Inside File O’Donnell’s fat pocketbook

By Ray O’Hanlon

Liz O’Donnell has more on her mind these days than the woes of Chernobyl. Ireland’s minister of state at the Department of Foreign Affairs, reached into her department’s burgeoning piggybank to help the recent exhibit at the United Nations sponsored by the Irish-based Chernobyl Children’s Project. There was a time when just about any expenditure by an Irish minister on such a worthy but absolutely non-profit event such as the Chernobyl exhibit would have caused raised eyebrows on the part of governmental bean counters in Dublin.

But the Celtic Tiger is a different animal altogether and the problem now is more akin to finding the right kind of worthy causes in our troubled world deserving of Ireland’s rapidly expanding largesse. A few years back, the United Nations set a target of 0.7 percent of Gross National Product for member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to spend on overseas development aid. Not too long ago, 0.7 percent of Ireland’s annual GNP would have been a relatively humble slice of the OECD pie.

Not anymore. These days it amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars, so much money, in fact, that O’Donnell is currently presiding over a review as to how this pile of money should be spent by Ireland Aid, the Irish government’s development aid agency.

Ireland Aid recently released its latest report and O’Donnell wrote the foreword. "The rapid increase in the volume of our aid program is in sharp contrast to other OECD members, where stagnation or, at best, very modest increases were recorded," O’Donnell wrote.

Might as well crow when you can afford it.

No Irish vote

With reports suggesting that the European Union went out of its way to snub the U.S. in last week’s membership vote for the United Nations Human Rights Commission, "IF" reckoned that it would be a good idea to make it clear that Ireland did not have a vote this time around.

The commission has 53 members, with three seats traditionally reserved for Western nations in order to assure a minimal Western presence. The U.S. has never not been seated on the commission, members of which serve three-year terms.

Ireland is in line for election to the commission next year. Ireland and the U.S. have not always seen eye to eye on every issue at the UN and earlier this year the U.S. reportedly put paid to an Irish idea to serve as a bridge between the West and Iraq. In this case, however, Irish diplomats at the UN had to keep their hands in their pockets and watch helplessly as such stellar human rights champions as China and Sudan secured seats on the commission.

This is certain to concern the Irish delegation at the UN for more than just human rights reasons. Ireland has always been a big UN booster, but last week’s vote is not going to make it any easier to wrest long overdue U.S. dues to the world body from a Congress that, to say the least, is furious at some of the shenanigans on the East River.

A rank success

Begob, but it’s getting to the point that you wouldn’t know what to call Martin McGuinness these days: Yer honor, yer right honorable worship, minister, adjutant, mein f … well, anyway, we’ll leave it there.

But just as you were thinking that there was end to the wee North education’s minister’s veritable smorgasbord of ranks, titles and job descriptions, "IF" was reminded that there was one more for the scrapbook. McGuinness visited Kentucky in the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day and clearly impressed the folks in Daniel Boone country. The highest honor that Kentucky can bestow on an individual is the title of "Kentucky Colonel" and Martin was commissioned just that during his stopover in the Bluegrass State by Gov. Paul Patton.

Bejaysus, a Patton commission. There’s a long list of distinguished individuals from around the world who have held the commission of Kentucky colonel since the order’s inception in 1932 and doubtless our Martin was amused to learn that his name will be up there now with the likes of Winston Churchill, another old soldier who was up for a bit of fighting in the streets and fields in his day.

"IF" has never been made an adjutant or colonel of anything. A buck private to the very end. Such is life.

They said

From the letter written by AOH New York State President Tim Comerford to AOH New York County Board President David Killkenny:

"The time for meetings and discussions is past. Since it was you as New York County president that started this entire process, by asking both the New York State and the National Board for help, it is now your responsibility to end it. . . . As you know, both the New York State Board and the National Board of our order have fought hard over the years to keep the parade safe from those that would invade it to use for their own personal crusades. No other entity in our entire Order has received the protection that the Parade did. A great deal of time and money was expended to accomplish this. The State Board went into a very deep financial hole for several years to pay for its share of that defense. It is a shame that the people who are now responsible for its running are so paranoid, and have such short memories. We know that they will try to put their own spin on things, to make it seem that we are trying to ‘take over’ the parade. As you and any knowledgeable person knows, nothing is farther from the truth. We only became involved after you asked us to. Had we wanted to take over the parade, we could have kept the permit when it was turned over to President Coggins. Instead of keeping it, we turned the permit over to the Parade Committee to do what they do best. At no time was the integrity or the ability of the Parade Committee to run the Parade brought into question. I doubt if they will be so gracious. We will be made the scapegoats for the Parade Committee’s own intransigence and unwillingness to participate in any meaningful dialogue on the December Agreement, which has brought this about. They have stated to me and to many others that the Parade is bigger and more important than the Order. It is unfortunate that they had to develop this attitude, because they are now losing the best friend that they ever had."