinn has been reelected Speaker of New York City Council...despite a racial row and a challenge from a former Black Panther.

Quite an achievement for the Irish American politician who wants to be mayor of the Big Apple in 2013 as she came in for some stick over her support for a change in the rules to allow Mayor Bloomberg to fight for a third term as the city's mayor.

Picture courtesy of the New York Daily News which had this report.

I look forward to having Speaker Quinn open the 'New York-New Belfast' conference on 10-11 June in New York's Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Climbing high for undocumented

As the Irish diaspora in the US Senator gears up for a heightened campaign for the undocumented in 2010, the opponents of reform are gathering.

In South Carolina a branch of the Republican Party voted this week to censure Sen. Lindsey Graham "for his support of a massive federal bailout of the banking industry and for supporting a failed immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate that would have given illegal immigrants a path to citizenship".

But I see in the Irish Echo that Conor Murphy MP, who met representatives of the undocumented while in Boston at the Gateways to Tomorrow conference in October, scaled the heights over Christmas to highlight the plight of the Irish caught in a visa limbo.

On Christmas Day, accompanied by Banjo Bannon (whose new biography is just out), he climbed Sliabh gCuircín in his native Camlough.

Saudi Arabia this ain't

We have our faults but no one ever said this was Saudi Arabia so forgive From The Balcony if we don't obsess today on the problems chez Robinson. After all, nobody died, contrary to the gravity and end-of-the-world is nigh tone of the reports.

And for the record, while stoning is still seen as an appropriate response to adultery in the Kingdom (and that's not Kerry), this site tells me "Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Djibouti, Macedonia, Mozambique, and Turkmenistan have formally abandoned execution as the penalty for all crimes, including adultery and other sex 'crimes'."

That said, I can't vouch for the accuracy of the site as it has a link to the De Vinci code!

I can stand by this report from Amnesty International about a woman condemned to 100 lashes in Iran for sleeping with a lodger. But while there may be many similarities between fundamentalist Protestantism as practised in lesser Ulster, this, fortunately, ain't Iran either.

Time for the BBC's Spotlight to broadcast their programme so that we can move from the personal to the political.

Flying woes

Can an alliance between Aer Arann and Aer Lingus help both airlines survive the global travel downturn?

Today's Irish Times reports that an alliance is up for debate at the Aer Lingus board meeting on Friday.

The bigger question for Aer Lingus is how can it make its transatlantic flights profitable. That will require a lot of debate but I'm sure staffing numbers could be decreased if cabin staff and crew covered more transatlantic flights per month. That would also help decrease fares which to my way of thinking are way out of whack with demand for seats (last year, I flew on several US-Ireland flights with Aer Lingus which weren't 50 per cent full).

The alternative to this option: closure of the airline or of its transatlantic routes and that would be catastrophic for staff (and the nation as Aer Lingus is 'just' hanging onto its status as a national carrier).

Who will pay the piper?

With the Brits drowning in debt (the only difference between London, Athens, Madrid and Dublin is that in the latter the governments have admitted they're bust), expect cutbacks in the wee six shortly.

So where should the extra dough be found to fund capital investments and maintain services.

In a new report, More for Less, PricewaterhouseCoopers in Belfast suggests a variety of ways to plug a funding shortfall between 2011 and 2014 estimated at around £700m.

Things will only get worse after that when European Funding stops for the six counties and moves to points east (that's not Titanic Quarter but Warsaw). However, the EU will still permit some funding through its Regional Infrastructure Funds — if an early bid is made for major infrastructure schemes (Gaeltacht Quarter anyone?)


But for me the most interesting option is an Accelerated Development Zone "which can generate around £500m over the course of their lifetime". This would involve encouraging the private sector to "develop" public assets such as "ports, airports, public transport". The hope is that it could generate around £100m per annum.

In the interim, if we can get the government on the hill working, the entire tax dependency on London needs rexamined. The Scots (any takers for them getting a republic before Ireland) and the Welsh have already commissioned reviews of their relations to the exchequer in London with the Calman Commission in Scotland saying the country should administer half the income tax raised within its Borders.

