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News From Ireland
By Frank Shouldice
Kilkenny Rose Wins in Tralee
 Kilkenny Rose Orla O’Shea emerged as winner of the 46th International Rose of Tralee Festival. The 20-year-old teacher was voted ahead of 27 competitors hailing from Ireland, Europe, America and Australia to claim the silver crown. She dedicated her achievement to her mother who died four years ago from cancer. “She made me what I am today,” said the emotional winner, who graduated this summer from university with a Bachelor in Education degree.
The Rose of Tralee began in 1968 but after a very successful period it suffered in recent years from high running costs and declining public interest. Faced with possible bankruptcy organizers of the traditional style pageant have revamped the festival as part of a five-year plan aimed at expanding “Rose Centers” across America and Europe. Support from local business also proved crucial to saving the event from financial ruin.
“All in all we think the festival has gone very well,” enthused managing-director Anthony O’Gara, relieved that the festival has bounced back from the brink of closure and is now looking ahead to widening its international appeal.
Joe Cahill Laid to Rest
 Joe Cahill, former IRA chief of staff, died on July 23 at his Andersonstown home in Belfast after a short illness. The 84-year-old was buried after a huge funeral cortege carried his remains to the republican plot at Milltown Cemetery. Cahill was honorary vice-president of Sinn Féin, and the party’s current president Gerry Adams paid homage to his friend at the graveside.
In 1942 Cahill was involved in an IRA operation that resulted in the death of a policeman. All six members of the unit were arrested but only one, Tom Williams, was sentenced to death. Sentences for the other five, including Cahill, were commuted to life imprisonment.
He was released in 1949 and returned to active service with the IRA. Eight years later he was interned until the early 1960’s, at which stage he became disillusioned with the Republican movement. However, the sectarian bias of the Northern state and a spate of attacks against Catholics brought him back into politics. Cahill became a central figure in organizing military resistance to British rule by establishing the Provisional IRA. He made frequent visits to the U.S. to raise funds from Irish-American supporters and campaigned to have Tom Williams re-interred at the Milltown Cemetery. When the IRA declared its ceasefire in 1994, the former chief of staff was instrumental in securing key support from Irish-American sympathizers.
Cahill’s health deteriorated in recent years due to cancer and a heart condition. He also contracted asbestosis while working in Belfast shipyards through the 1950’s. Significantly, the remains of his former comrade Williams were transferred to Milltown two years ago in a high-profile ceremony. A tricolor was placed over Williams’ coffin for the occasion, and fittingly, the same tricolor was used at Cahill’s funeral.
He is survived by his wife Annie and their seven children.
Big Rise in Traffic at Knock Airport
Knock Airport, the brainchild of the late Monsignor James Horan, has proved critics wrong by reporting a dramatic increase in passenger numbers this year. The airport, built in a Co. Mayo bogland, recorded 200,000 passengers in 2002. Figures for 2004 are estimated to have doubled with a notable rise in charter flight business.
Despite being ridiculed by many commentators when Monsignor Horan first promoted the idea, Knock has surpassed its target as a service primarily for emigrant traffic to and from Britain. Serving a catchment area from the midlands and the west of Ireland as far as Donegal, the airport now operates flights to 25 destinations in Europe. Recent additions include tours to South Africa.
“People can literally have their lunch in Mayo and be in Lanzarote in time for evening tea,” says Liam Scollan, chief executive at the airport. “The most repeated comment we get is that it takes the stress out of traveling. And people are even more grateful when they are returning at the end of a holiday, when they just want to get home as quickly as possible.”
Show Jumping Win Lifts Irish Gloom
 Cian O’Connor jumped for gold at the equestrian events in Athens to send the Irish tricolor aloft for the first time in the Olympic Games. The 24-year-old Co. Meath showjumper won the individual event with a magnificent clear round on Waterford Crystal to defeat defending world champion Rodrigo Pessoa of Brazil.
O’Connor’s epic performance provided welcome relief from one of the most disappointing Irish team displays ever at an Olympic Games. Until the showjumping win Ireland failed to rate in a variety of events and Cork sprinter Cathal Lombard was suspended for failing an EPO drugs test before the Games even began.
In Lombard’s absence a total of 49 Irish athletes attended the Games and while public expectations of medals were relatively low, the biggest hopes of a top three finish rested in equestrian, rowing walking and boxing events. Outside O’Connor, however, most Irish participants performed below their best and found themselves out of the reckoning long before the main events were underway. As each competitor fell by the wayside, Irish fans had little to cheer about.
Sonia O’Sullivan, competing in her fourth Olympic Games, qualified for the final of the 5,000 metres but was bitterly disappointed to finish last. “I think I’ve had my day,” she said despondently afterwards, hinting that her farewell to the Olympics might signal an end to her illustrious track career.
If the Cobh athlete was off-form, other Irish participants experienced a mixture of below-par performances as well as plain bad luck. Gillian O’Sullivan, a real prospect in the 20km walk, was forced to withdraw from Athens with a hip injury so she did not take part. Another casualty was 50km walker Jamie Costin who was seriously injured in a car crash before his event. The 27-year-old athlete was flown home to Dublin amid fears were that a spinal injury sustained in the accident could threaten his athletic career.
Major Financial Cuts at Aer Lingus
 Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national airline, is cutting costs in response to mounting financial difficulties. It is set to slash its workforce in an attempt to compete as a low-cost operator. The proposed redundancy package would reduce staff by a total of 1,325 jobs. Under terms agreed with trade unions, employees will be offered a generous severance package, with minimum payments of 40,000 euros and individual payments of nine weeks’ pay for each year of service.
