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www.celtic-connection.com
MAY 2005
U.S. Neo-Nazi Luring Irish Performers to Hate Rallies
DUBLIN - Irish performers travelling to the United States are being warned to be vigilant before signing contracts by event organizers, as a number of unsuspecting dance troupes and traditional bands have been lured to hate rallies.
Neo-Nazi groups in the United States believe they have an affinity to all things Celtic and Finn MacCool is held up as a role model for fanatics, who are urged to use the Irish hero to "instil white values" in their children.
The National Alliance, the largest neo-Nazi group in the U.S., is organizing Irish cultural events all over the country in the hope that it will help attract new members. The events are believed to be part of a major new recruitment drive by a group that believes that Jews and non-whites should be banished from the States.
Singer Peter Haworth, whose Irish trad band Molly's Revenge was hired to play at a rally in California, has said that musicians should be careful about what they sign up to do. He said he was horrified to arrive at the "festival" to discover that vendors were selling baby blankets emblazoned with swastikas.
"We got contacted by someone wanting us to play at an event he called Eurofest in Sacramento," Peter said. "He characterized it as a celebration of European culture and told us there would be Irish dancers, speeches from people with various European backgrounds and a keynote address by an Eastern European philosopher.
Shortly after their arrival, Haworth said, "It became pretty clear that this was not what we thought it was, and it was actually a neo-Nazi event. The copies of Mem Kampf and baby blankets with a swastika symbol on them were some of the more obvious clues. Elsewhere, women were selling copies of ABC: Aryan Beginnings for Children, along with Talk Back, a publication by the White Student Alliance, while at a nearby table, photos were on sale of two beautiful young blonde girls giving the Nazi salute."
Anti hate-crime groups across the U.S. have expressed concern at the new recruiting drive by the extremist group. Earlier this year Irish dancing classes were organized in St. Louis, while the National Alliance has also hired dancers and singers for events across the U.S.
The group has also set up a special website to sell books of Irish children's folk tales to parents wanting to indoctrinate their families into neo-Nazism -including the stories of legendary warrior Finn MacCool.
The website, which offers Hero Tales of Ireland and Celtic Fairy Tales for sale, states, "The book should serve a racially constructive purpose by providing White role models, instilling White values, or building a sense of White identity through the teaching of White history and legend." The website claims that such tales promote white supremacy because they are free from the "poison" of "Black and Oriental" myths and "racial mixing."
Using traditional Irish music and dancing to attract new members has been dubbed the "wolves-in-sheep's-clothing strategy." Pioneered by National Alliance leader Erich Gliebe, under the guise of the European American Cultural Society, it started in Cleveland eight years ago with Irish and Polish dance and music - and white supremacist speeches. But now the strategy has spread across the U.S. and many Irish performers are being lured to the rallies under false pretenses.
Celtic Tiger Roars Again
DUBLIN - Ireland is set to reap the benefits of a massive surge in employment, with 61,000 new jobs to be created by Irish firms this year, signalling a return to the heady jobs boom levels of 2000.
For the first time in history, it is expected that the number of people at work will top the two million mark as demand for labour increases by 8.3 percent - a level not seen since the peak Celtic Tiger year of 2000.
The buoyant employment market means that 49 percent of companies have vacancies, with 64 percent more likely to expand this year than in the previous four.
A national employment survey carried out by the Small Firms Association (SFA) found that 75 percent of companies have difficulties filling their vacancies, up 13 percent over last year.
And while the jobs boom is good news for the economy, recruitment difficulties are proving a headache for Irish businesses, with 40 percent of firms surveyed stating that their expansion plans were being hindered by an inability to fill jobs.
Suicide Epidemic in Ireland
Brian Mahon, the County Offaly coroner, spoke of suicide "reaching epidemic proportions" on April 25 when he found himself dealing with seven inquests, five involving suicide. Those who took their own lives were an 81-year-old man and a 48-year-old man who shot themselves, and a 47-year-old woman and two men, one in his fifties and the other aged 25, who hanged themselves. There was no connection between any of the cases.
Mahon's comments prompted some debate on the issue. Officially 444 people in the Republic took their own lives in 2003. One expert attributed the "exponential" growth in deaths by suicide in part to "binge drinking and poor coping strategies among young people."
Political Future Bleak for TD After Drinking Spree
DUBLIN - The political future of former minister James McDaid appears bleak after endangering hundreds of motorists as he drunkenly drove up an exit ramp and continued along the wrong side of a divided highway.
For 20 minutes the Donegal North East TD drove into oncoming traffic as vehicles swerved to avoid a collision on one of Ireland's busiest roads.
McDaid spent the day drinking wine in a corporate box at Punchetown racecourse on April 28 before getting behind the wheel of his car. He was spotted driving erratically on the Naas Road in County Kildare by Patrick Walsh, a concerned trucker, who called gardai as he followed alongside the car on the opposite side of the carriageway.
After a 10 mile chase, Walsh was finally able to bring the drama to an end by blocking McDaid's progress with his 46-foot trailer. Speaking afterward to RTE, he said he was sick with fear that McDaid would crash. He said, "I just kept flashing my lights to warn people that there was something coming against them."
