IRISH DEMANDS - The Guardian says The Irish border problem is the ultimate barrier to a hard Brexit. The Irish government wants a guarantee that there will be no hard border with Northern Ireland, in effect, keeping Northern Ireland within the EU single market and customs union. The UK's PM, Theresa May, has repeatedly declared Britain will leave the single market and customs union, and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist party, whose support is propping up May's government, says it will never accept a deal that effectively sees the customs border erected between it and the rest of the UK.

 

HARD BREXIT? - The Irish border today is essentially open  with 110 million border crossings each year and 13,000 commercial vehicles crossing the border each day. A hard Brexit will mean special permits, extra investment, more paperwork and potential delays. Ports and airports will need extra staff and infrastructure for customs and clearance, for Post Offices to manage customs checks on parcels, etc. But this is more than about goods crossing the border. It's about people's lives and their livelihoods and the abilities of communities and businesses in the border region to develop and prosper together.

 

CROSS-BORDER AGREEMENTS - There are 142 cross-border activities on the island of Ireland that would be negatively impacted by a hard Brexit. Activities now available to people from either jurisdiction include heart surgery in Dublin, cancer treatments in Derry, cellphone roaming charges at local rates across the entire island, special needs education for autistic children, joint initiatives on shared waterways, access to medicine, and the entire island is treated as one entity for the purpose of controlling animal or human diseases. Patients can fill prescriptions at any pharmacy north or south, and ambulances can cross the border to attend to emergencies. With a hard border, it's feared those cross-border activities cannot continue.

 

IRELAND'S NEW TÁNAISTE (Deputy Prime Minister): "The truth is that Northern Ireland is different from other parts of the United Kingdom because we agree to do things on an all-Ireland basis - in other words it's different to Wales and Scotland, and that's just a pragmatic difference."

 

EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT Donald Tusk this p ast Thursday : "Let me say very clearly, if the U.K. offer is unacceptable for Ireland, it will also be unacceptable for the EU."

 

SKY NEWS: For the first time in the seven or eight century relationship between Britain and Ireland, the Irish exercise power over its larger neighbor.

 

THE GUARDIAN: One unintended consequence of Brexit is that Ireland finds itself for the first time in its history on the stronger side of the table in negotiations with the UK.

 

RTÉ NEWS: Theresa May depends on the DUP for her survival. They are adamant that they see any move towards the North staying within EU structures as weakening the British Union.

 

THE GUARDIAN: Reviving that deep-dyed, centuries-old contempt for the Irish, they (the UK government) have dismissed it with an imperial fly-whisk as a minor irritation. No longer. On 14 December, the time comes when the EU decides whether the UK has made "sufficient progress" on cash, citizens' rights ... and the Irish border.

 

NEW STATESMAN - Of all the issues that must be resolved before Britain can begin new trade talks with the EU, the Irish Question is proving the most intractable. ... Peace in Northern Ireland, which has had no government since March, is not permanent; it must be assiduously renewed. Far worse than the possibility that the Brexiteers do not know this is another explanation: they do not care.

 

IRISH GOVERNMENT REPORT: Some EU figures talk of "chaos" in the British government

 

WHAT BREXIT SLUMP? - Many Irish firms are more than weathering the Brexit storm by increasing exports of goods into Britain despite the slump in sterling's value. Sterling's drop of almost 18% since the UK referendum 16 months ago should have put up fierce headwinds because selling across the Irish Sea makes exports more expensive and considerably less profitable. The ill-effects for Ireland have been limited so far and the Irish economy has continued to be very buoyant on both sides of the Irish border since the Brexit vote took place.

