Baby Grace O'Gorman Trust

Fundraiser

Sponsored by the County Cork Association of New York

Sat, June 21 - 8.p.m.

Cork Hall & Bantry Bay Publick House

33-01 Greenpoint Ave.

LIC, Queens, NYC

Entertainment by Donie "Douglas" Carroll

Noted Musician & Thespian

Light Refreshments Served

Suggested Minimum Donation: $20

"But all sums welcome large and small"

Grace O’Gorman is a two- year- old girl, who is undergoing treatment for cancer at Sloan Kettering Hospital, in New York City. Her treatment is expected to cost $800,000. Grace’s father, Kevin O’Gorman, is a native of Passage West, Co. Cork and her mother is Millicent Stone from Wexford Town, Co. Wexford. Both are graduates of University College Cork, Kevin from the engineering discipline and Millicent is a medical doctor.

Kevin, Millicent, their older daughter Alice, and Grace have had to relocate from their home and employment in Bath, England and resettle temporarily in New York City. The family has put all their savings and money borrowed towards Grace’s treatment.

Concerted fundraising efforts are underway in Cork communities and among UCC graduates in Ireland and around the world. For more information about these efforts go to the website: http://www.graceogorman.com./

If you cannot make the fundraiser on June 21, we ask that you consider making a donation. Checks can be made payable to the: County Cork Association - Grace O’Gorman Fund and mailed to the County Cork Association of New York at 33-01 Greenpoint Ave., LIC, N.Y. 11101.

Chairpersons

Mae O'Driscoll (718) 891-0388 Mary Naughton (718) 885 - 9154

"Nil neart na cur le cheile"

An Anatomy of Surrender

From: http://www.city-journal.org/

Motivated by fear and multiculturalism, too many Westerners are acquiescing to creeping sharia.

By Bruce Bawer

Bruce Bawer is the author of While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within. He blogs at BruceBawer.com

Islam divides the world into two parts. The part governed by sharia, or Islamic law, is called the Dar al-Islam, or House of Submission. Everything else is the Dar al-Harb, or House of War, so called because it will take war—holy war, jihad—to bring it into the House of Submission. Over the centuries, this jihad has taken a variety of forms. Two centuries ago, for instance, Muslim pirates from North Africa captured ships and enslaved their crews, leading the U.S. to fight the Barbary Wars of 1801–05 and 1815. In recent decades, the jihadists’ weapon of choice has usually been the terrorist’s bomb; the use of planes as missiles on 9/11 was a variant of this method.

What has not been widely recognized is that the Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa against Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie introduced a new kind of jihad. Instead of assaulting Western ships or buildings, Kho­meini took aim at a fundamental Western freedom: freedom of speech. In recent years, other Islamists have joined this crusade, seeking to undermine Western societies’ basic liberties and extend sharia within those societies.

The cultural jihadists have enjoyed disturbing success. Two events in particular—the 2004 assassination in Amsterdam of Theo van Gogh in retaliation for his film about Islam’s oppression of women, and the global wave of riots, murders, and vandalism that followed a Danish newspaper’s 2005 publication of cartoons satirizing Mohammed—have had a massive ripple effect throughout the West. Motivated variously, and doubtless sometimes simultaneously, by fear, misguided sympathy, and multicultural ideology—which teaches us to belittle our freedoms and to genuflect to non-Western cultures, however repressive—people at every level of Western society, but especially elites, have allowed concerns about what fundamentalist Muslims will feel, think, or do to influence their actions and expressions. These Westerners have begun, in other words, to internalize the strictures of sharia, and thus implicitly to accept the deferential status of dhimmis—infidels living in Muslim societies.

Call it a cultural surrender. The House of War is slowly—or not so slowly, in Europe’s case—being absorbed into the House of Submission . . . .