He finally used his vehicle to block two lanes of a roundabout bringing McDaid's car to a halt. "I jumped out of the cab, ran around and opened the door. The man in question was sitting there. I put my hand on the keys and took the key out of the ignition," he said.
An eyewitness who observed the TD when his car was finally stopped said, "He was civilized but at the same time he did not know what he was doing." He described him as being "very, very drunk." He added, "If he had met an articulated truck there would have been phenomenal damage."
The Fianna Fail TD was then arrested by a plainclothes garda who had also joined the pursuit. As news of the development spread, McDaid issued a brief statement apologizing for the incident.
He said, "I wish to unreservedly apologize for my serious lapse in behaviour. It was completely wrong of me to drive a car while under the influence of drink. This will now be a matter for the Gardai to deal with."
McDaid said he accepted that, as a public representative, he had a particular obligation to uphold the law. "I wish to apologize to my family my constituents and to the Gardai," he added.
As a former minister of state at the Department of Transport, McDaid was involved in many high-profile anti-drunk driving campaigns. As Junior Transport Minister in November 2002, he spearheaded the Government's anti-drunk driving campaign.
At the launch of that campaign he warned, "Some drivers still choose to ignore our drink driving laws and as a result innocent lives are destroyed."
He said the National Safety Council's campaign, called Shame, sent a forceful message that drinking and driving carried high-risk consequences. The then-minister said driving drunk was not acceptable at any time of the year.
Although the incident took place as Gardai announced a holiday blitz on drunk driving, it was significant that not one Government or Opposition politician called for the Letterkenny doctor to resign his Dail seat.
Fine Gael, normally extremely vocal on drink-driving which has been linked to up to 40 percent of Irish road deaths, took a decision not to comment at all on the revelations.
Fine Gael's transport spokesperson said, "The party has made a decision not to comment on it. I have lots to say, but I'd prefer not to."
Justice Minister Michael McDowell said the incident reflected badly on politics. He said it was a matter of huge importance and the public had to be given example by those in politics.
He added, however, that it was not unprecedented, and that McDaid was not the first politician to find himself in such a situation.
A spokesman for Transport Minister Martin Cullen said he would not be making any comment. The Progressive Democrats' transport spokesman Tom Morrissey said it was "not a resigning matter."
ABANDONED CHILD WITH IRISH CITIZENSHIP
DUBLIN-The IrishAdoption Board (IAB), the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Indonesian government are caught in a bureaucratic predicament over a three-year-old Indonesian-born boy who was adopted and later abandoned by an Irishman and his wife.
Joe Dowse of County Wicklow and his Azerbaijani wife Lala already had a daughter when they adopted two-month-old Tristan while they were living in Indonesia. Two years later they returned the child to the orphanage in Jakarta and are now living in Azerbaijan.
The Indonesian view is that Tristan is an Irish citizen living illegally in Indonesia. In Ireland, the adoption board claims that, as Tristan is legally adopted (the adoption was registered in Ireland), he cannot be adopted by another couple.
Now the Dowses, who say they did not bond with the child, have offered to take any steps necessary to resolve his plight. A solicitor for the family met with the Irish Adoption Board (IAB) in a bid to resolve the boy's status.
Kieran Gildea of the IAB said he was informed the family intend to take steps immediately to clarify the status of the adoption. "They intend to apply to the High Court in Dublin for the deletion of the recognition in the registrar of foreign adoptions," he said. The board said this would be a unique course of action but might allow the boy's Irish citizenship to be revoked and open the way for a U.S. couple to adopt him.
Tristan is not the first foreign child
whose adoption by an Irish family has fallen apart. A Romanian child was put in care and then re-adopted after his first adoption was revoked in the High Court, according to the Adoption Authority of Ireland.
Registrar Kieran Gildea said, "Tristan's case is different because
his adoption was a domestic adoption in Indonesia, not an inter-country adoption in Ireland." But adoption support groups claimed many more children who were adopted from abroad may have ended up in care, and they lashed out at the lack of official follow-up on the progress of adoptions.
Upcoming Changes for Irish Citizenship
The procedures by which a non-national may claim Irish citizenship through marriage to an Irish citizen will change as from November 30.
Up to and including November 29, the last day when the existing Post-Nuptial Citizenship arrangements will apply, a non-national will be able to claim Irish citizenship if s/he married a person who was an Irish citizen before November 30, 2002, and makes a post-nuptial declaration at least three years after the date of the marriage, but before November 30, 2005, and lodges it at an Irish Embassy or Consulate.
Those intending to apply for citizenship through PNC must have made their declarations by November 29 at the latest and lodged them at an Irish Embassy or Consulate together with the required affidavit completed by the Irish spouse, signed and witnessed on the same day as the declaration.
Applicants are strongly advised to submit their applications, including all of the required documents and certificates, as soon as possible, and as far in advance of the November 29 deadline as possible. If any documentation is still outstanding on November 30, it may not be possible for the non-national spouse to claim Irish citizenship through the existing arrangements.
As from November 30, it will no longer be possible to become an Irish citizen by making a post-nuptial declaration. Instead, it will be necessary to apply to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform for a certificate of naturalisation based on marriage to an Irish citizen. The certificate may be granted subj ect to certain conditions, including a period of residence in Ireland.
The Embassy/Consulate will be happy to provide advice and assistance regarding these changes, which are in accordance with the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 2001.