My New Favorite Quote of the Campaign

In the Libertarian Reason Magazine by David Weigel:

McCain's goading Obama to make this trip stands tall and proud as one of the dumbest blunders of the campaign. He couldn't have helped the Democrat more if he'd challenged him to a slam dunk contest.

Biden

Here's the interview that brought me over to the Biden for VP camp. I love his tough-minded approach.

Joe Biden for Vice President

Get over it!

Michael Kinsley takes the Clinton "dead-enders" apart with his usual incisive wit in this week's Time Magazine. Here are the consequences of their pique if it means the Democrats are split and McCain wins:

But there is no easy way these folks can vent their anger at Chris Matthews. So they are taking their revenge on people without health care, women who need abortions, and others who they (if they supported Hillary) must think will be harmed by a Republican victory in the fall. That'll show 'em.

Please, God, don't let us do it again.

John Templeton

One of my fascinations is the relationship between science and religion. I reject the view that the two approaches to knowledge are incompatible - or even contradictory. Billionaire John Templeton established a foundation to explore these issues. He died last week at age 95. There's a great post on Templeton on a Washington Post blog I just discovered called On Faith. Here's a revealing quote from Templeton. Humility is a truly lost quality in our current culture.

"I grew up as a Presbyterian," he told Business Week in 2005. "Presbyterians thought the Methodists were wrong. Catholics thought all Protestants were wrong. The Jews thought the Christians were wrong. So what I am financing is humility. I want people to realize you shouldn't think you know it all.

I wonder where he is right now?

McCain's Economic Team

Think about the previous post on McCain's management style. Now, factor in this insight from David Corn regarding Phil Gramm's "foot in mouth" moment and imagine the internal turmoil that we could expect in a McCain Administration.

So the joke runs deeper than McCain claiming that a man who literally speaks for him doesn't speak for him. It shows there's policy chaos in McCainland. After all, here's a campaign--led by a candidate who once said he didn't know much about the economy--that has one top economic adviser essentially blaming another top economic adviser for economic woes that the second top economic adviser won't acknowledge. Really makes one yearn for a McCain administration, doesn't it?

McCain's Management Style

I love this quote in a post about turmoil in the McCain campaign:

As the former McCain advisor puts it, 'McCain's style is, call everyone into a room, say you guys work it out, and then turn off the lights. And then throw in a knife.' The question going forward for Murphy -- or anyone, for that matter, who wants to run the McCain campaign -- seems to be whether he can grab that knife before somebody else does.

Scalia's Hypocrisy

E. J. Dionne is peerless in finding hypocrisy in our current Supreme Court. Here he focuses on the gun rights decision and nails the contradictions in "originalist" Scalia's ruling. Shameless.

But I also hope this decision opens people's eyes to the fact that judicial activism is now a habit of the right, not the left, and that "originalism" is too often a sophisticated cover for ideological decision-making by conservative judges.

Riverdance

As often happens when I blog while traveling, the trip ended before my blogging ended. So, I'll try to catch up quickly.

After traveling back from Galway, we re-entered the warm bosom of the Saunders household in Dublin on Saturday. John had arranged for us to see Riverdance that evening. He warned us that the best he could get were some "obstructed view" seats. Right. Turns out we were in the Presidential Box, right next to the stage. There was about 15% of the stage that we couldn't see, but the proximity was extraordinary, as you'll see from the following clip. It's a bit long and I had some "buffering issues" when I played it. But gives a good sense of the show.

As it happens, John and Jean Saunders are very close friends with the creators of Riverdance. The producer, Moya Doherty, worked with Jean many years ago and they've remained close. John's contribution to Riverdance was apparently his comment when the idea was presented to him, "Nobody's going to want to set for two hours watching Irish dancing." The rest, as they say, is history.

Here's the clip. The occasion clapping shadows are my wife, Rita, and daughter, Bridget.

Galway

This was our destination after crossing the Shannon, the home of Declan Ganley. I didn't mention his name in a previous post out of concerns for his privacy and security. Then Danny got into a discussion with a local florist in which he mentioned that he was staying with the Ganleys and the florist said, "Oh, they have a marvelous home." So, clearly, where they live is no big secret.

Declan made his fortune in the telecommunications business. He bought this home when he was 26 years old. As mentioned below, it was once owned by the singer, Donovan. Declan has gained recent fame through his leadership of the campaign in Ireland that succeeded in persuading the Irish voters to vote no in the recent referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

He's a tremendous host, a brilliant reconteur and an all around great guy. The video below shows the house from the front and back. It also shows our bedroom (which also had Al Gore as a guest), as well as the "snooker room," where the men retired after dinner to discuss politics. Also shown is the indoor pool and both families (except for me) sitting at brunch.