Read on at: www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_cultural_jihadists.html

A New Argument About Immigration

By Phyllis Schlafly

Monday, May 26, 2008

From: www.townhall.com

Many arguments, pro and con, about how to deal with illegal aliens have been passionately debated over the past couple of years, but there are still other arguments that need public exposure. Mark Krikorian presents a new argument in his forthcoming book called "The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal."

The pro-more-immigration crowd argues that today's immigrants are just like immigrants of a century ago: poor people looking for a better life who are expected to advance in our land of opportunity. Krikorian's new argument is that while today's immigrants may be like earlier ones, the America they come to is so very different that our previous experience with immigrants is practically irrelevant.

The essential difference between the two waves of immigrants was best summed up by the Nobel Prize-winning advocate of a free market, Milton Friedman. He said, "It's just obvious that you can't have free immigration and a welfare state." The term "welfare state" does not just mean handouts to the nonworking. Our welfare state encompasses dozens of social programs that provide benefits to the "working poor," i.e., people working for wages low enough that they pay little or no income taxes.

Immigrants of the previous generation were expected to earn their own living, pay taxes like everybody else, learn our language, love America and assimilate into our culture. Today's immigrants likewise come here for jobs not welfare. During those prior major waves of immigration, the United States didn't have a welfare state. Native-born Americans survived the Great Depression of the 1930s without a welfare state. The Social Security retirement system was established only in 1935. Most other agencies that redistribute cash and costly benefits from taxpayers to non-taxpayers started with Lyndon Johnson's Great Society in the late 1960s.

Today's low-wage immigrants and lower-wage illegals can't earn what it costs to live in modern America, so they supplement with means-tested taxpayer benefits. And many immigrants don't learn our language or assimilate into American culture because of the multicultural diversity taught in our schools and encouraged in our society. Today's immigrants fit the profile of the people who benefit from our welfare state: the working poor with large families. Krikorian sets forth some dismal figures.

About 30 percent of all immigrants in the U.S. work force in 2005 lacked a high school education, which is four times the rate for native-born Americans. Among the largest group of working-age immigrants, the Mexicans, 62 percent have less than a high-school education, which means they work low-wage jobs. Nearly half of immigrant households, 45 percent, are in or near poverty compared with 29 percent of native-headed households. Among Mexicans living in the United States, nearly two-thirds live in or near the government's definition of poverty.

Costly social benefits provided to the working poor include Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (now called TANF, formerly AFDC), food stamps, school lunches, Medicaid, WIC (nutrition for Women, Infants and Children), public housing and Supplemental Security Income. The Earned Income Tax Credit is one of the most expensive parts of income redistribution. Twice as many immigrant households (30 percent) qualify for this cash handout as native-headed households (15 percent).

Health care is another huge cost. Nearly half of immigrants are either uninsured or on Medicaid, which is nearly double the rate for native-born families. Federal law requires hospitals to treat all comers to emergency rooms, even if uninsured and unable to pay. Hospitals try to shift the costs onto their paying patients, and when the hospitals exhaust their ability to do this, they close their doors. In Los Angeles, 60 hospitals have closed their emergency rooms over the past decade, which imposes another kind of cost.

Immigration accounts for nearly all the growth in elementary and secondary school enrollment over the past generation. The children of immigrants now comprise 19 percent of the school-age population and 21 percent of the preschool population.

The Heritage Foundation estimated that in order to reduce government payments to the average low-skill household to a level equal to the taxes it pays, "it would be necessary to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, all means-tested welfare, and to cut expenditures on public education roughly in half." Obviously, that is not going to happen. Attempts to limit welfare eligibility for illegal aliens by provisions added to the 1996 welfare reform law, SSI, food stamps, Medicaid and TANF all failed. Krikorian concludes that "Walling immigrants off from government benefits once we've let them in is a fantasy."

As Americans are pinched between falling real estate values and the inflation of necessities such as gasoline, they are entitled to know how their tax dollars are being spent. The big bite that social benefits to immigrants (one-third of whom are illegal) takes out of taxpayers' paychecks should be factored into any debate about immigration or amnesty policy.