 

STALEMATE - Northern Ireland has lacked a government since January when the late Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin 's leader in the Assembly, resigned as deputy first minister. Cuts to funding for a small Irish-language program, against the backdrop of the loss of hundreds of millions of pounds in a mismanaged green-energy project, provoked McGuinness's resignation.  Sinn Féin has refused to appoint a replacement and, without a republican deputy first minister, the devolved government was automatically suspended. The New York Times says the nearly yearlong standoff has paralyzed its institutions and is threatening a 1998 treaty that largely ended three decades of fighting. It adds that some now question whether the agreement "has in essence collapsed, and fear, if not a return to anything like a full-blown conflict, then at least a rise in sporadic acts of paramilitary intimidation."

 

NORTHERN TOURISM - An NPR feature on the strong tourism growth for Northern Ireland. " For decades, Northern Ireland was synonymous with violence from the conflict known as the 'Troubles.' In recent years, though, it's enjoyed a tourism renaissance due to a state-of-the-art museum devoted to the Titanic, which was built in Belfast, and the popularity of HBO's Game of Thrones series - which is shot along the coast north of the city."

 

WEAK STERLING - Southern Irish fears have been raised that shoppers will flock north across the Irish border this Christmas to take advantage of a weak sterling which has nosedived since Brexit was announced. The value of sterling is so low that consumers can now save more than 40% on some items by shopping in the North. Some 18 months ago stg£1 was worth $1.55, but today the British pound is equal to just $1.35 as a result of Brexit uncertainty.

 

GERRY ADAMS - On the announcement that Gerry Adams was stepping down as Sinn Féin leader, the NY Times  writes that "r eviled by many as the face of the Irish Republican Army during its campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, Mr. Adams reinvented himself as a peacemaker in the troubled region and then as a populist opposition member of the Irish Parliament." CNN reported that Adams, 69, used his address at the party's annual conference to call for unification and labelled the UK's decision to leave the European Union as "the single greatest threat to the Irish people in generations."

 

CATHOLIC INTIMIDATION - The NY Times   reports on the recent intimidation of Catholic families in Cantrell Close, Belfast, a flagship housing project that was built last year specifically to accommodate people from all backgrounds. The article comments that the recent incidents made headlines because they occurred in a place that was intended to be a foundation stone for a post-sectarian society. "It has also raised concerns about certain politicians' commitment to the process of integration, and about the ability of the Northern Irish police to curb the influence of sectarian paramilitary groups."

 

"IRA JOURNEY" - Tony Doherty was nine years old when his father, Patrick, was killed in Derry on Bloody Sunday, January 30, 1972 .  The 2010 Saville Report found that Patrick had been shot and mortally wounded as he tried to crawl to safety. There was "no doubt", Lord Saville wrote, that Soldier F shot Patrick Doherty, firing "either in the belief that no-one in the area...was posing a threat, or not caring". Tony says, "My journey towards the IRA started on that day".

 

ELECTION AVOIDED - Ireland's Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) resigned this past week in order to avoid bringing down the government. The existing "confidence and supply" agreement between Ireland's two largest parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, was breaking down over a row about a police whistle blower and a leaked 2015 email that was copied to the Tánaiste . The ruling party, Fine Gael, had been insisting the Tánaiste would not be forced out of office, but her resignation came ahead of a motion of no confidence proposed by Fianna Fáil that was due to be debated in the Dáil on Tuesday .

 

MOVING HOME SURVEY - The Irish government has launched a survey to help inform a government report to assist Irish people moving back to Ireland. If you or anyone you know is planning or considering moving home, or has moved home, ask them to complete the survey so that the government is informed about how it can improve the process. It will only take two minutes!

 

TECH/LIFE IRELAND - Tech/Life Ireland is a government-funded marketing initiative to brand Ireland as a top destination to pursue a career in technology. The intent is to attract talented and experienced tech experts to Ireland and to promote top tech career opportunities in Ireland. Ireland is one of the tech capitals of the world. There are currently about 80,000 top tech professionals working in tech throughout Ireland, particularly in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford, and a further 8,000 IT jobs in Ireland are forecast to open each year.

