providing a full spectrum of tax and accounting services

 

HERITAGE CLUB AGM - The Irish Heritage Club's Annual General Meeting and Election of Officers will be on Sunday, June 7 at 6 pm at Assumption Church Hall, 6201 33rd Ave NE (north of University Village), Seattle. Pizza will be available at 6 pm and the meeting starts at 6:30 pm. All members and prospective members are invited to attend. For information, to volunteer, etc., email [email protected] or call 206-412-2960.

 

CHAMPIONS' BREAKFAST - Friday, June 12, 7:30 am - 9:00 am, Matt Talbot Center, 2313 3rd Ave, Seattle, join former UW and NFL star Damon Huard, UW Quarterback Jeff Lindquist, and some Seattle Seahawks' 2015 rookies, at the Matt Talbot Center for our Annual Downtown Business Breakfast! Hear messages from businesspersons and local athletes on being successful on and off the field, and how you can support the Matt Talbot Center's programs to provide healing, hope and restoration in our community. 

 

2015 GAELIC GAMES - On Saturday June 13, 10 am - 6 pm at Seattle's Magnuson Park, join the Seattle Gaels for the largest Irish sports tournament in the Pacific Northwest, the 8th Annual Seattle Gaelic Games featuring games of Men's & Women's Gaelic Football, Camogie, and Hurling. Participating teams will be participating from Alberta and Vancouver, Canada; Portland and Corvallis, Oregon; Missoula, Montana; and Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. Game schedules and times will be posted at seattlegaels.com. The After Party will be at Murphy's Pub in Wallingford. No admission fee at any of the day's events.

 

BLOOMSDAY 1 - Kirkland holds its 4th annual Ulysses celebration on Saturday, June 13, 11:30 am - 4:30 pm at Parkplace Books, 348 Parkplace Center, just off Central Way in downtown Kirkland. Bloomsday refers to June 16, 1904 as lived by Leopold Bloom, the main character in the Joyce novel, Ulysses, a book that many believe to be one of the greatest ever works of fiction. UW Professor Gary Handwerk will offer a short lecture entitled "Beyond Ulysses: Where to Go Next with Joyce." There will also be Celtic music, Irish tea and a soda bread contest, readings from Ulysses, a presentation on Irish genealogy, readings of works by WB Yeats and other Irish poets, and a special screening of the 1967 film Ulysses. Visit facebook.com for details.

 

CRUISE LUNCH - Join us on Monday, June 15, for the Catholic Seafarer Center's Annual Cruise Ship Luncheon. See all the details at catholicseafarercenter.org. Enjoy a 4-course meal with wine aboard Holland America Line's ms Statendam with the opportunity to tour the cruise ship after lunch. $50 pp, and tickets must be purchased by June 5. Parking and boarding at Pier 91 Smith Cove Cruise Terminal.

 

IRISH BASEBALL - Irish Night at the Seattle Mariners is Wednesday, June 17, 7:10 pm, for the game vs. the World Series Champs, the San Francisco Giants. The reduced price tickets include a free Irish Night Mariners Cap (see design at left) while supplies last, Irish entertainment in center field before the game by the Tara Academy Irish Dancers and the Seattle Police Pipes and Drums, and Seattle's Irish Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole throwing out the First Pitch. For tickets and more details, visit mariners.com/Irish.

 

IRISH SENIORS' LUNCHEON - The next Irish Seniors' Luncheon is Saturday, June 20, at 12 Noon at the Wilde Rover, 111 Central Way, in downtown Kirkland. Please join us on June 20, and feel free to also invite other Senior guests to attend with you. The cost of the buffet lunch is $10 per person and reservations are requested. The Wilde Rover is 1 mile west of I-405 and 2 1/2 miles north of Hwy 520, and a public parking lot at the rear of the building has FREE parking on Saturdays for up to 3 hours. Email [email protected] for reservations or call Lorraine at 206-915-1878.

 

BLOOMSDAY 2 - Seattle's Wild Geese Players will celebrate Bloomsday on Saturday June 20 from 2 - 3:30 pm by reading Chapters 2 and 5 of Ulysses at the downtown Seattle Central Library. This is the eighteenth year for the Wild Geese Players to be reading Ulysses, and 2015 sees a staged reading of Chapter 2, "Nestor", and Chapter 5, "The Lotus Eaters". Ulysses takes place on June 16, 1904, the date now known worldwide as Bloomsday. It follows the wanderings of Leopold Bloom, a Jewish everyman, and Stephen Dedalus, a young writer and Joyce's alter ego, as they wander the streets of Dublin. Visit wildgeeseseattle.org for more details.

