February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
A book on the May 1974 Dublin and Monaghan Bombings was launched by its author, Don Mullan, last Thursday at O’Lunney’s in Times Square.
The book, published in Ireland by Wolfhound Press and entitled "The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings," is stirring controversy as it alleges the British army aided loyalists suspected of planting the bombs, which caused the highest death rate of any bombing during the Troubles.
The blasts, in Dublin’s city center and Monaghan Town, killed 33 people and injured hundreds. Nobody has ever been charged.
Mullan, whose previous book focused on the Bloody Sunday shootings in Derry, will read from "The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings" tonight, Wednesday, at 8 p.m. at Rocky Sullivan’s, Lexington Avenue, between 28th and 29th Streets, NYC.
Close call
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An Aer Lingus flight from Boston to Dublin had to abort its landing Monday after the pilot spotted another aircraft on the runway.
EI132 was only about 30 feet from touching down when the pilot saw the stationary plane.
The aircraft on the runway belonged to Ryanair, Aer Lingus’s main Irish rival out of Dublin on British and European routes.
The Ryanair plane had reportedly been unable to make contact with the control tower and, as a result, had not obtained clearance to take off.
Bernie Cahill, chairman of Aer Lingus, was on board the flight from Boston, according to an Irish Times report.
The Aer Lingus aircraft made a rapid "go-around" ascent and turn when it became evident that landing was out of the question. Nobody was injured during the aborted landing, which was described by an Aer Lingus spokesman as "purely procedural."
In a similar incident a couple of years ago, an Aer Lingus A330 Airbus was forced to abort a landing at Kennedy Airport in New York after the pilot spotted another aircraft on the runway.
245i hanging in
The battle to restore the immigration code provision 245i will be carried into the lame-duck sitting of the 106th Congress, which is due to begin next week.
President Clinton and leading Democrats such as Sen. Edward Kennedy are backing restoration of a provision that allows undocumented immigrants to legalize their status while remaining in the U.S. Congress let 245i lapse two years ago.
The lame-duck session begins Nov. 14. Observers, though, give 245i some chance, say that opposition to restoration remains significant to the point that a renewal is far from being a sure bet.
Gilman hopeful
Rep. Ben Gilman has welcomed reports that President Clinton is poised to permanently lift the threat of deportation hanging over a group of Irish nationals known as the deportees.
"While it is hoped these media accounts are accurate, I again urge the president before he leaves office to end permanently all the deportation proceedings by the INS that have been suspended temporarily against several Northern Ireland employees, including Brian Pearson," the Rockland County Republican said.
"These men and their families deserve to have their dilemma resolved favorably," Gilman, who is chairman of the House International Relations Committee, added.