 

IRISH JOBS - As Ireland approaches full employment, many of the country's most successful indigenous and foreign tech firms are looking abroad for talented staff. One of the problems is that Dublin, where most of the largest employers are located, is ranked the second most expensive city in the eurozone . Despite increasing cost-of-living pressures, particularly in Dublin, none of the employers interviewed by Fora said they had an issue attracting staff to Ireland. A big draw for engineers and developers coming to Dublin is the city's vibrant meet-up scene.

 

PATERNITY LEAVE - 27,307 Irish fathers have taken paternity leave since the scheme was introduced in September 2016. The initiative allows fathers to take two weeks off work within six months of the birth of their child, receiving a government payment of about $280 per week. The benefit is paid to employed and self-employed fathers who satisfy certain tax contribution conditions. There is no statutory obligation on employers to supplement the government payment so that the person gets a normal salary during paternity leave, but many companies do contribute.

 

SWIFT FESTIVAL - This weekend's Jonathan Swift Festival in Dublin celebrates 35o years since the author and satirist was born in Dublin on  November 30, 1667 . Swift was only 14 when he started his undergraduate studies at Dublin's Trinity College. Ordained an Anglican priest in 1695, he took the post of dean at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin in 1713, but it was his political satire that earned him a reputation in London. In 1726 he published Gulliver's Travels which became the most popular Irish book ever written. It was an immediate success, and hasn't been out of print since its first run. Swift was a world renowned celebrity when he died in Dublin in 1745 and is buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral.

 

TOURISM OVERKILL - Tourists are being diverted away from some of Ireland's most iconic monuments in a bid to protect them from getting damaged due to ever-rising visitor volumes. The agency responsible for managing heritage sites plans to gradually entice visitors to visit peripheral attractions so it can avoid the "nuclear option" of having to close some venues in the future. Online booking will soon be introduced to Clonmacnoise in order to better manage the crowds.

 

ROHINGYA SUPPORT - Live Aid founder and Irish musician Bob Geldof has handed back his Freedom of the City of Dublin award as a protest against Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese Nobel peace laureate who was previously presented the award. Geldof said he was a "proud Dubliner" but could not continue to keep the symbol while Suu Kyi also held it. He blasted the Burmese leader who has faced widespread criticism over her country's treatment of its Rohingya Muslim minority.

 

SHAMROCK POPPY - Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been praised by unionist politicians in Northern Ireland for wearing a 'shamrock poppy' in recognition of the Irish soldiers who fought and died in World War I. The remembrance poppy is an artificial flower commonly worn in countries that were formerly part of the British Empire to commemorate those who died in war, especially in WW-1. An almost obligatory adornment by public figures in the UK, wearing the poppy is not at all common in the Irish Republic.  The move is symbolic of the greater recognition now afforded in Ireland to the 206,000 Irishmen who fought and the 26,500 Irishmen who died serving in the British Army in WW-1.

 

IRISH PRESIDENTIAL AWARDS - Four US recipients were honored recently with an Irish presidential award - Journalist Patricia Harty, actor Liam Neeson, Project Children founder Denis Mulcahy, and Nobel laureate Dr. William Campbell. Patricia Harty co-founded Irish America magazine in 1985 and has been editor-in-chief for over 30 years. A native of Co. Donegal, Dr. William Campbell became the first Irish-born scientist to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine. The Presidential Distinguished Service Award was established by the Irish government as a means to recognize the contribution of members of the Irish diaspora.

 

IRELAND NATION BRAND - According to a new report by Brand Finance, the value of Ireland's national brand jumped 24% in the space of a year from $344 billion to $427 billion as the country is viewed as an oasis of calm by business leaders around the world. Ireland and Iceland are seen as having the fastest-growing nation brands of 2017.

 

DATA CENTER - After nearly three years, Apple has been granted final approval to proceed with plans to build a $1 billion data center near Athenry, Co. Galway. A court has approve the center going ahead despite local complaints about potential traffic problems and environmental impact from the 116,000 sq m facility. Apple recently had warned Irish officials that the lengthy delays could jeopardize the future of the project. Ireland's cool but consistent climate saves energy costs in running such facilities while Ireland is also seen as offering a more business-friendly environment when it comes to data protection regulations.