 

IRISH RACES - In a couple of weeks, you will be emailed a coupon good for two Free Admission Passes and two free Race Programs for Irish Day at Emerald Downs in Auburn on Sunday, June 28. Print and use as many copies of the coupon as needed and feel free to share the coupon with friends. Irish Day features Thoroughbred Racing with Irish Music and Stepdancers, Free Kids Activities (Pony Rides, Inflatable Slide, Face Painters), etc. Free parking - 1st Race 2 PM. For reserved seating/dining reservations, or for more information on Emerald Downs, call 253-288-7711 or visit emeralddowns.com.

 

JULY 19 PICNIC - Seattle's Irish Community Picnic is Noon-6 pm, Sunday, July 19, at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah (exit # 15 off I-90). Games and fun for the entire family, and all are welcome. Free hot dogs and hamburgers will be provided but bring your own drink and a dessert to be shared. Free Park Admission to those who attend the Irish Heritage Club's Annual General Meeting on June 7 (see details above). Email [email protected] for more details.

 

IRISH STORY - Send for Me: The McCleary Story - From Northern Ireland in 1850 to today's western United States is the saga of the author's grandparents, an immigrant couple who began their odyssey in Ballymena in the hill country of Co. Antrim. Into the coal fields of Scotland, then across the sea to Canada, the McClearys' story takes them to the US, to Detroit, Butte, and finally to Washington State. James McCleary was in the wave of workers for the war effort that arrived at the Hanford Site in the 1940s. Plagued by obstacles and hardships, but bolstered by their courage, humor and tenacity, the McClearys came all the way west to start a new life for their family. This memoir is based on interviews and family lore that the author began gathering in 1986. Available at amazon.com and Kindle, or contact the author at [email protected]. 

 

AER LINGUS SALE - The Irish government has agreed to sell its 25% stake in Irish airline Aer Lingus to British Airways owner IAG which promises to keep Aer Lingus as a separate brand, to reserve its valuable landing slots at London's Heathrow Airport for Aer Lingus use, and several other conditions. One of the remaining hurdles for IAG before the sale can be finalized includes persuading Irish airline Ryanair, which owns 30% of Aer Lingus, to accept the price. Ireland's business and tourism chiefs believe the sale would be an economic boon for Ireland which is highly dependent on air links to its two main trading partners, Britain and the US. IAG would be adding Aer Lingus as a fourth brand to its existing three airlines (British Airways, Iberia and Vueling).

 

IRISH UNEMPLOYMENT - Data from Ireland's Central Statistics Office show that the Irish unemployment rate dropped to 9.9% in the first quarter of 2015, the first time that the rate fell below 10% since the 2007-2008 crash and the eleventh quarter in succession where the Irish unemployment rate has declined. The total number of unemployed people in Ireland is 212,800.

 

IRISH EXPORTS - The value of Ireland's export trade jump to over $9.83 billion in March - its highest level in 13 years, led by a spike in pharmaceutical exports which are the bedrock of Ireland's export trade, accounting for nearly 60% of goods exports. The last time the value of exports was higher was in May 2002, when it reached $9.84 billion. Chemicals and related products account for roughly three-fifths of Irish merchandise exports.

 

DUBLIN JOBS - Seattle technology company Tableau Software is expanding its European operations in Dublin and is hiring to increase its current Dublin staff of 33 people. The jobs include technical support, engineering support managers and technical account managers. Tableau, which pioneered the concept of visual analytics in 2003, helps people to quickly visualize and understand data and to share information.

 

GROWING ECONOMY - The European Commission says Ireland's economy grew by 4.8% last year, and will grow by around 3.5% this year and next as the Irish economy re-emerges as one of Europe's "top performers". Announcing its Spring Economic Forecast today, the Commission said that exports and private sector investment were continuing to drive growth.

 

HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE - The Irish government believes London could be breaching the terms of the Belfast Agreement if British PM David Cameron carries through on plans to scrap the UK's Human Rights Act. The Act protects fifteen fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to life, privacy and free speech, which must be upheld by all public bodies, and British courts and tribunals must interpret legislation in a way that is compatible with the rights enshrined in the convention. The 1998 Belfast Agreement expressly committed London to incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights into Northern Ireland law, providing direct access to the courts and allowing judges to overrule Northern Assembly legislation on grounds of inconsistency with human rights law.

