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 Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States USA’s 31st Irish President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II are likely to visit Ireland in late May or early June of 2011.
In the case of President Obama his visit is likely to coincide with other European engagements. “The end of May is likely,” said an official, familiar with discussions regarding Mr Obama’s forthcoming trip to Europe. Records unearthed by the Church of Ireland’s Rev. Canon Stephen Neill show beyond doubt that Mr Obama’s ancestors, on his mother’s side lived, worked, married and had children in the Moneygall area, situated on the border separating counties Tipperary and Offaly. It is expected that the president will wish to visit his ancestral home during this visit.
Mr Obama and his wife, US first lady Michelle Obama, will visit Britain on a state visit at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II, from May 24th to 26th. He will travel on to Deauville, France, for the G8 Summit on May 26th to 27th. Discussions within the US administration are now focused on whether Mr Obama should visit Ireland before London or after Deauville and the White House hope it is before the UK, visit according to US officials.
Neither the White House, the Irish Embassy in Washington nor indeed the US embassy in Dublin would confirm officially that a visit is likely in late May. Discussions about the trip appear not to have, so far, involved the Irish government, with the speculation that the US are waiting for Irish politics to be fully clarified over the coming week.
 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II The annual St Patrick’s Day pilgrimage to Washington will be one of the first acts of our new Taoiseach Enda Kenny and if the May expected visit materialises, a visit is likely to be announced at the White House during the St Patrick’s Day reception.
Democratic congressman Richard Neal, the former head of the Friends of Ireland in the House of Representatives, stated that a visit to Ireland would have obvious implications for Mr Obama’s re-election campaign.
Planning in relation to both visits is somewhat complicated by the fact that Irish President Mary McAleese has already issued an invitation to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, to visit Ireland, probably also in late May or June.
Regarding Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s II visit, there may be a reluctance on the part of the Irish government to take on two such important visits so close together, however these logistics are something that both governments will be anxious to negotiate.
Queen Elizabeth II, although she has never visited Thurles, has strong ancestral connections with the town and is a direct descendant of Viscount and Lady Thurles through their eldest son, the Duke of Ormond. The Duke’s daughter, Elizabeth, married Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl Chesterfield, and their daughter Elizabeth Stanhope married John Lyon, 4th Earl Strathmore. Six generations later in direct line was the 14th Earl Strathmore whose daughter, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married the future King George VI; and these are the grandparents of Prince Charles. Thurles is therefore expected to be included as a stop off point in any proposed future visit.
Many of Queen Elizabeth’s ancestors are buried at St. Mary’s Church here in Thurles, including Lady Elizabeth Butler,(Elizabeth Poyntz, Acton, 1673.) from whom she inherited her christian name. Sophie Helen Rhys-Jones, wife of Prince Edward attended a funeral on behalf of the British Royal Family in November last, here in Upperchurch, Thurles, Co Tipperary.
 Chartist Demonstration Poster of 1848 We here in Ireland need to behave like the Charterist Movement of the early 1840’s, and we, unlike them, have one advantage, we have the right to vote.
With the present General Election looming, most of those who have been part of our outgoing government are fully aware that their only place in a new Dail Eireann, will be by taking over the seating arrangements, previously kept warm by the arses of our present opposition.
Fianna Fail under Micheál Martin, displaying an inherited FF arrogance, called today for a public debate, still dreaming that the party he represents are still going to have a major say in our immediate future.
Knowing they are going to remain in opposition, small political groupings like Sinn Fein, Independents and possibly the Green Party, can now spout whatever they feel their understandably angry voters want to hear. They can and will protest about everything, the Four Year Plan, Environmental policy,The IMF, Lower Paid Workers, the Universal Social Charge or reclaiming control of the Public Sector. But these protests must be seen by voters for what they are, attempts to gather votes by gombeen individuals who selfishly are seeking another term of unvouched expenses, inflated salaries, inflated pensions and most of all the sense of being powerful.
We now need a different breed of politician in Ireland and change must come quickly, because to survive as a state, with the present political system, we can no longer carry on. We have, as a nation, once again allowed ourselves to be invaded. There are two ways to conquer a country, send in an invading force of well armed troops, or the EU modern way, which is loan us vast sums of money at high interest rates which they know we cannot repay. Ireland, thanks to our gombeen politicians, has been invaded, we have been enslaved and sadly we only have ourselves, as voters, to blame.