Copyright © 2008 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.

From www.townhall.com

Congressman Peter King

Save the Date!

Monday, June 30

5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.



A Salute

to

Congressman Peter King (R-NY)
Ranking Member, U.S. House Homeland Security Committee


Bourbon Street Bar and Grille

346 W. 46th Street, Manhattan

Fundraiser to Re - elect Pete King


Pete King, always courageously fighting for our interests!

What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander!

The U.S. immigration debate and the growing rift between Irish - Americans and Dublin

By Patrick Hurley

On June 28, 2006 the Irish Government, through its transparent lobbying surrogate, the Irish Legal Immigration Reform Movement (ILIR), once again descended on Washington, in an effort to promote the U.S. Senate’s emasculating immigration legislation. ILIR is an amalgamation of the unrepresentative, though disproportionately vocal, Irish Left and a handful of ideologically aberrant GOPers who persist in propagating Dubya’s disconnected, elitist "cheap labor" gospel. There is, after all, a reason why the President is ranking so abysmally in the opinion polls, even among Republicans and Conservatives.

Ultimately, however, ILIR is a creature of the Irish Government. When ILIR agitates, it is the government, or, more specifically, the mandarins of Iveagh House - Ireland's Foggy Bottom - talking. When ILIR acts in concert with extreme left - wing, anti - American groups like La Raza and ANSWER, it is strategizing with the full knowledge and blessing of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. Far from being a spontaneous manifestation of post Sept 11 Irish - America, ILIR first saw the light of day thanks to a healthy infusion of Irish punts, er, sorry, Euros courtesy of Iveagh House. Since its inception, it has received the repeated endorsements of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, other members of the Oireachtas, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, and members of the SDLP.

Indeed, Dermot Ahern recently saw fit to reward ILIR with a nice financial “atta boy”, in the form of another significant injection of lolly, just after that entity had attempted to embarrass the powerful chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, and long time staunch advocate of the Irish - American political agenda, Peter King. In a classic case of “How not to Legalize the Irish”, ILIR, through its juvenile, egotistical antics, has succeeded in alienating several powerful GOP representatives like King, House Majority Whip Congressman Roy Blunt, and Congressman Tom Tancredo, chairman of the 100 member House Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, among others. Tancredo has become so offended by ILIR that in March he publicly rebuked the Irish Government, its surrogate ILIR, and the Dail for their interference in the domestic affairs of the United States; an unprecedented criticism in the relationship between the Southern Irish state and the United States. There's one for the history books! These, of course, are representatives who have a natural empathy for the Irish predicament and who would have been disposed towards helping us.

To exacerbate an already serious situation, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny wants to implement a “Tallaght Strategy”, in order to enhance ILIRs destructive campaign. Thanks to Kenny an all -party delegation of TDs and senators flew to Washington to join ILIR, on June 28. Such a move only engendered further ire, hostility and resentment.

Let’s clarify what the Irish Government, through its surrogate ILIR, wants the Irish - American community to support, and the U.S. Congress to enact. Dublin wants us to legalize 12 million illegal aliens, i.e. 3.5% of the current U.S. population, in an effort to regularize the status of, at most, 10,000 undocumented Irish, and that’s an over generous figure. Unlike the microscopic number of Irish, the vast majority of that 12 million, mainly Mexican, are uneducated, unskilled and speak no English. Once legalized they will become net beneficiaries of our generous welfare system. They will contribute little if anything in the way of taxes. The U.S. Senate has already recognized this reality by ensuring that amnesty recipients will qualify for the earned income tax credit.

Based on the experience of the last 30 years, and, indeed, on the experience of recent illegal immigration rallies, this influx would prove difficult, probably unwilling, to assimilate. They will ghettoize and balkanize, further weakening the bonds of U.S. nationhood. The Star-Spangled Banner in Spanish, I think not! But that’s not the worst!