Sammy Wilson seems to be enjoying his job up at Stormont as Finance Minister — and is making a good fist of it. Surely, even a "100 per cent British" politician like he will want to throw off the British tax shackle.

Thompson hat in the ring

Outgoing comptroller of New York City Bill Thompson is planning to run again in the election for mayor of the Big Apple in 2013.

Thompson shocked pundits by coming within four percentage points of Bloomberg last year.

The Daily News has a full report here. (As an aside, both the Daily News and New York Post, the biggest tabloid dailies in New York, lose around $30m each per annum).

Black and Tans

I have a friend who used to refer to the RUC as "the Tans" which is apposite given the activities of that force which have come to light over recent years.

In fact, I was always saddened by the decision of the late Cardinal Daly to urge young nationalists to join the RUC during the height of its collusion campaign. I wasn't surprised therefore to hear that he'd given the Chief Constable of the RUC Jack Hermon his blessing on his retirement in 1989.

But lest we dwell on the brickbats (and of course the fact that the late Cardinal enthusiastically endorsed the NIO during the collusion campaign is a black mark) let's not forget his progressive stances as well: When appointed Bishop of Down and Connor he immediately moved to lift the ban from saying mass in churches which had been imposed on Fr Des Wilson.

Of course, in referring to the then Bishop Daly, Fr Des taught me an important lesson when he said you should never let politics get in the way of friendship.

Leaba i measc na naomh go raibh ag an Chairdinéal cóir.

But I was also interested to see the following note from American journalist Jeremy Scahill, the author of the Blackwater blockbuster, in his acknowledgements section: "I wish to remember my late grandparents, two of whom were Irish immigrants who lived through the terror of the Black and Tans paramilitaries."

More is less

Roy Greenslade has a thoughtful piece in the Irish Times about the future of media as the internet gathers strength.

Ominously, he suggests that "more" (gazillions of pages of information over the web) might be "less" (as governments block stuff critical of them).

But given the recent debacle over TV3 making a news item of Brian Lenihan's illness, perhaps it's less of what passes for news that we need. I know a critic is referred to as someone who leaves no turn unstoned but are there no depths to which TV3 won't plunge to get an exclusive.

All of which reminds me that George Bernard Shaw said:"Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to distinguish between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilisation."

Ar ais arís

Great to be back.

I see Larry Kirwan of Black 47 fame will have a new novel out soon, Rocking the Bronx. Should we worth looking out for when it's serialised in Irish Echo.

And I see Irish Central have given Black 47 their rightful place in Irish America's rock pantheon.

And Kate McCabe sends me this note about a politico who knows how to tame Twitter: Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark.

Communications

Communications still poor from grenada, back in saddle tomorrow. In meantime, enjoying a local guide book:

"The Park of the Sciences is a recently created scientific museum, where touching is allowed."

Caught without contact above Granada

I´m somewhere close to the Alhambra in Granada but lost to the world since my blackberry had a swim in the sink earlier.

I´m sure the blogosphere can survive without my commentary for a few days.

Until then I have only once piece of advice - when you leave the airport at Malaga and come to the roundabout, go right, not left.

It will save you a lot of grief and I´m sorry no one told me that.

Ar aghaidh linn

Tá foirgintí agus infrastructúr ag dul suas go tapaidh ar fud Bhéal Feirste, toradh an infheistithe a rinneadh le blianta beaga anuas.

Caitheadh £12m ar dheisiú Halla na Cathrach, an méid céanna ar Iarsmalann Uladh, trí oiread sin ar leabharlann úr d'Ollscoil na Ríona, cóiríodh Halla Uladh srl. srl.

Tá súil agam go bhfeicfear an t-infheistiú céanna in Iarthar Bhéal Feirste amach anseo. Tá airgead á chaitheamh ar Mhuileann Mhic Con Midhe (thuas) ach deirtear liom go nglacfadh sé £10m eile lena thabhairt ar ais i gceart. Agus ansin tá Scoil Naomh Comgall agus an Cheatrú Ghaeltachta. Ní beag an t-airgead atá caite ar scoileanna úra in iarthar Bhéal Feirste ach tá gá le foirgintí eile agus infrastructúr eile.