In a democracy such as ours, change can only ever originate from the electorate. If we continue to elect our representatives, without looking beyond our own narrow views of personal self interests, we will continue to attract the gombeen politicians we truly deserve and as Irish men and women, remain the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, within Europe.
We as a nation are unable to even protest democratically in any unified way. When our elderly citizens demonstrated against losing their medical card, they did so very much alone. When our student sons and daughters marched, they did so detached, while agents of our State were allowed to discourage them, using rough justice. When our present Fianna Fail Government clung to power, long after the electorate had made it clear that they no longer had a mandate to govern, we as a nation remained deathly silent. Despite the fact that this outgoing government continued to embarrass us on the world stage, making us a laughing stock in front of our European partners, we as a nation take no action.
Ireland is a nation and our democratically elected representatives are, by accepting their elected role, charged with standing up for our citizens and our down trodden, behaving democratically, safeguarding our wealth and fairly distributing our scarce public funds responsibly.
This present Government in December last, told us that we must now pay increased taxes and endure reduced public services, because they were not minding the shop, while they themselves continued to misappropriate our funds and our loyalty in a cynical and contemptuous way for the purchase of future votes. They allowed minority Independent TD’s of minor importance, to pull their strings, to the detriment of our democracy and the well being of the people of this country as a whole. They have placed their brain washed followers in positions of importance on boards and in positions of influence to make decisions which will effect and assist ‘The Party‘.
Continue reading How To Cast Your Vote In A Dysfunctional Ireland
 Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) Oliver Cromwell is still a figure of hatred in Ireland, considered a regicide dictator with his name being associated with massacre, religious persecution, and mass dispossession of the Catholic community. A traditional Irish curse still used is ‘mallacht Chromail ort ‘ or translated into English ‘the curse of Cromwell upon you ‘.
On 15th August 1649 Oliver Cromwell landed at Ringsend,Dublin, with an army of over 3,000 battle hardened ‘Ironsides‘. The civil war in England had come to an end, and King Charles I had been executed seven months previously.
In Ireland the Roman Catholics had been in revolt since 1641 and now held much of the island. They had in general taken the King’s side, encouraged by the Church of Rome, though some inhabitants had observed that in England’s civil war internal turmoil a chance existed to restore independence to Ireland.
From Dublin Cromwell marched north to Drogheda, which was defended by an English Catholic Royalist, Sir Arthur Aston. When Cromwell’s surrender demand was ignored, he stormed the city ordering the death of every man in the garrison who held arms, describing his actions as “a righteous judgment of God upon these barbarous wretches“. The nearby garrisons at Dundalk and Trim, on learning the news, ‘took to their heels’.
Realising he had secured the route into Ulster, Cromwell turned on the south eastern port of Wexford town, slaughtering townspeople and the garrison alike. Neighbouring towns quickly submitted.
Oliver Cromwell’s campaign ended with an assault on Clonmel here in Co.Tipperary, where, after some stout resistance, the defenders withdrew, under the cover of darkness.
But the reign of Oliver Cromwell was not all bad, under his rule in England the contract between a monarch and his subjects was analysed and clearly defined. An elected representative must represent the best interests of his electorate and each subjects must obey the law of the land, as represented in the person of that elected individual.
Cromwell established that a parliament exists only to serve its electorate, and not the other way round. He demonstrated that governments were fully answerable to their subjects for any wrong doing. Under his leadership the reigning king, Charles 1, indeed was executed for the treason of ‘making war on his own people‘.
He demonstrated that good organisation and administration was more important in government than any social position, to get things done properly and that leadership can exist at all levels of a country’s society. He invited the expelled Jewish community to return to England, following their 400 years in exile, and thus began massive expansion of financial and trading services across Europe with England as the centre. Further proof of his appreciated governance is that in a 2002 BBC poll, in Britain, Cromwell was selected as one of the ‘Top 10 Britons’ of all time.
Cromwell’s principles of government have in the past been quoted by American colonists to justify their rebellion against British rule, by moderate French Revolutionaries, by the 1830 revolutionary leaders of Paris, by the 1848 revolutionary leaders of Vienna and Paris, by Frederick Engels in the Communist Manifesto, and by early Trade Union pioneers. His ideas have become relevant to many societies and world governments where it became necessary to overthrow tyranny and reckless greedy corruption.