 

TOP COMPANIES - Microsoft, which employs about 2,000 people in Dublin, has become Ireland's top performing company for the first time, knocking Irish construction materials company CRH into second place. That's according to the Irish Times Top 1000 Guide to Irish Business. Others in the top ten largest companies include Google, DCC, Ingersoll Rand, Actavis, Dell, Oracle, and Irish-headquartered companies Medtronic and Smurfit Kappa. 54% of the Top 1000 companies in Ireland are Irish headquartered companies that account for 68% of the top 1000's jobs, while US companies account for 14.5% of those jobs and UK companies 11%.

 

ORIGIN GREEN - The Summer issue of World Wildlife Magazine says, "In 2012, Ireland became the first country to commit to third-party-verified, 100% sustainable food exports by 2016. This groundbreaking national commitment offers a new model of forward-thinking agriculture-the kind of ambitious, sustainable approach WWF is crafting in coordination with communities, companies and countries around the world. The effort is called Origin Green and has been embraced by nearly 400 food companies. It has the potential to become a roadmap for the sustainable production of food worldwide."

 

EBOLA TEAM - A team of Irish Defense Force medics returned last week from Sierra Leone where they had worked with British, Cuban and Sierra Leonean medics as part of the international response to stem the spread of Ebola. The team was based for the past four months in Kerry Town on the east coast of Serra Leone from where they were also dispatched to response centers in more remote regions to look after village quarantines.

 

TIPPERARY PEACE AWARD - Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, was awarded the 2015 Tipperary International Peace Award for his role in tackling climate change, global conflicts and natural disasters. The prize was presented on Sunday at a ceremony in Tipperary and Ban said in his speech that the Irish referendum sent a message to the world, adding "This is a truly historic moment." Previous recipients of the Tipperary Peace Award include former South African president Nelson Mandela, Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof, former US president Bill Clinton, former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, and Pakistani Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai.

 

SCIENCE & MATH - Ireland has ranked 15th highest out of 76 countries for mathematics and science test scores in a new report published by the OECD, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA is a triennial international survey which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. In the latest PISA tests, only 15% of 15-year-old Irish students were deemed not to have reached basic skill levels in math and science compared to 19.6% of UK 15-year-olds and 23.5% of US 15-year-olds.

 

NOTRE DAME & KYLEMORE - Notre Dame University in Indiana is creating a spiritual center with the Benedictine community at Kylemore Abbey in Co Galway. About 40 students from Notre Dame will annually attend summer classes at Kylemore every July and August starting in 2016. The program will complement Notre Dame's Dublin campus, where 2,500 students have passed through the university's Irish studies program since 1998. In 2009, the Benedictine nuns at Kylemore closed the boarding school they had run there since the early 1920s after leaving their abbey in Ypres, Belgium, in 1914 during WW-1.

 

WOMEN'S RUGBY - Dublin and Belfast will host the Women's Rugby World Cup 2017 after World Rugby awarded the hosting rights for the prestigious tournament to the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). Ireland won the Women's Six Nations Grand Slam in 2013 and again claimed the Six Nations title this year. There are now more than 1.7 million women and girls playing women's rugby around the world.

 

TRADE MARK - The Irish Times is suing the London Times Newspaper over the alleged intended use by the UK publisher of the title 'The Times Ireland' for a new online news publication. The Irish Times claims the use of the title for a digital paper, which it claims is due to start publishing "imminently", amounts to a breach of the Irish Times trade mark and infringes its copyright.

 

SAILING RECORD - A new round-Ireland record by sail has been set by an Omani trimaran that is the flagship of the Sultanate of Oman. The circumnavigation of Ireland, a distance of about 681 miles, took 40 hours 51 minutes and 57 seconds, reaching reported speeds of 38 knots off the west coast. The time, which is subject to verification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, is almost four hours under the record set by the late US businessman Steve Fossett in 1993. 

 

NORTHERN AFFILIATIONS - December 2012 census results showed that for the first time the Protestant population (or people growing up with a Protestant background) in Northern Ireland had fallen below 50%. Today the Protestant population is about 48% and the Catholic population (or people growing up with a Catholic background) is about 45%. However, of those, 38% regard themselves as British, 25% as Irish and 20% as Northern Irish.

 

LEGLESS-IN-DUBLIN - The website blog LeglessinDublin.com started as an access review blog for wheelchair users and those with reduced mobility, but has become a guide to navigating Dublin (and other places) whether you use a wheelchair or not. The site reviews bars, clubs, restaurants, music festivals, cafes and whatever else in terms of access but it also reviews the food, the music, the 'craic' and the atmosphere.