Scholars from the authoritative Washington Think Tank, the Heritage Center estimate that because of our overly generous family preference admissions system, this initial 12 million will have metamorphosed into 60 million, within 25 years. That is, in 25 years, almost one quarter of the U.S. population will be foreign - born, mainly Mexican, non - English speaking, uneducated, unassimilated beneficiaries of our welfare system. There is, of course, no free lunch in life. Somebody has to pay the piper. This great social upheaval will be bankrolled by crippling taxes on the U.S. middle class, until, that is, the middle class has been taxed out of existence. Hundreds of thousands of solid blue collar union jobs - ironically the kind of jobs that propelled the Irish and other immigrant groups into the middle class – will be obliterated in a Tsunami of cheap labor. The United States will become an emasculated, balkanized, Third World economic basket case. Ironically, just like Mexico, with a rich elite at the pinnacle, an insignificant middle class, and a large impoverished underclass. One can count several of our European "allies" that would relish that scenario: Une, deux, trois . . . Ein, zwei, drei . . .

For the sake of elucidation, let’s frame this scenario in an Irish context. Imagine, if you will, a minister announcing to the Dail that the government has decided it is in the national interest to immediately grant residency permits to 125,000 immigrants – 3.5% of the current Irish population. However, this number will mushroom to 750,000 foreign-born residents within 25 years, i.e., almost a quarter of the population. The influx will be mostly uneducated and unskilled. The new arrivals will not speak English, let alone focal gaeilge ar bith. They will ghettoize and balkanize the country, averse to assimilation as they will be. If nationalists and unionists had a problem co - existing, even though they are 99% culturally similar, then, you have seen nothing yet! This influx will provide a gigantic pool of cheap labor for corporate Ireland. In doing so, it will obliterate the standard of living of native blue collar workers. Because they will earn so little - cheap labor after all! - the new arrivals will pay little, if anything, in taxes. However, they and their families will still have to be fed, clothed, housed and educated. Luckily, however, they will be eligible for a whole host of welfare benefits. However, somebody will have to bankroll this major expansion of the Irish welfare state, so taxes will have to increase dramatically, primarily, of course, on the already tax - oppressed middle class, who can’t normally avail of expensive, creative accountants. Because taxation will become so punitive to support this largesse, the standard of living of the middle class will decline drastically in a short period of time. Amhran na Bhfiann san teanga gallda!!!!

Such a proposal would quite correctly be greeted with outrage by the Irish electorate. It would be political suicide. The electoral fortunes of the politicians who conceived of such a ridiculous proposal would rightly be very bleak. Yet, this is exactly what the Irish political establishment wants Irish - Americans to support and the U.S. Congress to enact. When Irish Americans, like the vast majority of the U.S. electorate, resist such destructive legislation, we are branded as unsophisticates, bigots and racists by the Left, and by the elites - Republican and Democrat alike - the potential beneficiaries of any Tsunami of cheap labor. Somebody has to mow those country club fairways. Why pay a young American college student a decent wage, when Jose from Mexico will do so for a pittance???

Of course, Irish - Americans want to legalize the current crop of undocumented Irish. More importantly we want to implement a permanent solution to the Irish immigration problem by establishing an annual, realistic visa quota. As many GOP/Conservative and, indeed, Blue Dog representatives will vouch, there are more commonsensical, nuanced and creative ways of resolving this challenge than cheering on destructive Senate legislation, which is anathema to our cultural, economic and security interests. Die-hard opponents of the Senate legislation like Pete King, Roy Blunt, John Sweeney, indeed most of the GOP caucus, would have no objection in principle with "Legalizing the Irish". English speaking, well - educated, skilled, easily assimilable, the Irish are in Congressman Blunt's words "just the kind of immigrants we need". However, these opportunities decrease proportionately every time extremist ILIR opens its mouth to promote the Senate's "Dissolve America Act", and to ridicule its congressional opponents, our natural allies.

