News Briefs: Philadelphia sees its Irish Famine memorial

But work on completing the site close to Penn’s Landing will take a few more months, according to John Donovan, a director of the memorial.
The memorial, to both the Great Hunger dead and to those Irish who came to Philadelphia during the Famine years, was unveiled at a special ceremony last month.
Last weekend it was brought to the 1.75-acre site at the corner of Front and Chestnut Streets.
Donovan explained that some construction work is now needed before the memorial is fully installed at the site.
“That should be finished by mid-December,” he said.
He said that the stonework, landscaping and signage at the site would be completed in the spring of 2003 and the full ceremonial dedication of the memorial would then take place in June. The bronze memorial, which features 30 separate figures on a ship, was designed by New Mexico artist Glenna Goodacre and cast by Art Castings of Loveland, Colo.
Some of the figures on the ship face east back to Ireland. They are depicted as being hungry and emaciated. The ship also has a gangway representing the arrival of immigrants in Philadelphia.

IRELAND WAITS AT UN
Irish diplomats are ready to vote for a compromise resolution on Iraq that is now expected to come before the United Nations Security Council by the end of this week.
A spokesman at the Irish UN Mission said that Ireland’s view on how to proceed had been made known to the permanent five members of the council, the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China.
Ireland has made it clear that it does not necessarily oppose military action against Saddam Hussein so long as it is undertaken with the approval of either the full council, or a majority of its 15 members, including the permanent five.
“The Security council is more powerful when it is united,” the Irish spokesman said.
Unanimity, or close to it, on the part of the Security Council would also make it easier for the Irish government to continue allowing U.S. military aircraft to use Shannon airport as a refueling stop for flights to and from the Middle East.

FREE BUNS OVER ATLANTIC
Aer Lingus has no plans to introduce charges for food and drink on its trans-Atlantic flights, the airline said this week.
Reports in Ireland have indicated a likely move by the carrier toward charging for food and drink on flights serving Europe and Britain.
Brian Murphy, Aer Lingus executive vice president for sales and marketing North America, said that the idea had been looked at for trans-Atlantic flights in the context of the airline’s survival plan, but it had been decided to maintain the current no-charge policy.

29 CO-SIGN GEPHARDT BILL
The bill that could provide legalization for thousands of undocumented Irish has 29 co-sponsors as the outgoing 107th Congress enters its lame duck session.
The Earned Legalization and Family Reunification Act of 2002 was recently introduced in the House of Representatives by Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri. It is now before the House Judiciary Committee.

B.C. LAUNCHES IRA BOOK
Boston College’s Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections will be the setting for the formal launching in the hub area later this month of journalist Ed Moloney’s “A Secret History of the IRA.”
The library this week hosts the launch of “Ireland’s Painters 1600-1940” by Desmond FitzGerald, the Knight of Glin, and Anne Crookshank.
The Burns library is home to B.C.’s Irish collection, widely viewed as being the leading repository of Irish research material in the U.S.

BOSTON CENTER HAS DINNER CHAIR
The Irish Immigration Center in Boston’s annual dinner will be chaired this year by Peter Meade, executive vice president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
The dinner will be held Dec. 3 at the Westin Copley Place hotel.
During the dinner, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will be presented with the center’s annual Solas Award for his work on behalf of the city’s immigrants.
Details on how to purchase tickets for the dinner are available by calling (617) 542-7654, ext. 20.