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		IN THIS ISSUE
~~~ Foreword
~~~ News Snaps from Ireland 
~~~ New free resources at the site
~~~ Cara Irish Penpals News
~~~ My Home of the Heart     by Mary Bradley
~~~ El Batallon de San Patricio by R. J. Quirarte
~~~ Edmund Burke             by Joseph E. Gannon 
~~~ Erin go Braugh 	     by Kathleen Cesarone
~~~ Gaelic phrases of the month
~~~ Shamrock site of the month
~~~ Monthly free competition result

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FOREWORD
~~~~~~~~

Many thanks to 'The Wild Geese' for this month's 
featured article about Edmund Burke, one of the 
world's most renowned political thinkers.

Please forward the newsletter to your friends 
and relatives and encourage them to subscribe 
- its free!

Until the next time,

Michael

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

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NEWS SNAPS FROM IRELAND
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SLUGGISH ECONOMY TO BOUNCE BACK

An increase in the unemployment figures and the 
almost daily announcements of yet more job losses 
in major long established companies has led to 
skilled foreign workers being turned away. During 
the height of the recent economic boom such 
skilled staff were openly encouraged to move to 
Ireland.

Despite the poor short term outlook the medium 
terms prospects are much brighter. A report by the 
ESRI maintains that economic growth in Ireland 
will surge between 2005 and 2010, once the current 
economic difficulties are tackled.

The change in the economic climate has meant that 
the numbers being allowed into the country has 
been greatly reduced. 28,000 work permits have 
been granted so far this year, compared to over 
40,000 for the first six months of 2002. 

The rate of deportation of illegal asylum seekers 
has increased also. Deportations cost over 
EURO 2500 per deportee. Despite the imminent 
expansion of the EU deportations of illegal 
immigrants from countries that are about to join 
the EU are continuing.

Nearly 200 asylum seekers who have been deported 
at a cost of over EURO 660,000 will be able to 
legally return to Ireland next year, as their 
native countries of Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, 
Estonia, Hungary, Czech Republic, will all be 
admitted to the European Union.

HOUSE PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE

Despite scare mongering in local and international 
press, house prices continue to rise in Ireland, 
albeit at a slower rate of increase. There are no 
indications of any collapse in housing prices, 
mainly because demand continues to exceed demand. 
Nationally, house prices in 2003 have so far 
increased by an average of 6%.

PUB SMOKING BAN OPPOSED BY HOSPITALITY GROUPS

Publicans and Tourist groups are up in arms over 
the proposed ban on smoking in pubs, hotels and 
restaurants that will come into effect from 
January of next year. 

With the ban only months away forecasts of huge 
job losses in tourism and the services sector 
have so far failed to impress the Government who 
are determined to press ahead with the ban. One 
figure moots the possibility of over 65,00 job 
losses, but supporters of the new law point out 
that over 10,000 new jobs were cerated in New 
York when similar legislation was introduced. 

DUBLIN AIRPORT RAIL LINK TO GO AHEAD

The ambitious EURO 2 Billion Dublin Airport Metro 
line is to be completed by 2007. The rail link 
will stretch from the Airport and deliver 
passengers right into the heart of Dublin City.

Transports chiefs have welcomed the development 
but were not as happy with recent industrial 
action by transport workers.

A one-day action by CIE transport workers 
resulted in no fares being collected. Delighted 
commuters were able to travel for free by bus and 
rail. One tour operator saved over 600 Euro by 
transporting a clutch of tourists from one end 
of the country to the other for free.

NEW LITTER AND OBESITY TAXES PROPOSED

A new tax on chewing gum, bank ATM receipts and 
on fast-food cartons has been proposed. Following 
on from the highly successful tax on plastic bags 
which has prevented the dumping of billions of 
bags into landfill sites around the country, the 
Minister for the Environment now has his sights 
set on other major causes of litter.

Spiralling obesity levels in Ireland are to be 
tackled also. Obesity levels increased in Ireland 
by 70% during the 1990's. Fast-food vendors are 
expected to be hit with a proposed tax on foods 
most likely to cause obesity.

WILD PIG ON THE LOOSE IN CAVAN

a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig that is on the loose 
in County Cavan has already bitten one person and 
attacked herds of cattle. It is suspected that the 
dangerous animal may have been a family pet that 
was released into the wild. The ISPCA has been 
attempting to capture it for over a year.

