Intelligencer

Kelly for Mayor?

Who will run for the office of mayor of New York City in four years when Mayor Mike Bloomberg steps down? (We know, we’re assuming he will be re-elected. If he isn’t we have a bridge in Brooklyn we can sell!)

Newspapers last week were speculating that NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly might be a candidate, though Kelly himself was mum on the matter.

He would certainly have a strong resume, as the most successful police chief in recent New York history. At a time when security is such a paramount issue, Kelly would likely start as a prohibitive front runner.

However, it seems unlikely. Kelly gave up lucrative private security work to become police chief for the second time and he is hardly willing to spend more time in the public sector when he can provide so much more for his family in the private one.

However, it is an intriguing thought. Another Irish mayor of New York after all these years. You have to go back to Bill O’Dwyer in the 1940s to find one.

Ferrer Gets it Wrong

Incidentally, if you wanted a dumb statement by Bloomberg’s Democratic opponent the hopelessly outmatched Fernando Ferrer, his comment that he would replace Kelly was it.

Ferrer obviously believed that he could replace Kelly with someone who would fit closer to his Hispanic/black coalition.

However, it misses the point that every neighborhood in New York is safer because of Kelly’s work and as a result, the current police chief is very popular in those constituencies too. Little wonder that Ferrer’s campaign has failed to ignite.

Will He, Won’t He?

The drama over whether Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams will attend the Sinn Fein fundraiser in New York on November 10 was still unresolved at press time.

Contrary to much of the reporting, Friends of Sinn Fein will hold the fundraiser anyway, as they are perfectly entitled to do. The question is whether Adams will be allowed to attend under the terms of his visa.

However, the party is strong enough to carry out the fundraiser with or without Adams’ presence, though obviously Sinn Fein would very much wish for him to be there.

Flynn at the Helm

Bill Flynn, that great advocate of Irish American involvement in the peace process, will host Adams two nights earlier at the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP) dinner to be held at the Waldorf-Astoria.

Flynn will present Adams with his award on the night. Also due to be honored is Hugh Carey, the former governor of New York.

The National Committee played a pivotal role in ensuring that America became involved in the peace process. It was their invitation to Adams to attend a NCAFP conference on Northern Ireland in 1994 which was the vehicle that allowed President Bill Clinton to issue him a visa. The rest, as they say, is history.

Now the wheel has come full circle, and the NCAFP will make Adams the centerpiece of their dinner this year. Flynn, of course, as well as his Mutual of America associate Tom Moran went on to play a pivotal part in the peace process and remains involved to this day. It would be hard to find anyone on these shores who has contributed more.

Tickets for the event can be obtained by calling 212-677-3173, ext. 234.

Lawlor Coverage Unbelievable

The extraordinary coverage of the events surrounding the death of former Irish politician Liam Lawlor defied description.

Lawlor, a controversial figure who was convicted on corruption charges, was killed on Saturday, October 22 when traveling from Moscow Airport into the city center where he was involved in some property deals.

The car he was traveling in with a driver and interpreter swerved to avoid a drunk, and Lawlor and the driver were killed.

Somehow the rumor spread that the woman in the car had been a prostitute and that the accident occurred in a red light district, both “facts” which were soon disproven.

The Irish media, however, moved in like vultures. The Sunday Independent, the leading selling Irish publication, feasted on the story, running it without checking the full facts and creating a huge banner headline on their front page. Many other Irish papers followed suit.

It was the story to end all stories, with all the best elements for the tabloids, sex, hookers, corruption, etcetera. The problem was that it was all wrong.

Amazingly, as of press time, the Irish Independent group have still refused to hold anyone responsible but have announced an internal investigation that most believe will go nowhere.

The story was just the tip of the iceberg in a country where there is no First Amendment or press council and where the influence of the British tabloids has become ever more prevalent. Sad to note that the Lawlor story was just the latest in a series of such “exposes.”

Abuse Widespread

The full extent of the clerical abuse crisis in Ireland is now being slowly revealed. It seemed for a few years there that the church had weathered the crisis — that is until the explosive details this week of what was happening in the Diocese of Ferns, in Wexford.

Now every other parish in Ireland will be under scrutiny and already there are suggestions that the number of pedophile priests unmasked will run well into the hundreds. What a sad commentary on the Ireland of “Saints and Scholars.”