 

ST. PATRICK JEWELS - Ceremonial jewels worn by the Viceroy of Ireland 120 years ago are being sold this week at an auction in London. The insignia of the "Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick" were worn by Lord Houghton while serving as Queen Victoria's lord lieutenant of Ireland in Dublin during the 1890s. The Order of St. Patrick was the British monarchy's order of chivalry - a branch of the honors system - used to reward those in high office in Ireland. The Order of St. Patrick became dormant in 1922 following Ireland's independence but still exists even though the last Knight of St. Patrick died in 1974.

 

SOCCER "FRIENDLY" - UK police plan to prevent hundreds of English soccer hoodlums from attending next month's international soccer friendly against Ireland in Dublin. The game on June 7 is the English team's first visit to Dublin since the infamous 1995 clash which was abandoned following rioting by English supporters after Ireland went ahead 1-0. This move by the Police follows a "significant amount" of disorderly behavior at England's last four away games.

 

ARDUOUS SWIM - On June 1, two Irishmen will begin a 360 Swim around Ireland, a 932 mile swim which has never before been completed. Their swim is expected to take between 90 and 120 days, with the duo set to be backed by a land-based and water-based support team. They have already cycled 4660 miles from Istanbul to Kathmandu, run 620 miles in 26 days across the Tibetan Plateau, and kayaked the Yangtze, the world's third longest river, all the way to Shanghai.

 

JUST DESSERTS? - When a Dublin burglar recently pleaded guilty to three burglaries at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, he found he had ended up in court before a judge whose home he had burglarized. Once the judge found out, he referred the case to a different judge for sentencing.

 

MOTHERS' AGES - Irish first-time mothers are among the oldest mothers in Europe and the age of first time mothers in Ireland has continued to rise over the past decade. The average age for an Irish woman to have her first child is 29, while the majority of Irish women who gave birth to their first child in 2013 were in their 30s. Ireland has one of the lowest teen pregnancy rates in the EU, with 4.7% of first-time mothers aged under 20 in 2013 compared to a European average of 5.4%.

 

DRUG TESTING - A Gaelic football player from Co. Monaghan is believed to have recently tested positive for a steroid and is currently under investigation. This would be just the second positive test in 14 years since the GAA began drug-testing the all-amateur senior inter-county Gaelic Football and Hurling players in 2001. In 2014, 89 drug tests were administered - 44 in competition and 45 out of competition. The only previous adverse finding was when a player tested positive for Salbutamol, a banned substance which is commonly found in inhalers. As the player in questions was a lifelong asthma sufferer, he was subsequently granted a therapeutic use exemption and did not face any sanction.

 

REASONABLE STANDARD - The American Ireland Fund, the Irish-American philanthropic organization, honored Senator George Mitchell at its 40th anniversary gala dinner in New York recently, paying tribute to his contribution to the peace process in Northern Ireland. In his speech, Mitchell said, "Will you point out to me what society in the world, particularly democracies, functions without dispute, without disagreement and without some degree of violence? Don't hold Northern Ireland to a standard that no other society has ever or will ever meet."

 

GERMAN RUNAWAYS - A major police alert was recently sparked in Germany after two children, aged eight and six, went missing near Nuremberg only to be found trying to hitchhike to Ireland. The adventurous pair had packed themselves a backpack with essentials for their trip - food, a torch, an alarm clock and a book. The children told their parents that they went to the motorway in the hopes of finding a truck bound for Ireland.

 

ARCHEOLOGICAL 3D MODELS - The Discovery Program is an Irish public institution set up to pursue advanced research in Irish archaeology and its goal includes introducing new technologies and new techniques into the operation of Irish archaeology. The Discovery Program's Centre for Advanced Irish Archaeological Research is using online 3D models of ancient Irish monuments to permit the viewer to examine the sites from all angles. Visit discoveryprogramme for more information.

 

NEWGRANGE MODEL - The base of the 5,000- year-old Neolithic monument at Newgrange, Co Meath, is to be X-rayed by a researcher in a bid to determine the origin of its granite boulders. To examine an online 3D model of Newgrange and look all around the inside passageway and chamber, visit sketchfab.com.

 

ARGENTINIAN PATRIOT - The man who raised both Irish flags over the General Post Office at Easter 1916 was Eamon Bulfin, a native of Argentina who was born in Buenos Aires in 1892 and returned to Ireland with his family at the age of 16. He attended Padraig Pearse's school, St Enda's, and UCD, where he joined the Irish Volunteers and captained the 1915 Fitzgibbon Cup-winning hurling team. Bulfin hoisted the Irish Tricolour of green, white and orange at one corner and a green flag with the inscription "Irish Republic" at the other corner. After the Rising, Bulfin was sentenced to death, but - like Eamon de Valera - his foreign passport saved him.

