At Finnegan's Wake on Pittsburgh's North Side tonight at 7:00 p.m. there is a Pennsylvania Campaign for Change Reception with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
Townsend is the eldest daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, and the former lieutenant governor of Maryland. She is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and on the boards of several prominent organizations, including the Points of Light Foundation, National Catholic Reporter, and the Character Education Partnership. Most recently, she is author of "Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God With Politics and Losing Their Way".
Note: This post is not an endorsement for or against Barack O'Bama or John McCain, rather simply and effort to inform Irish Catholics interested in Clan Kennedy!
AOH 32 President Mike Finnerty sent along an interesting Web site and exercise to take to determine your perfect selection adn ideal candidate for the U.S. 2008 Presidential election. Take 2-3 minutes and click here to take the test if you're having trouble deciding which presidential candidate or party is the right choice based on your views.
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Democratic candidate for president, is the talk of this village because recently unearthed records indicate that he is a son of Moneygall.
Stephen Neill, a local Anglican rector, said church documents he has found, along with census, immigration and other records tracked down by U.S. genealogists, appear to show that Obama's great-great-great-grandfather, Fulmuth Kearney, was reared in Moneygall, then left for America in 1850, when he was 19.
Here is a good article from the March 10th issue of the Chicago Tribune outlining the power sharing process of the Good Friday Agreement vote - deadline is March 26th.
AOH National President Ned McGinley sent me the following note today..."The NY Times has many times ignored The Troubles in Ireland and has more often backed the London government in its interpretation of the situation in the north of Ireland. This editorial lays out the realities of the situation in the six counties today and the need for a political solution in which the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) recognize the mandate of the SDLP and Sinn Fein. It is time for politics not sectarian rhetoric to come to the forefront in six of the nine counties of Ulster and the Belfast Assembly envisioned in the Good Friday Agreement take it's lawful position and govern the North."
Every day we should pray for world peace, however there has never been a better time to "raise the bar" of our prayers for peace in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, the Middle East and throughout the world than now during Holy Week.
"The Year of Remembrance Committee" invites you to join them on Monday, April 17th at Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle for a special Easter Rising Program at 7:00 p.m. Donation is $2.00 at the door.
The Program consists of readings (including the Proclamation read by MÃchael McDonagh from Connemara), music with Sean McClorey, a candle vigil and raffle.
Later this year, The Year of Remembrance Committee will be presenting a Commemoration of the Hunger Strikers as well. I'll keep you posted.
For more information, call Jim Caldwell at 412.580.3759 or Diane Byrnes at 412.781.6368.
Unionists have criticized Tony Blair over a reference he made to "Protestant extremists" during a recent speech on global terrorism and religious intolerance. He said Muslims who committed acts of terrorism were no more true to their faith than the "Protestant bigot" who murdered Catholics in Northern Ireland. Read article here and view video here.
A former senior official of Sinn Fein recently exposed as a British spy has been found fatally shot in northwest Ireland, according to police. Click here to read the AP story.
The following is a statement written by Ned McGinley, National President of the AOH in America. Feel free to post your thoughts and comments - we after all in still in America - a free country.
The Ancient Order of Hibernians in America views with disappointment the decision by the U.S. Administration to curtail fundraising in the USA by an Irish-Nationalist Party Sinn Fein.
The AOH was among the first to request that the Irish Republican Army decommission their weapons and turn to a strictly peaceful and political agenda to achieve a united Ireland. The Army did so and is now, even quoted in the IMC report, in a political mode. We have supported peace and cross community projects in the north. We feel that all parties should be able to present their message in the United States. We ask the President Bush and his envoy Mitchell Reiss to revisit their decision.
A decision like this, while allowing others to fundraise, has overturned the former even handed policy of this administration.
We continue to support Sinn Fein and their constituency in their right to refuse support for the PSNI until collusion is totally and independently investigated.
We would also thank the Irish Government for their support of the Pat Finucane family as they seek a truly independent inquiry into the collusion death of their husband and father.
On January 30, 1972, soldiers from the British Army's 1st Parachute Regiment opened fire on unarmed and peaceful civilian demonstrators in the Bogside, Derry, Ireland, near the Rossville flats, killing 13 and wounding a number of others. One wounded man later died from illness attributed to that shooting.
The march, which was called to protest internment, was "illegal" according to British government authorities. Internment without trial was introduced by the British government on August 9, 1971. The British-government-appointed Widgery Tribunal found soldiers were not guilty of shooting dead the 13 civilians in cold blood. Click here for more information. And, please remember these innocent souls in your prayers.
At Finnegan's Wake on Pittsburgh's North Side tonight at 7:00 p.m. there is a Pennsylvania Campaign for Change Reception with Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
AOH National President Ned McGinley
For more information, call Jim Caldwell at 412.580.3759 or 
