Nuzhound In Trouble 

Anyone dealing with the issue of Northern Ireland over the past decade or so has much reason to thank John Fay, a young American living in Dublin, for keeping everybody current. 

Fay, a computer engineer who moved to Ireland with his Irish wife, bemoaned the lack of coverage in papers worldwide of the Northern Ireland situation. He decided to do something about it and Nuzhound was founded. 

What Fay does essentially every day at www.nuzhound.com is compile a list of every possible news story on Northern Ireland which has appeared anywhere in the world in a major newspaper. Unfortunately by the time Fay got around to using the name the correct spelling “Newshound” was taken. Still the name adds a quirky touch to a most unlikely success story. 

The beauty of it is that there is no attempt to influence readers. Articles pro- and anti-Sinn Fein, and pro- and anti- everyone else, are carried in equal quantity. 

Fay does not have a dog in this fight. Gerry Adams and David Trimble are among his fans.

It sounds simple, but Fay has devoted enormous energy and commitment to the task. The site really took off when Britain’s Daily Telegraph wrote about it and provided a link to it. Now Nuzhound is essential reading for anyone anywhere who is a student of Northern Ireland affairs. 

Now Nuzhound is in trouble and badly needs financial assistance. On his site Fay has published a letter which warns that unless people begin to start paying an annual subscription for the service he may be unable to provide it any more. 

It is incredible that all these years Fay has provided the service for free, wanting only to educate and inform on an issue he felt was vital to hundreds of thousands worldwide. There have been some sponsors on the site, but none that would provide a minimal amount of financial assistance. 

If you are interested in any way in Northern Ireland and already use Nuzhound, it is time to start coughing up. For many people we know the early morning coffee and flick through Nuzhound is as big a part of their day as reading anything else. 

Hopefully subscribers old and new will rally round and save what has become an invaluable service, Details of how to help are posted on the site. 

Why Bush Called 

Insiders are saying that President George W. Bush would not have used his prestige and power to call Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams and urge them to reach agreement on the North talks unless he was pretty sure of a positive result. 

“The president of the United States does not involve himself on this issue unless he can clearly be a part of a success story,” says one White House insider. He pointed out that Bush was leery of becoming involved if that were not the case. 

The White House has reason to be wary. Bush flew to Hillsborough Castle in 2003 when there was a widespread belief that a deal was about to be reached. 

While his primary business there was Iraq and a meeting with Tony Blair, it still came as a nasty surprise to his staff when the deal fell through at the last minute. 

This time the White House staff wanted assurances that they would not be part of another failed attempt. By all accounts the calls to the two leaders went well. 

Paisley had already stated how much he preferred a Bush victory than a Kerry one. Bush is seen as far less favorable to Nationalists than Bill Clinton was. 

Equally, Gerry Adams and Bush have gotten on very well on a personal level when they have met. If the deal does come through it will be a nice feather in the cap for Bush.

Fund’s New Priorities

The American Ireland Fund (AIF) will shortly decide its next five-year plan which will involve some different kind of projects, according to AIF members. 

The AIF has been enormously successful in the past five years, raising over $111 million for a variety of projects, most of them linked into the peace process in Northern Ireland. 

With peace seemingly on the way and increasing opposition from many American businessmen and women who note that Ireland now has the fastest growing economy in Europe and can take care of their own problems, the AIF is considering taking a different tack. 

Loretta Brennan Glucksman, president of the AIF, says they may look at a variety of problems such as teen suicide which is an epidemic in Ireland, and drink and drug related social problems which have bedeviled major urban areas in the country.

The AIF will decide its priorities during its annual trip to Ireland in the summer of 2005. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. 

The AIF has always found a way to keep itself relevant to Ireland’s future, and it’s unlikely that will end anytime soon. 

Tyrone Letter Fallout 

Interesting that the letter from disgruntled IRA operatives blaming the Sinn Fein leadership for giving up too much, which recently made the media, came from Co. Tyrone, and was not signed on to by any members of the organization in Armagh, Belfast or Derry. 

Certainly here in New York, there are no stronger supporters of the Adams strategy than Tyrone businessmen such as Pat Donaghy of Structure Tone and Fay Devlin of Eurotech. It seems unlikely that the Tyrone faction would find much support for their criticism in the U.S.