It was a delightful and memorable visit.

Crossing the Shannon River on the Way to Galway

Rita's Relations

Rita's father's people are from County Kerry. We were told that she had relatives in a place called Kilgobnet. No one we spoke to had ever heard of the place. Fortunately, Google had, so we were able to place it generally, near Killorglan, the place where Puck Fair takes place. Rita's father's boat was named Puck Fair in honor of his ancestors.

Unfortunately, most of the people in Killorglin had never heard of Kilgobnet either. We ended up stopping at a private home and got directions that brought us close. We asked about three more people before we found the Kilgobnet Post Office. Here's Rita with the pictures that she'd been sharing with postal employees. They got us close. The last person we talked to turned out to be the next door neighbor of our target. The place she sent us to was a working dairy farm.

We went to the designated house and Rita knocked on the door. The woman who answered was Nora O'Shea and, after a moment of hesitation, greeted us warmly and invited us in.

It was a delightful visit. We had tea and, just as we were about to leave, her son, Cormac, showed up. He runs the farm and was equally gracious.

Here's a video of the great meeting.

In the Rain

In a previous, out of sequence post, I showed our visit to Torc Falls. Here's a bit of an "out-take" that really gives a sense of the rain as Danny and Bridget exit the frame dejectedly to get under an umbrella.

Ladies View in the Kerry Mountains

The Kerry Mountains

We stayed in a very nice B&B in Ballylicky, County Cork on Wednesday night. Good food, good accomodations. No Internet connection, depite promises on the web site. So, we enjoyed our stay and moved on a day earlier than we had planned. Our next stop was Killarney, which would take is through the mountains of County Kerry. We also made short stops in Kenmare and Skibbereen.

The weather alternated between light and torrential rains. While the weather limited the distance we could see, it did not limit the beauty. In fact, I kind of liked the ethereal mode of the mountains as we drive through Moll's Gap and stopped at Ladies View.



















Here we are braving the elements somewhere up in the mountains. That's Danny beneath the hood.

Tomoleague Friary

As we drove along the south coast of Ireland, we came across an old ruin of a 13th Century monastery, Timoleague Friary. It is now reduced to its exterior and interior walls. But it was clearly quite the structure in its day, overlooking the sea and countryside.

Bridget explored a number of "nooks and crannies," even climbing through some very narrow passage ways. She found what appeared to be a dungeon, but was probably just one of the monks' cells. You can see her through the bars.

The grounds are now covered with grave stones, both inside the structure and out. Some are as recent as the 1990's. The propery is now, in effect, a cemetary.

The Kidnapping

In an earlier post about John Saunders' house in Dublin where we are staying, I mentioned that the house was formerly owned by a businessman who was kidnapped by the IRA right outside his home. It was a dramatic event that got enormous news coverage at the time, twenty-five years ago.

As it happens, it was back in the news this week when the Provisional IRA man who was charged with the crime 10 years ago was acquitted of all charges. The Irish Times devoted an entire inside page to multiple stories on the incident. The Times requires a subscription to view the whole story, but here are excerpts:

Former IRA leader freed on Tidey kidnapping charges.
817 words
27 June 2008
Irish Times
4
English
(c) 2008, The Irish Times.

COURT REPORT:FORMER IRA leader Brendan McFarlane was yesterday cleared of the kidnap of former supermarket executive Don Tidey almost 25 years ago.

The Special Criminal Court discharged the former IRA leader after an application by his counsel, Hugh Hartnett SC, for a direction of acquittal. This followed a statement by prosecuting counsel Fergal Foley that the State was "offering no further evidence".

Earlier the court had ruled inadmissible an alleged admission by McFarlane to gardaí that he had been at the wood in Co Leitrim where Mr Tidey was held captive for 23 days in 1983.

Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding at the non-jury court with Judge Alison Lindsay and Judge Cormac Dunne, said McFarlane retains the presumption of innocence.

The judge said that the court had heard evidence of "the horrendous kidnapping and physical abuse of Mr Tidey and his son and daughter", which resulted in the killing of a young soldier and an unarmed Garda recruit.

"Although almost a quarter of a century has passed, it is clear . . . from the evidence of Mr Tidey and the attendance in court of the families of the garda and solider that all have suffered greatly," he said.