 

MEAGHER BRIDGE - The new N25 bridge being built over the River Suir in Waterford is being named in honor of Thomas Francis Meagher, the man credited with first bringing the green, white and orange tricolor to Ireland in 1848. After Meagher was accused of high treason for his part in the 1848 Young Ireland Rebellion, he was sentenced to death which was commuted to transportation for life to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in Australia. After escaping from Australia, he served in the US Civil War as a brigadier general in the Irish Brigade, became a friend of President Abraham Lincoln and after the war was appointed Acting governor of Montana. In 1867, Meagher drowned in the Missouri River and since 1905 a statue of him on horseback with sword raised stands on the front lawn of the Montana Capitol grounds in Helena.

 

FAMINE POPULATION - An article in the May-June issue of History Ireland magazine claims that census figures from 1841 and 1871 prove that the population of Ireland in 1841 was 9,018,799 which by 1871 had dropped to 5,412,377, a net loss in population of over 3.7 million. That's a loss in the space of just 30 years of two of every five people in an area about half the size of the state of Washington. The drop in population is attributed to deaths during the Irish Famine from 1845-1852, emigration, a declining marriage rate and a declining birth rate. Today's population of the island of Ireland is about 6.4 million.

 

MANSION HOUSE - Dublin's Mansion House this year celebrates its 300th anniversary as the official residence of Dublin's Lord Mayor. Built between 1705-1710, it is older than London's Mansion House and is the oldest free-standing house in Dublin. It was purchased for £3,500 by the corporation in 1715 to be the lord mayor's residence. The purchase agreement included an annual rent of 40 shillings and each Christmas the provision of two fat capons and a loaf of double-refined sugar weighing six pounds. In return, it was agreed to build on an extra room to the house, which could be used for civic receptions - the famous Oak Room. The Round Room at the back was built in 1821 to receive King George IV. In January 1919, the first Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament) met in the same room. Famous visitors over the 300 years include Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace of Monaco, Pope John Paul II & Queen Victoria.

 

EARLY DIET - Despite an "extraordinarily high" number of cattle in Ireland from earliest times and an abundance of fish in the waters, research shows that Irish people ate very little beef or fish but lived primarily on dairy and cereal products. According to the Journal of Irish Archaeology, Irish people ate "tons of butter, cheese, curds and whey and when it came to cereal products they ate an awful lot of bread and porridge".

 

NOWHERE'S CHILD - An Irish woman living an ordinary suburban life in Dublin was 64 years old when she discovered that she was raised in Germany as part of Lebensborn, a secret SS project designed to create a so-called Aryan race of blond-haired, blue-eyed children who would be the future leaders of the Third Reich. Born in Norway, she was kept for the first year of her life with other children chosen for Himmler's scheme, but when the war ended in 1945, she was adopted and grew up in Sweden and eventually found a home in Ireland. She has now written Nowhere's Child about her life.

 

PRICE OF PINTS - In 1922 the price of a pint of Guinness in Ireland was the equivalent of around $2.10 (valued in today's money). Fifteen years later in 1937, the price was around $3.75; in 1945 around $2.61; in 1999 was around $4.27; in 2002 was around $4.36; and today the average price of a pint is around $4.70.

 

WALK MULLAGHMEEN- The Irish Times found the woods at Mullaghmeen "a delight to walk through. These are graceful trees whose branches also reach upwards, turning the paths into stately avenues." An Mullach Min (The Smooth Hill) is, at 846ft, the highest point in Co Westmeath. This makes it the lowest county top in Ireland, but its slopes are home to the largest beech plantation in Europe.

 

MUNSTERS' ABSOLUTION - A memorial has been unveiled in France marking the exact location which inspired the famous painting The Last General Absolution of the Munsters at Rue du Bois. Before going into battle in May 1915 during WW-I, Irish chaplain Fr.Francis Gleeson gave the Munsters a last general absolution at what was then the remains of a church that had been destroyed by shelling. Next day's Battle of Aubers Ridge cost the British Army 11,000 casualties without any breakthrough. An account of the general absolution was converted into a painting by a war artist. 

 

ATLANTIC WAY - The longest defined coastal touring route in the world, the Wild Atlantic Way is a 1,553 mile long driving route along the west coast of Ireland that passes through nine counties and three provinces, stretching from Malin Head, Ireland's most northerly point at the top of Co. Donegal's Inishowen Peninsula, to Kinsale, Co. Cork in the southeast. For more information, visit ireland.com.

[email protected]