Even though poll after poll shows a consistent opposition of more than 80% among the U.S. electorate, and by extrapolation among the Irish American community, why does the Irish political establishment persist in advocating the emasculating Senate legislation, the "McKennedy National Suicide Bill"??? One interpretation is that it is self - constrained by a Brussels effected political correctness. It may also be a victim of the failure to cultivate a broader U.S. political spectrum, resulting in its exclusive exposure to the polarized partisan advice of the Irish Left. Well, those are the the kindly interpretations. A less kindly one is that, in the era of an evolving "Common European Foreign Policy", Iveagh House is pursuing a European agenda at the behest of our Franco - German "allies", who must savor the thought of Uncle Sam laid low.

Here's a proposal that will allow the Irish political establishment to prove its bonafides and inspire us morally - deficient, racist and bigoted Irish - Americans. Let the mandarins of Iveagh House take full page adverts, in all the Spanish language publications across the United States, exhorting illegals to come one, come all, to the nearest Irish Consulate where they will receive a residency permit to dwell in the economically booming Celtic Tiger. Arrangements will even be made with Aer Lingus to fly them there, at taxpayer expense. No background checks, no awkward questions and absolutely no pressure to assimilate! Once the Celtic Tiger has reached its intake of 3.5 % of its population - or 125,000 - then, perhaps, we morally inferior, unsophisticated Irish - Americans will be shamed into action. After all, what's good for the goose is good for the gander! We won't hold our collective breath!

Ultimately, how will Irish - Americans perceive an Irish political establishment that so zealously inserts itself into U.S. domestic affairs, to promote legislation that would destroy our livelihoods and seriously destabilize the United States??? Considering that it has so flippantly surrendered Irish sovereignty to a Franco- German alliance, masquerading as a "European Union", the Irish establishment's disregard for the integrity of U.S. sovereignty should not be surprising. To quote Michael Collins, "there's more than a stretch of water between them and us" and, unfortunately, the chasm between Irish - America and the Irish establishment is growing ever wider. Perhaps, we should anticipate an Irish - American version of the Boston Tea Party. This time it won't be the product of the East India Company going over the side, but the Lyons' and the Barry's.

Patrick Hurley is President of the Regular Republican Club, 30th AD, Inc. in Woodside, Queens, New York City. He is a member of the Queens County executive of the Republican Party. In 2003, he was the GOP/Conservative candidate for the NYC Council in the 26th CD. He is currently president of the County Cork Association of New York, one of the largest Irish American organizations in the Tri State area. In 1987, he was a co -founder of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement, a grassroots lobbying organization that went onto secure thousands of green cards for the then burgeoning illegal Irish community.

This column was originally published in August of 2006

It's De Rebels On D'Avenue

The 2008 New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade

By Patrick Hurley


As we marched out of 44th Street, we were in full possession of the identity of Client #9. However, such was the banter and quality of information exchanged, as we progressed up the Queen of Avenues, it was highly likely that by the time we reached 86th Street, we’d have copper - fastened the identity of the previous eight clients and numbers 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 as well. Making up the Rebel frontal assault wave were Larry Finn on the Stars and Stripes and the kilted Nat Fuller on the Tricolor. Compromise candidates and Emerald Guildsmen, John O’Mahony, formerly Ballydehob, and Michael Gubbins, formerly Kildorrery, were on the banner. Gubbins, of course, was one of the honorees at the banquet on March 8. Those cute Cork hoors! Make you guest of honor and then get a day’s work out of you as well! On the ropes were Drimoleague’s, Larry Sullivan, Hare Island’s Denis McCarthy, snr., and Macroom’s John Donovan, among others. Also, on point was Woodside’s Conor Hurley.