IRISH SOCCER PLAYERS ON THE MOVE

The recent transfer of Damien Duff for STG£17 
Million from Blackburn to Chelsea is the biggest 
transfer fee ever paid for an Irish soccer player. 
The gifted Irish midfielder will line out in the 
Champion's league for his new club next season.

Stephen Reid has moved from Milwall to Blackburn. 
Matt Holland has moved from Ipswich to Portsmouth.


Voice your opinion on these news issues here:

 https://www.ireland-information.com/cgi-bin/newsletterboardindex.cgi

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NEW FREE RESOURCES AT THE SITE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NEW COATS OF ARMS ADDED TO THE GALLERY:

The following 6 coats of arms images and family
history details have been added to the Gallery:

C: Casserly, McCrirrick
K: Kent, Kellett
M: McMorrow
N: Neligan

View the Gallery here:

 http://www.irishsurnames.com/coatsofarms/gm.htm

We now have over 100,000 worldwide names available.
Get the Coat of Arms Print, Claddagh Ring,
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your name at:

 https://www.irishnation.com/familycrestgifts.htm

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CARA IRISH PENPALS NEWS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The listings of members have been purged!
The database is up to date. Only members who 
have logged in at least once in the last month 
are in the database!

Full details of the following penpals of the 
week (all upgraded members) are available at 
the website:

Name: Michael
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Interests: driving, football(watching), skiing,
reading but most of all walking in the rain or 
even better the snow ! 
Message: Completely single male working in Bosnia,
(not military) since May 1998

Name: Willis
Location: Macroom, Ireland 
Interests: Art, cooking, gardening, conversation, 
film, computer graphic design, photography 
Message: Tall, quite good looking, slim, physically 
& mentally fit, retired American (living in Cork 
County 12 years) looking for serious relationship. 

Name: Liz
Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Interests: Reading, socializing, pubs, board games,
quizzes, holidays abroad,life in general....... 
Message: Hi, I'd like to meet new people 

~~~

You can join Cara Irish Penpals for free here:
http://www.irishpenpals.com

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You can help to keep this FREE newsletter alive!

Visit https://www.irishnation.com

where you can get great Irish gifts, prints, 
claddagh jewellery, engraved glassware and 
much more.

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MY HOME OF THE HEART		by Mary Bradley

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Michael, My name is Mary Ellen Mulcahy Bradley. 
My father was Patrick Joseph Mulcahy, and his 
father was Patrick Charles Mulcahy Sr. of County 
Cork, Ireland. I have never had the opportunity 
to travel to Ireland, but I am a traveler of the 
heart. I love Ireland and my heritage. I hope and 
pray to visit there someday. In the mean time I 
wrote this poem on March 17,1992, I hope you 
like it.

My Home of the Heart

St Patrick's Day, a special day
For all the Irish of the world.
Shamrocks, blarney stones, 
Leprechauns that dance and sing.
The mist of the heather,
The dew kissed moors.
Lads and lassies with auburn tresses.
Oh, Ireland my home so far away,
I've longed to embrace your emerald shores.
Someday this bonnie lass will venture forth,
And break the bonds that hold me back,
And slip away to my fair home.
Home unseen, home unheard, home not smelled,
Nor ever felt.
My Home of the Heart,
My Dear Ireland

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EL BATALLON DE SAN PATRICIO     by R. J. Quirarte
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
(Saint Patrick Battalion)

As a Mexican I feel proud for those people who 
gave their lives for the freedom of our country. 
As a person with the Celtic spirit in my veins, I 
feel equally proud for those Irish who fought by 
the side of the Mexican army, in 1846, when Mexico 
lost the half of its territory to the United 
States.

I do not know how many people from Ireland, Mexico 
or United States know about it. It is not in the 
school history topics, not in the commercial 
history books, but looking for it carefully we 
shall find it. It is one of the most interesting 
events, how and why the Irish abandoned the United 
States. Army lines to fight against them.

Mexico lost the war, and with that hundreds of men
including twelve children who fought as soldiers, 
and more than thirty Irish men who were publicly 
executed by the United States Army.

The group of Irish and a few Europeans who were
deserted, were under the command of Captain John
Riley, from the Clifden Area, who used the name of
'Saint Patrick's Battalion', they also used a flag 
of Ireland (green with the golden harp) and the 
Gaelic motto Erin go Braugh.

Today in Mexico D.F. in the Civic cemetery, we 
can find a commemorative plaque dedicated to the 
Saint Patrick's Battalion with the following 
inscription:

 To the memory of Captain John Riley of the 
 Clifden Area, founder and leader of the 
 Saint Patrick's Battalion and those men under 
 his command who gave their lives for Mexico 
 during the U.S.-Mexican war of 1846-1848.

R. J. Quirarte
Downey, CA, U.S.A.

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EDMUND BURKE     	     By Joseph E. Gannon 
~~~~~~~~~~~~

'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil 
is for good men to do nothing.'
 