Should the take-up go as expected, the package will cost the airline a total of 80 million euro. “It is an innovative, imaginative program,” said chief executive Willie Walsh, adding that the company had to react to commercial realities in the European and transatlantic market.
In related news, the airline has recently announced that beginning in January, it will no longer transport the bodies of Irish citizens who died in the U.K. and mainland Europe back home. The money-saving move has elicited criticism from the religious community, as well as Irish Association of Funeral Directors (IAFD) which has described the change in policy as “retrograde.”
Each year, Aer Lingus has transported the remains of nearly 1,200 Irish citizens who died abroad. According to IAFD spokesperson, Gus Nicholas, Aer Lingus has been effective in providing this valuable service. “It is a traumatic enough time for grieving families without the inevitable delays this decision is going to cause,” he commented.
Aer Lingus has come under increased pressure from low-fare airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet, particularly on the busy Dublin-London route.
Hospitals Admit Selling Organs
A number of hospitals in Ireland admitted they had taken glands without consent during post-mortem examinations of patients during the 1980’s. The practice, which appears to have been widespread, involved the sale or donation of glands to pharmaceutical companies engaged in the manufacture of human growth hormones.
A spokesman for Temple Street Hospital for children confirmed that 246 pituitary glands had been collected at the hospital between 1979 and 1985. Parents were not consulted about removing the glands. The same practice occurred at hospitals all over the country, and revelations of procedures taking place without consent have drawn an angry response from bereaved parents.
Fionnuala O’Reilly, chairperson of the Parents for Justice group, said there was evidence of “wholesale” export of organs and glands for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products. However, spokespersons at various hospitals and health boards insist that body parts were supplied at no financial gain. They say the provision of glands was to assist medical research into hormone deficiency. The practice ceased around 1986 when scientists developed techniques to grow hormones artificially.
Three years ago the government set up the Dunne Inquiry to examine hospital practice in Ireland on the sale of organs taken from deceased children. The Inquiry has yet to complete its investigations.
Fresh Talks to Kick-Start Assembly
 Political parties in Northern Ireland are gearing up for September talks in England at Leeds Castle in an effort to restore the dissolved Northern Ireland Assembly. Arms decommissioning, policing and demilitarization are again expected to top the agenda, and although there is little sign of where a breakthrough can be made, pre-talks overtures from the main parties – the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin – have been relatively positive.
Writing in the Irish Times, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams set a conciliatory tone. “I think political unionism uses the IRA and the issue of IRA arms as an excuse,” he suggested, adding, “I think republicans need to be prepared to remove that as an excuse.”
In response, DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson intimated his party would be prepared to work at executive with Sinn Féin on the sensitive issues of policing and justice. “Many people recognized the immense difficulty in reaching agreement when the two main parties representing the two sections of the community are the DUP and Sinn Féin,” he said. “Yet this reality is a fact of political life that cannot be wished away. Whatever path we seek to lay out must face this reality.
“At the present time I do not believe that nationalists would have sufficient confidence in a DUP policing and justice minister, and, as I see it, the unionist community would certainly not tolerate a Sinn Féin minister in that post.”
Paul Murphy, Northern Secretary, welcomed both contributions. “Some of the statements which have been made have been very encouraging, and the fact is, while there has been some difficulty over marches, it has certainly not been as bad as in the past.”
The language of both parties suggested to him “a seriousness among all parties coming to the table that they want to address all the issues and want devolution restored.”
The talks at Leeds are scheduled to begin on September 16.
News in Brief
Road deaths in Ireland are on the increase despite the introduction of penalty points and a raft of new laws to curb speeding. By August, a total of 239 people were killed on Irish roads, 18 more than at the same time last year. Significantly, almost 50 percent of fatal accident victims were aged under 30 years . . .
Film director Neil Jordan was granted permission to use the parish church in Callan, Co. Kilkenny as a location for his next work, Breakfast on Pluto. The movie is based on a novel by Patrick McCabe and deals with the illicit affair between a parish priest and his housekeeper. Parish priest in Callan, Fr. William Dalton, first read the script and was satisfied the filming should go ahead . . .
Bill Clinton met with Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern at a private meeting in Dublin. The former U.S. President was on a promotional tour for his autobiography My Life and drew large crowds to book signings in Dublin and Belfast. Accompaning her husband, Senator Hillary Clinton completed the visit with an address on peace and reconciliation at the University of Ulster in Derry . . .
After two years, work has been completed in the 4.5 km Port Tunnel which links Dublin port with the main Belfast road. The tunnel is aimed to divert articulated trucks and reduce severe traffic congestion in Dublin city center . . .
Mary Guiney, former owner of Clery’s department store in Dublin, has died at age 103. She remained chairwoman of the store and remained active in business through her 90’s. Her husband Denis Guiney died in 1967, by which stage Clery’s on O’Connell Street was already the largest retail outlet in Ireland . . .
A Galway District Court sentenced New York restaurant manager Panagotis Genovezos to three months in prison following an air rage incident on a flight from New York to Athens. The flight was diverted to Shannon when Genovezos, 36, became abusive. The New Yorker intends to appeal his sentence and complimented Judge Conal Gibbons on the beauty of the Irish countryside, adding that he would like to see more of the country another time.
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