The visiting Celtic Tiger politicos and functionaries, mayor of County Cork, Cllr. Tom Sheahan. County Manager Martin O’Riordan and Mayoral Minder Maurice Manning were trying to keep pace with association president, Dan McCarthy, who was looking as dapper as ever. Last year’s mayor, Cllr. John O’Shea from Kealkil was also ag marsail - enough said! Suffice it to say that Manning was keeping a watchful eye on both politicos, lest they stray. Skibbereen Mayor Brendan McCarthy et sa femme Madame McCarthy, a native of the renowned Normandy ville of Mont St. Michel . . . what can I say. . . ils marchaient aussi. Mayoral sister, and New York resident, Grainne McCarthy was also trotting along in the ranks with son beau francais, also from Normandy.

Skibbereen’s Martin Hurley was taking a break from years of banner bearing. Having recently assumed the position of Emerald Guild treasurer, his mind was perplexedly besotted with financial minutiae: "Like, what’s new?"

"How do I grow the guild? How do I increase profits?" he repeated mantra – like to himself, as we moved up the avenue. Heavy is the head . . .

Recording secretary Deirdre O’Hea was keeping Martin company on the left flank, or on the wallet side, if you like. Past President Mae O’Driscoll was monitoring all happenings with her legendary eagle eye and endeavoring heroically to keep the ranks straight. No easy task as Martin and Deirdre were inclined to ramble. The first lady, Kathy McCarthy, former first lady, Mary Hurley and the first veep, Mary Power were also on parade. "Good turn out girls!" enthused Bob Sullivan.

In the massed ranks, we observed Pat English who was also taking a break from years of banner bearing. He was busy introducing a new generation of Englishes to the traditional march up the avenue. We also spotted Eileen O’Hea – Brandt, lurking among the masses. Eileen Martin and Denis Collins had requested, and received, a special presidential dispensation allowing them to march with Eileen’s home county, Louth. With one of the "Wee County’s" own, Tommy Smyth, as grand marshal, how could Dapper Dan not have granted such a waiver? Also on parade were former New York residents, Dubs Mary, Tom and Fiona O’Brien, now living in Wicklow. That excited one association elder, "Like, we’re all in favor of integration and community outreach but like, Dubs marching with Cork! I mean, like that could be a bridge too far, like!"

Retired airline union honcho, and former St. Fachtna’s De La Salle Skibbereen left - half forward, (very left from what we understand!), Past President Bill O’Driscoll was quick of step. Beside him was Past President Mike Dorgan.

It had not been a good season, thus far, for the Killavullen man. At the recent banquet, he had had to sit still and endure what Michael Collins would only have described as a few "windy West Cork beggars" ranting on interminably. Injury was added to insult, as Mike and the daughter, Joan, eagerly hit the floor at the long - coveted end of the formalities – yes, those Dorgans love to dance, the Dancing Dorgans! – and the first song the band struck up was "Dear Old Skibbereen"!

In fairness, the West Cork boys had willing accomplices in their prolonged oratorical exhibition. The association was delighted to welcome as honored guests: Msgr. Michael Hardiman of St. Sebastian’s Parish, and de facto association chaplain, Fr. James Drew, both of whom facilitated the divine intervention; Grand Marshal Tommy Smyth, "the people’s grand marshal"; Parade Chairman John "The Doc" Dunleavy; Skull and Cross Bones representative, Dr. Jean Van Sinderen – Law, of UCC; Mayor of "de" City, Donal Counihan; McCainiac John Fleming, who was representing a real New York mayor, Phil Amicone, mayor of Yonkers; NYC Commish Brian Andersson, the man who tracked down Annie Moore; and, of course, the usual suspects from Cavan and Kerry, Brendan Smith and Sean O’Shea respectively. Brendan was the gentleman who ate his dinner from his lap underneath the table. You never know with all those cute Cork hoors around! They’d pick the eyes out of your head! You’d have to get up early to catch those Cavan boys!