Edmund Burke was one of the most famous political 
thinkers of the 18th century. Through his 
speeches and writings, he raised the level of 
political debate in England, attempting to make 
moral principles a part of English politics. A 
champion of Catholic emancipation, Burke wielded 
his influence to weaken the heinous Penal Laws. 
He was born on January 12th, 1729, at Arran Quay, 
Dublin. 

Burke was the son of a mixed marriage, his mother 
Catholic and his father Protestant. He would 
later marry an Irish Catholic woman. Perhaps it 
was these two factors which led him to advocate a 
compassionate policy toward Ireland for most of 
his life. Burke graduated from Trinity College in 
1748 and studied law at Middle Temple in London. 
He failed, however, to secure a call to the bar 
and instead began a literary career. 

In 1756, Burke published his first book, 
'A Vindication of Natural Society' and an essay 
titled 'A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of 
Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful'. In 
1757, he married June Nugent, the daughter of a 
Catholic physician, and in 1759 he became editor 
of the Annual Register. 

By 1761, Burke had begun to involve himself with 
politics. That year, after living in England, he 
returned to Dublin as secretary to W.G. Hamilton, 
chief secretary for Ireland. He left that post 
two years later to become secretary to the new 
prime minister, Lord Rockingham. 

In 1765, Earl Verney brought him into the House 
of Commons as a member for Wendover. His first 
speeches in the early months of 1766 impressed 
the members of Parliament. In the space of a 
few short weeks, Burke rose from obscurity to 
being recognized as one of the leading figures in 
the House of Commons. He now began to make his 
own mark in politics through his writing and 
public speaking. 

Burke had come to Parliament just as the 
controversy over the Stamp Act was beginning. He 
urged repeal of the act and consistently supported 
a policy of reconciliation with the American 
colonies. Burke wrote four well-known pamphlets 
on the America question from 1770 to 1777: 
'Thoughts on the Present Discontents' (1770), 
'American Taxation' (1774), 'Conciliation with the 
Colonies' (1775), and 'A Letter to the Sheriffs of 
Bristol' (1777). 

Burke's colleagues in Parliament never took his 
advice on the American colonies, but many since 
have recognized the wisdom of the policy he 
advanced. In commenting on Burke's writings on 
the American question, John Morley, the Liberal 
politician and writer, said that 'taken together 
they compose the most perfect manual in our 
literature, or in any literature, for one who 
approaches the study of public affairs, whether 
for knowledge or practice'. After Yorktown, it 
was Burke and the Whigs who would eventually force 
King George III to recognize the futility of 
continuing the war in America. 

Burke was the leading Parliamentary proponent of 
civil rights for Catholics in Ireland. Since the 
late 17th century, Catholics in Ireland had been 
barred from full citizenship and the vast majority 
forced into abject poverty by the Penal Laws. 
During the last part of the 18th century, the 
threat of French intervention in Ireland and 
Burke's efforts together forced the passage of 
several reductions of the severe restrictions 
of the Penal Laws. 

The championing of that cause would cost Burke 
his MP seat in 1780, but he returned to Parliament 
as the member from Malton and became Paymaster of 
Forces when a Whig, Lord Rockingham, became 
prime minister again. When Lord Rockingham died 
in July 1786, Burke resigned and never held public 
office again, but he continued his involvement 
with British politics and writing for the rest of 
his life. 

Burke was a constant critic of British colonial 
policies, and, in the 1780s, his investigation 
into The East India Company led to the impeachment 
of Warren Hastings, governor general of India. 
Although Hastings would eventually be acquitted 
of all charges, the entire affair led to reforms 
in England's administration in India and helped 
bring the inequities of England's colonial system 
before the public. Burke believed this was the 
most important political contribution of his 
career. 