 

BOMBARDIER FALLOUT - The NY Times  about Northern Irish workers, "Yet now that fate looms over Mr. Burnside and around 4,200 other Belfast-based employees of Bombardier, a Montreal-based airplane maker, after the Trump administration, under pressure from Boeing, proposed a nearly 300% tariff on imports of Bombardier's newest plane." The article comments that the ruling is rattling Britain, "undermining claims of those who support the country's withdrawal from the European Union about the ease of negotiating trade agreements after it leaves the bloc."

 

ANGLO-IRISH - There has been a surge in first-time passport applications to the Irish Embassy in London since the Brexit referendum in June, 2016. The number more than tripled from 4,086 in the first half of 2016 to 14,177 in the second half of the year. Applications rose again in the first half of this year, to 15,421. The figures are in line with an overall increase in the volume of all applications. Overall, the passport service has seen a 14.8% increase in applications in the year to the end of August, and it is on course to receive about 800,000 applications for Irish passports this year, the most ever in a year.

 

BLOCKING PEDOPHILES - Ireland could soon become the first country in Europe to cancel passports of convicted pedophiles in a bid to prevent them traveling overseas. The campaign championing this idea for Ireland is being led by Irish priest Fr. Shay Cullen, a four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee who runs People's Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance (PREDA), a child abuse charity in the Philippines. The new legislation would mean that convicted pedophiles would be prohibited from traveling overseas on an Irish passport.

 

TUAM BABIES - The NY Times carried an article on "The Lost Children of Tuam". The article profiles Catherine Corless who after tireless research drew up a spreadsheet that "listed the names, ages, and death dates of all the 'illegitimate' children who had died in the home during its 36-year existence. The sobering final tally: 796."

 

LOUDMOUTH IRISH-AMERICANS - Newsweek features an opinion piece by a historian headlined " Why Are All The Conservative Loudmouths Irish-American? " , referring to Pat Buchanan, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Steve Bannon . The writer ultimately concludes that neither Buchanan, O'Reilly, Hannity or Bannon have any real connection to Ireland or organized Irish-American life. "They are conspicuously absent from the pro- Sinn Féin milieu of the Irish Echo , or even the Ancient Order of Hibernians. I doubt whether any of them would recognize Gerry Adams if they ran into him."

 

FIRST FEMALE MP - UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said that it was important to mark the centenary of the first female member of the UK House of Commons. However, May probably forgot that the first and only woman elected MP in the 1918 general election was Irish suffragette and 1916 rebel leader Constance Markievicz. As Ireland was still ruled by the UK at the time, Markievicz was entitled to take her seat in Westminster, but taking her seat would have required her to swear an oath of allegiance to the crown, something she refused to do. The 1918 election was also the first time in the then UK that women were allowed to vote.

 

CANNABIS RESEARCH - Dublin-headquartered Greenlight Medicines, a pharmaceutical startup that specializes in medicinal cannabis research, is opening a new facility in Donegal in 2018. Founded in 2015, Greenlight is a research and development outfit that explores the potential medical use of cannabis and its main elements, which are called cannabinoids. The company has so far partnered with 13 universities located in Ireland, the UK and the US to study different therapeutic uses for it. CBD, short for cannabidiol, is marketed as a food substance, although some believe that it has medicinal benefits.

 

SPIRITED O'HARA - The recent sexual assault allegations against numerous Hollywood bigwigs has resurrected a newspaper clipping from 1945   of Irish actress Maureen O'Hara complaining about sexism by studio heads in Hollywood. S he later said that during her career she had rebuffed advances from Howard Hughes and Errol Flynn , saying "I wouldn't throw myself on the casting couch, and I know that cost me parts."

