SEPTEMBER 2011
www.celtic-connection.com
Page 25
SEATTLE IRISH NEWS
PHOTO: Kevin Birnbaum
HOLDING a $10,000 donation check are Holy Family School Principal Frank Caldwell and Assistant Principal Anca Wilson, with (L-R) Friends of St. Patrick Officers Joe Womac, John Keane, Matt McCarthy, MikeMcQuaid, Danny Quinn, Kip Toner and Mary McHugh. The money was raised at the Friends of St. Patrick Banquet last March.
THE BAILE GLAS Irish Dancers and the Seattle Firefighters Pipes and Drums perform in centerfield at Safeco Field before Irish Night at the Seattle Mariners on July 15. Atotal of 435 Irish Night tickets were sold this year.
MANNING the Irish Heritage Club/Clans of Ireland booth at the Skagit Valley Highland Games were, standing from left, Judy and Tom Donoghue and Brian McGuinness, with seated, Jean Roth.
AN ESTIMATED 300 people attended Seattle's Irish Community Picnic on July 24 and the children's races and tug-of-war were hugely popular.
J1 students find another way of getting into trouble
The Irish Embassy in Washington and a number of consulates in other U.S. cities have asked immigration support groups, and student bodies back in Ireland, to warn Jl Visa holders currently in the U.S. not to attempt to alter the date of birth on their passports and not to use passports that have already been altered.
At least four students have been in trouble with the U.S. authorities for making the change in order to enter bars. The legal drinking age in the U.S. is, of course, 21 whereas in Ireland it is 18.
As tampering with a travel document is a federal offence, the FBI became involved in at least one case in San Diego and it required the intervention of an Irish diplomat to have the person involved released from custody.
There is evidence that the practice is widespread and the advice from Union of Students in Ireland to anyone who has altered his or her passport is to return it immediately to the nearest Irish consul and have it replaced as using it could lead to serious problems for the holder.
The changes have been made by attaching a laminate to the passport and the message to students is that the presence of the laminate is easily detectable by U.S. border control and attempts to remove it will damage the passport.
Aer Lingus says 'No' to U.S. west coast
Aer Lingus has informed Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar that it will not be restoring a direct service to the west coast of the U.S. next year. Such a service, it claims, would be loss-making.
This announcement appears to have been rushed out following a report in The Irish Times that the airline was in talks with four airports in California with a view to resuming the service in 2012.
The newspaper insisted that its story was based on a conversation with a spokesman for the airline.
The spokesman confirmed that such a move was being considered by the airline and that a decision would be made shortly.
The airline was said to be in talks with the airport authorities at Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Aer Lingus last had scheduled flights to California in 2009.
Derry singer wins place on 'Glee'
Damian McGinty from Derry has been announced as joint winner of the U.S. reality television show The Glee Project and will appear in seven episodes of the next series of the popular U. S. television show.
The 18-year-old, a member of the Irish group Celtic Thunder, was one of 12 finalists chosen from a total of40,000 who auditioned on the My Space social network.
AT THIS YEAR'S Galway Races were Colin and Jack Geary of Seattle's Owl 'n Thistle Pub with Irish Presidential candidate Michael D. Higgins (right).
Aer Lingus reports EUR27.8 million loss
DUBLIN - Aer Lingus has reported an operating loss of 27.8 million euro in the first six months of the year. Christoph Mueller, chief executive, blamed the losses on a cabin crew dispute at the start of the year. He said the airline experienced a strong second quarter, recording a profit of 25.9 million euro.
"This result was underpinned by the continuing positive impact of our capacity management strategy, stabilised passenger numbers, strong yield growth and the absence of airspace closures in northern Europe which occurred in 2010," he said.
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