But the line of the night was delivered by El Diablo, himself, Denis Forde of Rockchapel: "Relax, this could take a while."

Meanwhile back on the avenue . . . unit marshal and veteran West Cork FCA man, Noel Hayes, one of the banquet honorees, was applying himself seriously to his responsibilities, which were fairly onerous considering the aforementioned rambling of Martin Hurley and Deirdre O’Hea. He was ably assisted in the discharge of his duties by green beret - clad, Gaelic smoke - eater, Tim Murphy, who apparently has absolved the Parade Committee for any past sins, and Past President Jim O’Driscoll.

On the orders of some of the petticoat governors, Dan O’Neill had been dispatched to represent the Rebels in the United Irish Counties marching unit. However, his banishment to Exile Island was not in vain, as he got on TV. Dan’s visage filled the screen, as he invaded the homes of the innocent, boldly looking into the camera, as if to say, "governors, comptrollers, legislators and union honchos may come and go, but Daring Dan goes on forever".

We encountered Rockland County resident Helen McCarthy, formerly Skibbereen, cheering from the sidewalk. Next year, hopefully Helen will be on our side of the barricade. Up by the reviewing stand, we were honored to shake the hand of aide - at - large, former Bronx Congressman Mario Biaggi. Biaggi, a good conservative Democrat- the old school! – was, prior to his political career, a highly decorated NYPD captain. During the course of his congressional career, he was a co - founder of the Ad hoc Congressional Committee on Irish Affairs. Suffice it to say that when things were hot in the northern Irish statelet, and politicos in Dublin, London, Washington and Hyannisport were running for cover, Biaggi and a few others, like Congressman Pete King, were standing shoulder to shoulder with the besieged nationalist community.

Biaggi’s principled stand, of course, earned him the ire of the Dublin political establishment. He was very much regarded as the bete noire by Irish officialdom for many years. One representative of Iveagh House confessed the obvious a few years ago; when pols like Biaggi and King entered a room or mounted a dais - usually to thunderous applause - the standing orders for Dublin’s representatives were to expeditiously vacate. Considering Biaggi’s tumultuous relationship with a certain Cork taoiseach - ahem! - perhaps it was only appropriate that a representative of the Rebel County in New York would offer the hand of congratulations to him on his day of honor.

We also shook hands with Parade Chairman John "The Doc" Dunleavy. Like General George Patton, John was standing there defiantly, as if to say "Bring it on!". This was the first time in several years that there wasn’t some artificial "crisis" conjured up by the anti Irish – American leftie extremists, and their media acolytes, designed to blacken the parade. Let there be no doubt, it’s a war of attrition and "The Doc" supported by the community is in it for the long haul.

In any case, never mind O’Dowd and the other amatuerish apparatchiks, Cork’s dark secret plot to take over the show is maturing to fruition – oops! Connie Doolan is well implanted in the inner sanctum as is our agent by marriage, Martin Kelly. And the piece de resistance, this year our covert Cobh conspirator, Treasa Goodwin Smyth seized one of the anchor chairs . . . and it will not be surrendered! We warned you, Tommy Smyth! We warned you!

Up near 86th St., we encountered Lt. Patrick Harrison, NYPD, formerly Dublin, looking very gildy in his best dress uniform, and his better half Caroline, formerly Carlow. They were waiting for the Blue Knights, the young men of the Xavier High School U.S. Army JROTC Regiment, to come marching in. Among the many young Irish - Americans on parade with the regiment were Patrick Harrison, Jr., and, of course, our own Cork/Offaly kid Brian Hurley.