His speech to the House of Commons on 20th April 1653, just minutes prior to him dissolving the Long Parliament, perhaps expresses the true feelings of many politically disillusioned men and women in the Ireland of 2011.
“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. Ye are a factious crew, (Exp: Given to promoting internal dissension) and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would, like Esau, sell your country for a mess of pottage or like Judas, betray your God for a few pieces of money.
Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God.
Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?
Ye sordid prostitutes, have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?
Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here, by the people, to get grievances redressed, are yourselves gone!
So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.
You have sat too long, for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”
Where can we find an Oliver Cromwell in 2011?
 Eyjafjallajokull Volcano Natural calamity always tests the administrative structures and social bonds of our society and the recent weather experienced here in Co.Tipperary over the past few weeks certainly tested all of these.
Yet this type of weather, contrary to popular media reports, is indeed not new to Ireland. “The Great Frost”, “Bliain An Áir” (Translated into English “year of the slaughter“) or the “Forgotten Irish Famine” happened between December 1739 and September 1741 and was one of many such calamities which struck Europe in the past and occurred after a decade of relatively mild winters, such as we have recently experienced here in Ireland.
This crisis of 1739-1741 should in no way be confused with the even more devastating ‘Great Famine’ in Ireland, a century later between 1845 and 1849.
Temperature readings for Ireland then ranged between −12 °C and 0 °C. Ireland was locked into a stable and vast high-pressure system which stretched across most of Europe, from Russia to northern Italy, in a similar way as experienced recently. Our lakes, rivers,and waterfalls froze and fish died. Rural dwellers fared better than city dwellers, due to easier access to fuel, while poor urban dwellers lived in freezing basements and below standard housing.
Retail prices for coal soared, urban and rural mill-wheels became frozen stiff and since water powered our machinery, bakers could not grind wheat, printers could not pulp rags for paper and the work of weavers was greatly prohibited, disrupting craft employment and food processing.
The export of grain out of Ireland was prohibited to all destinations except Britain. The Church of Ireland parish clergy and the Established Church solicited donations from the property classes, which they converted into required rations for free dispersal to mainly city dwellers, distributing nearly 80 tons of coal and ten tons of meal in the first month of this unprecedented cold spell.
One of the main food sources, the humble potato became frozen and inedible. Spring rains never arrived and drought killed off sheep and other animals in the fields. The potato crisis caused an increase in grain prices which in turn led to higher bread prices. Starving rural dwellers began to move into the larger towns with bands of citizens causing food riots.
Documentation of deaths were far from accurate between December 1739 and September 1741, but cemeteries provide some small information. We can estimate that the normal death rate for the country tripled in January and February 1740 and burials averaged about 50% higher during the period of this crisis, than for the total previous years of 1737 to 1739.
It is interesting to note that Mount Tarumae in Japan experienced a major volcanic eruption, as did Mount Asahi, Japan’s tallest mountain, in 1739.
In 1783 and 86 we experienced two successive severe winters both attributed to an Icelandic volcanic eruption.
In 1816, known as the year without summer, snow fell late and the summer never really materialised. The winter proceeding it was also severe. A volcanic eruption at Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia, greatly disrupted wind patterns and temperatures.
In 2010 the eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland caused enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe over a period of six days in April 2010. Additional localised disruption continued into May 2010.
Is there a connection between volcanic activity and our unusual Irish weather?
The Tipperary Peace Convention Committee have named their nominees for the 2011 Tipperary Peace Award.
The Tipperary Peace Award was first founded in 1984, set up to recognise people in Ireland and across the world, who promote the ideals of peace and peaceful co-operation.
Previous recipients include the late former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, former South African President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist Robert Frederick Zenon “Bob” Geldof, KBE, and former 42nd US President William Jefferson “Bill” ClintonClinton.
Amongst this years nominees are former president and ex-United Nations High Commissioner Mrs Mary Robinson, the Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been recently released from detention, chairman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and United Nations Special Rapporteur, Dr Sima Samar and the Taiwanese Buddhist nun Cheng Yen. Also shortlisted are the the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza John Ging and the prime minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai.
The Tipperary Peace Convention Committee are expected to consider the nominees over the coming weeks and the winner will be announced on New Year’s Day.
Last year’s winners were the late Senator Ted Kennedy and his sister Jean Kennedy Smith, latter former US ambassador to Ireland.
The 2010 award will be presented, as usual, at a special ceremony in Tipperary town, on a date to be agreed early in the new year.
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