 

SKELLIG PORGS - The Porgs, the new stars of 'Star Wars', are based on the puffins that live on Skellig Michael in Co. Kerry where the last two Star Wars film s have been shot .  The furry space-puffin puppets riding in the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca were created in the film's creature shop after film director Rian Johnson saw the island seabirds while scouting locations for the film's final scene. "If you go to Skellig at the right time of year, it's just covered in puffins, and they're the most adorable things in the world," says Johnson, adding: "So the Porgs are in that realm."

 

GAELIC KICKER - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Pat Murray played Gaelic football with Rockland GAA in New York before his kicking talent was developed at a High School in New Jersey. His uncle Ciarán captained the Monaghan Gaelic football team to an Ulster title in 1988 with his father Brendan also on the team.

 

ALL-IRELAND MOVE - The 2018 All-Ireland Gaelic Football final, originally scheduled for August 26, has been pushed back to September 2 to facilitate a visit to Ireland by Pope Francis . The six-day World Meeting of Families celebration is being held in Dublin and will conclude with a Papal Mass at Croke Park on August 26. The All-Ireland Hurling final is at Croke Park on August 19.

 

BALCONY COLLAPSE SETTLEMENT - The families of six Irish college students who died in a balcony collapse at an apartment complex in Berkeley, California in 2015 have reached a settlement with the owners of the apartment building. The terms of the settlement are confidential, but it also applies to seven of the other students injured on the night of June 16, 2015.

 

RE-APPEARING STRAND - After vanishing 12 years ago, a golden strand has returned to Ashleam Bay on the southern coast of Achill island in Co. Mayo. The new beach is nestled below picturesque white cliffs in a prime scenic location. Earlier this year another beach at nearby Dooagh reappeared after an absence of 33 years. Achill Island tourism has increased by 67% this year, with dozens of new jobs created.

 

FINDING CHOCOLATE - In 1971, when Irishwoman Connie Doody got married, she was forced to retire from her civil service job working for the Irish Post Office even though she was just 23. While the marriage ban was lifted in 1973, in the meantime Doody had co-founded Lir Chocolates, now one of Ireland's best-known chocolate businesses with sales of almost $31.5 million in 2015. The UK is the Lir's second biggest market, followed by continental Europe and the US.

 

FINDING FAIRIES - Ireland is one of the world's ultimate storybook locations for children, according to Lonely Planet which lists Ireland as one of the top 10 places that bring children's literature to life. Ireland may be gorgeously green, but kids will get more from the Emerald Isle if they think there are fairies in the undergrowth. Even better if the fairies have buzz batons and bio bombs. Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl made fairy stories edgy, and the eponymous hero's grand, neglected Fowl Manor could be any of a dozen country houses dotted around the Irish countryside.

 

GUEVARA STAMP - The Irish post office has released a stamp commemorating Che Guevara   the revolutionary whose family left Ireland for Argentina in the mid-1700's. Guevara fought alongside Castro and others to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Born in Argentina, he became a minister in the new Cuban government, but he was killed when captured in Bolivia in 1967. A quote from Guevara's father features on a First Day Cover envelope. It says "... in my son's veins flowed the blood of Irish rebels".

 

SCIENTOLOGISTS - The Church of Scientology is opening a European base in Dublin after refurbishing a large community center and church.  It now has a number of large meeting rooms and a designated place of worship which can hold over 1,200 people. The Church of Scientology in Ireland currently operates out of two small hubs, both based in Dublin city center. Census figures put the number of Scientologists in Ireland at 87. However, about 250 members from around the world have recently moved to Ireland to operate the new premises.

 

IRELAND-UK TUNNEL - A tunnel physically linking Ireland and the UK was f irst proposed over 100 years ago . Routes from Rosslare to Fishguard in Wales, or Dublin to Holyhead, Wales, would be around 62 miles long, while a Northern route from Antrim to Mull of Kintyre would be the shortest, about 12 miles. As heavy traffic would be needed to justify the cost, the Dublin and Holyhead route is seen as the more desirable option as it is relatively close to Manchester and Liverpool. It's one of the most ambitious Irish projects ever proposed, and also one of the most unlikely to ever see the light of day.