Here's a description of the actual crime:

Don Tidey would have seen nothing unusual in a uniformed “garda” flagging him to stop at a “Garda roadblock” at the junction of Stocking Lane and Woodtown Way. However, the “gardaí” were in reality members of the Provisional IRA. Tidey tried a frantic reversal when he realised what was happening but to no avail.

A submachine gun was put to his head and he was bundled from his car. Susan and Alistair [his 13 year old daughter and 24 year old son] were pulled from the car by an armed man, also in a garda uniform and thrown by the roadside as the terrorists left with the father. The snatch was over in five minutes and involved five or six men.

In the immediate aftermath of the kidnapping, gardaí concentrated their efforts on the immediate

vicinity but quickly enlarged their search to parts of Kildare, Kerry, Roscommon and Mayo.

For almost all of his abduction, however, it appears that Tidey was held in woods near Ballinamore in Co Leitrim.

On November 27th, a ransom demand for £5 million sterling was telephoned to Associated British Foods offices in London. ABF and the government were totally opposed to paying.

However, the net was closing. From about December 13th in the Ballinamore area, about 1,000 soldiers and some 100 gardaí were manning roadblocks, scouring the countryside and doing house-to-house searches.

At about 2pm on December 16th, Garda recruits were crawling through dense undergrowth in a forest of young pine trees at Deradda Woods. They saw some plastic sheeting in a hollow. It stirred.

They moved back and called for assistance. Gunmen leapt up and began firing.

A hand grenade was thrown. Gardaí and soldiers swarmed forward. The gunmen fled. Don Tidey, his head covered by a balaclava, was freed, physically unharmed. But a young garda and a soldier had given their lives to save him.

Pte Patrick Kelly, a 35-year-old from Moate in Co Westmeath, was shot dead. He left a widow, Cathrina (31) and four young sons.

Gary Sheehan, aged 23, died with him. He was due to graduate from Templemore in 1984. He was the son of Det Garda Jim Sheehan, stationed not far away in Carrickmacross in Co Monaghan.

Gary Sheehan is remembered by each batch of recruits to pass through Training College in Templemore.

The best all-rounder receives the Gary Sheehan Memorial Medal.

In the coverage of he acquittal, there were also many accounts of the way things were in Ireland in 1983 when violence was common and there seemed no light at the end of the tunnel. We, in America, tend to forget the enormity of the change in Ireland. Throughout our trip, when people tell stories of more than ten years ago, there is always a reference to "the troubles," which permeated all of life in Ireland. While Ireland is heading into some rough waters now economically after a long boom, it is a blessing that the country will never go back to the way it was.

Torc Falls

OK, back to our chronological posts. This is our visit to Torc Falls on Wednesday just outside Killarney. The falls are spectacular. As you can see, we visited in a driving rainstorm, so we didn't have to deal with tourist crowds. And, fortunately, the B&B we checked into allowed us to use their clothes dryer. We were soaked to the bone.

Moy Hill

This is a little out of sequence, since I'm still posting from three days ago, but here's where we stayed last night. It's the home of an young Irish telecommunications entrepreneur, whose name I have to leave out for security reasons. He has enemies....seriously. We became friendly through our daughters, who were classmates in grammar school. Their house in Washington off Foxhall Road is the former home of Bishop Fulton Sheen. This is their house in Ireland. They invited us to come visit. A truly spectacular estate, once owned by the 60's rock star, Donovan.

This the main house. Many other building on the 90 acre property. A 2 mile driveway, a lake in front and sheep grazing on the lawn.

Family Connection

Here's Virginia Minihan's confirmation of the family connection between me and Jerry O'Donovan. The supercedes all other speculations on this blog:

We and Jerry O'Donovan have the same great, great grandparents...John O'Regan and ?? (female) (Driscoll) O'Regan . They had 3 girls 1. Mary Regan...our greatgrandmother...who had Margaret (maggie) O'Regan..later Singleton, our grandmother 2, Margaret O'Regan later McCarthy with no family and lived in Rossmore, Ballineen 3. Catherine O'Regan later O'Leary...Brother Richard's grandmother and Jerry O'Donovan's great grandmother. jerry O'Donovan's father, Jon O'Donovan were brothers. Catherine (O'Regan ) married Jeremiah O'Leary. One of their daughters, Catherine, married John O'Donovan who had 5 children, one being broher Richard, and one being John O'Donovan (Jerry's dad).

Glad we cleared that up.