At the Cork demobilization point, just beyond 86th Street, we came across two flat - capped and trench - coated figures, accoutered with Kerry sashes. They shifted sheepishly from foot to foot, as we approached. Yet, both had a self satisfied grin from ear to ear. T’was the Sean O’Sheas of Jackson Heights. O’Shea, the elder, is, of course, a native of Glenflesk, in the Kingdom. O’Shea, the younger, is the president of the New York Kerrymen’s Association, one of the last bastions of male hegemony outside of the Islamic world. As Kerry was not to march for another hour or two, there was no rational explanation for the presence of these buachailli so far north. Perhaps, they had secreted themselves among the ranks of the large Rebel contingent, realizing some long - held boyhood fantasy of marching with Cork, up Fifth Avenue.

Over at The Kinsale Tavern, several generations of the Skuse family were on duty in the mobbed establishment. The ruille buille was unbelievable. Bean an Ti Bernadette, Counselor Eileen, Esq., Deirdre and Kevin were sighted. Son - in- law Cyril agus na paisti were also present. Frank, himself, was weaving, ducking, hopping, bopping and appearing all over the place, ar fud na h-aite. As one observer noted, the only few seconds he stayed still was during the playing of Amhrann na bFhiann at the start of the national league final, televised from Dublin. Then, he formed a perfect immovable right angle with the horizontal.

Tom Bocht Power and the G Man were already comfortably ensconced on our arrival, quaffing the Guinness. Tom had recently gone faoi scian an doctuir but as usual there were no flies on him. As prophetic as ever, he announced "Boys come closer" and gazing into his pint of Guinness, as if it were a crystal ball, he uttered sagely, "Relax and enjoy yourselves. For this time next year, the petticoat government will be back in power, and we’ll all be running up and down, forward and back, here and there, hither and yon. We’ll be bowing, scraping and curtesying. Enjoy yourselves now!" he shrieked. "Long may the Kerrymen hold out," he cried, pounding the table in desperation.

With these nightmarish and nerve-wracking thoughts weighing heavily on our mind, we were startled by a figure, who suddenly materialized on the big screen TV. It was the infamous radical attorney William Kunstler, back from the dead to sue us. He filled the screen. "Relax," said the G Man, "It’s only Paddy McCarthy of the Irish Examiner". T-anam an Diabhal! What was Frank Skuse putting in the drink? We did a double take and sure enough, it wasn’t Kunstler at all. We immediately recognized the trademark grey mane of the Ballyphehane boy, himself.

The first inkling we had that there could be trouble brewing in the camp, that hostilities might be imminent, that there could be a "domestic", was when herself, Mary Waters of Lombardstown, arrived into the Kinsale, sans the Chinese bus driver, issuing orders to disperse. She swiftly cleared the establishment and had us all waiting out on the street for a good twenty minutes, in the freezing cold, before himself appeared on the horizon, driving nonchalantly up Third Avenue. One didn’t have to consume any Chinese fortune cookies to speculate as to the fate that awaited him.

No sooner had we arrived back at the Cork Hall, than a tense stand - off developed between herself and thirty - four members of the West Cork Brigade of the ICA . . . that’s a "C" not an "R" . . . worse! . . . (Irish Country Woman’s Association). So fragile was the atmosphere that it would even have unnerved Clint Eastwood had he had occasion to drop by. The situation had deteriorated to the stage where handbags and purses were being prepared as offensive weapons, when the skilled conflict resolution team of Hayes and Wynne - New York office now open, Rosscarbery office now closed - intervened to diffuse the crisis. At the risk of being tried and executed for parochial disloyalty, we must say that our money would have been on herself, had hostilities erupted. After all, if 300 Spartans can defeat . . .

Ruffled feathers were soon smoothed down. The excellent music of the Terry Feeley Band, and the gastronomical delights and libation provided by the Bantry Bay Publick House, soon immunized and insulated all to the point where everyone thoroughly enjoyed the night. Yo, yo, yo! Who needs "crack cocaine" when you can have "Cork craic . . . caint, ceol, rince agus ol".

Patrick Hurley, formerly Skibbereen, West Cork, served as president of the County Cork Association of New York in 2005 and 2006.