Burke is often remembered for his vehement 
opposition to the French Revolution, which he 
expounded in 1790 in what is, perhaps, his best
known work: 'Reflections on the Revolution in 
France'. The work was widely published and read 
all over Europe, and his articulation of what he 
viewed as the dangers of the Revolution caused a 
sensation in England. It caused him to break with 
many of his longtime friends and colleagues in 
the Whig party and invoked replies from many 
English writers, the most famous one being Thomas 
Paine's 'Rights of Man'. 

In what might seem a contradiction, given his 
support of the civil rights of Irish Catholics, 
Burke was opposed to the Volunteer movement in 
Ireland and to the establishing of Henry Grattan's 
Irish Parliament. Burke's opposition to these 
movements may well have been his fear that 
Grattan's Parliament would not be a government of 
all the Irish people but merely one that continued, 
and perhaps even strengthened, the long tradition 
of Irish Protestant rule and Irish Catholic 
subservience. Burke was never an advocate of any 
form of Irish independence, though he supported 
the emancipation of Irish Catholics within the 
British Empire. 

Burke's writings on the Irish question are less 
known than those of his on the American and the 
French Revolutions, but he left behind several 
that would have served the British well, had they 
ever been heeded. In his 'Speech at the Guildhall' 
(1780), 'To a Peer of Ireland on the Penal Laws' 
(1782), and 'To Sir Hercules Langrishe' (1792), 
he sends them a clear message: Your foolish 
colonial policies have lost America and your 
foolish policies will lose Ireland. His counsel 
was ignored but the correctness of his theme has 
been proved by history. 

Burke died in London on July 9, 1797, one year 
before Ireland erupted in revolution. That revolt 
might have been avoided if some of Burke's ideas 
on Catholic emancipation and other legislative 
reforms had been more fully implemented by the 
English government. Then, as ever, the country's 
rulers seemed to suffer from a complete inability 
to make the compromises that could avoid repeated 
disasters on that long-suffering island. As Burke 
once said, in words that should echo down to those 
debating Ireland's future today: 'All government, 
indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every 
virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on 
compromise and barter'. 

Burke is not a hero of Irish nationalists, nor 
should he be, for he never was a proponent of 
Irish republicanism. But he did help put the 
corruption of England's colonial system before 
the English people. Most of all, he started the 
process that would eventually bring the despised 
malignancy known as the Penal Laws to an end. For 
this, he should be well remembered in the land of 
his birth. 

~~~

This article has been adapted from an 
article at the 'Wild Geese Today' Webzine,
a leading Irish history and heritage Internet 
site, established in 1997 with the purpose of
sharing 'The Epic History and Heritage of the 
Irish' with the immense number of individuals 
of Irish ancestry found worldwide.

http://www.thewildgeese.com

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You can help to keep this FREE newsletter alive!

Visit https://www.irishnation.com

where you can get great Irish gifts, prints, 
claddagh jewellery, engraved glassware and 
much more.

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ERIN GO BRAUGH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Green, rolling fields with dappled cloudy skies.
A shower now and then and sunshine by and by.
 
A people acquainted with grief and with anguish 
fought for freedom.
Their hearts torn and bruised, but a spirit 
that won't weaken.
 
A quality in their character.
The sweet gentleness in their smiles.
A nation that is healing, 
the blessed Emerald isle.
 

Kathleen Cesarone
Dennis, Massachusetts  U.S.A.

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GAELIC PHRASES OF THE MONTH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHRASE: 		Is maith an t-anlann an t-ocras. 
PRONOUNCED:	iss mawt on tawn/lonn on tuck/russ
MEANING:		Hunger is a good sauce

PHRASE:		An bhfuil ocras ort? 
PRONOUNCED:	on will uck/russ urt
MEANING:		Are you hungry?

PHRASE:		An maith leat fion/beoir/tae/bainne?  
PRONOUNCED:	on mawt latt fyunn/byore/tay/bonnyeh
MEANING:		Do you like wine/beer/tea/milk

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SHAMROCK SITE OF THE MONTH:	CELTICATTIC.COM

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Phone orders 360-765-0186

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JULY COMPETITION RESULT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The winner was: a.j.white@usa.com
who will receive the following: 

A Single Family Crest Print (decorative) 
(US$19.99 value)

Send us an email to claim your prize, and well 
done! Remember that all subscribers to this 
newsletter are automatically entered into the 
competition every time. 

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Keep us alive! - visit https://www.irishnation.com

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I hope that you have enjoyed this issue.

Until next time,

Enjoy the Summer!


Michael Green,
Editor,
The Information about Ireland Site.

https://www.ireland-information.com
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