 

1916 LINK - Dorothea Findlater, who saw Dublin burning during the Easter Rising, has died at the age of 107, probably the last surviving witness to the 1916 Rising. As a child of seven, she was taken by her mother to the top of the water tower in the Curragh Camp to see the flames of Dublin burning in the distance. Her British soldier father was present at the surrender of rebel leader Patrick Pearse and is pictured opposite Pearse in the famous, grainy picture of the surrender. Her father later developed a friendship with Éamon de Valera and Séan T O'Kelly, both Easter Rising rebels who went on to become presidents of Ireland. In 2016, Dorothea was one of the stars of the documentary film, Older than Ireland, which was shown at Seattle's Irish Reels Film Festival.

 

 

RTÉ ARCHIVES - In 1985, Irish TV station RTÉ moved from using film to videotape and about 1,500 news stories filmed between March and December, 1985, are now available for viewing on the RTÉ website . T he films include stories on the signing of the breakthrough 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement and the crash of an Air India 747 jet aircraft off the coast of Co Kerry with the loss of over 329 lives. The original video tapes were sent to Amsterdam to be baked in specially designed ovens to recover the picture and sound quality before final digitization. 13,332 tapes, featuring approximately 9,000 hours of news content, have been digitally preserved, and new material covering the period up to 1999 will be posted to the website when available.

 

LATE FEE? - The oldest public library in Ireland, Marsh's Library in Dublin city center, has just had a book returned to it after 177 years. A copy of The Book of Common Prayer that was printed and published in 1666 and which had been borrowed in 1840, was returned to Marsh's Library the first week of November, 2017. Found recently in a Church of Ireland rectory, the 1666 Cambridge University Press edition is valued at almost $900. No word on any late fees being charged.

 

FAMINE JUSTICE- A Dublin news report in the Freeman's Journal dated September 16, 1847 during the Great Irish Famine - "A poor little girl Bridget Beddings was charged by one of the Park rangers named Duffy who stated that he found her gathering boyhanno (the dried droppings of cows and horses) which the poor use for fuel in the park. He gave her in custody to the police. Mr O Callaghan [judge] said he was obliged under the law to fine the girl and he would inflict a penalty of 1 shilling or in default of payment one hour imprisonment."

 

WORLD'S SMALLEST LANE - In the early 1800's, the widow Peg Washington watched anxiously as new buildings were erected between her home in Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny and the Duiske River. Fearing that these buildings would cut off her water supply, she asked the town's Chief Magistrate for a gap between the buildings to allow her access to the water. When asked what width was required she replied 'Just the width of myself' and so Peg Washington's Lane was created.   

 

BEER RATIONS - Evidence from household accounts, soldiers' rations and port books from 16th century Ireland show that beer was ranked alongside bread as a most important dietary staple. Records from January 1565 show that stonemasons working at a quarry in Clontarf were provided with an allowance of 14 pints of ale per day by the proctor of Christ Church Cathedral. Dublin Castle, the seat of British power in Ireland from the 12th century until 1922, provided its household staff 264,000 pints of beer in 1590, an average of about eight pints per person per day - about the same as what was then typically consumed in England.

 

WW-1 LANGEMARCK  - The WW-1 Battle of Langemarck in August 1917, the second Allied general attack of the Third Battle of Ypres, was "an absolute bloody disaster" in which the two Irish divisions, the 16th (mainly Irish Catholics) and the 36th (mainly Ulster Protestants), were slaughtered. "The blame for this debacle rests with the commander of the Fifth Army, Gen Sir Hubert Gough, an Eton-educated Anglo-Irish toff. His callous disregard for the fate of his men and his sloppy preparation would have tragic consequences for those under his command including the 1,200 men from the Irish divisions killed on August 16th, 1917." Altogether, over ½ million soldiers, 310,000 British, 260,000 German, died during the Third Battle of Ypres.