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Pittsburgh crash trial postponed

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Margaret Brohan, from the Ennis area, was one of five people traveling in a Volkswagon that was in a collision with a pickup truck in the Pittsburgh suburb of Robinson in the early hours of Nov. 12, 2003.
Brohan, who was 19 and a passenger in the car, was touring with the National Dance Company of Ireland’s “Rhythm of the Dance” show.
PFC Joseph Livoti, the driver of the pickup, was arraigned on charges of involuntary manslaughter, homicide by vehicle and homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Livoti had a blood alcohol level of 0.198; 0.08 is the legal limit in Pennsylvania.
Livoti’s trial was due to begin this week but has been postponed because a new prosecuting attorney has been assigned to the case, a spokesman for the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office said.

MCKIERNAN DEATH
Dr. Eoin McKiernan, founder of the Irish American Cultural Institute, has died at the age of 89
McKiernan died Sunday at a nursing home in St. Paul, Minn. He had been ill for some time. He is immediately survived by his wife, Jeannette, and nine children.
McKiernan was born in in New York City. His Irish roots were primarily in Co. Clare.
McKiernan founded the IACI in 1962 and set it on a path that would see the institute emerge as a leading artistic, historical and cultural link between Irish America and Ireland.
McKiernan, who spoke fluent Irish, was the recipient of many honors during his life, including the JFK Medal from the AOH.
The IACI, which is based in New Jersey, is currently spearheading a $50 million fundraising drive for a Museum of Irish America in Washington, D.C.
“Eoin McKiernan was a true giant in Irish American culture and studies. He was a pioneer. Irish studies barely existed when he founded the institute,” said IACI chairman and CEO John Walsh.

KERRY’S FROM DERRY?
Sen. John Kerry has been backpedaling on any Irish ancestral links for some time, but a town historian in New Hampshire claims that the presumed Democratic presidential candidate has ancestral ties to county Derry.
Richard Holmes, town historian in the New Hampshire town of Derry, says that he has traced part of Kerry’s ancestry an Irish immigrant, who, the Associated Press reported, is believed to have introduced the potato to America — a neat trick given that the popular tuber originated in the Americas.
Holmes has drawn a familial link between Kerry and the Rev. James McGregor, who emigrated from Derry and founded the New Hampshire town that would later split into Londonderry and Derry.
Kerry’s recognized ancestry is Czech and the popular story surrounding his name is that his grandfather spun a pencil on a map of Europe and it ended up pointing to the Munster county.

AOH LADIES VOTE
While the AOH men busied themselves at the order’s recent convention in Philadelphia, the women also elected new officers and took a bow for raising more than $100,000 in the last year for good causes. The LAOH donated more than $104,000 to charities, including more than $70,000 to the Columban Fathers.
They also gave roughly $20,000 to Holy Cross School in Belfast. The school’s principal, Fr. Aidan Troy, was presented with the order’s JFK medal on behalf of both the AOH and LAOH.
As with the men, the Hibernian women also held elections for the top posts in the organization. Officers elected included Mary Leathem of New York, who is the new ladies president; Eileen O’Donnell of Ohio, vice president; Dorothy Weldon of Pennsylvania, secretary, and Mary Ryan of New York, treasurer.

$18.5M FOR IFI
The International Fund for Ireland has secured $18.5 million for the 2005 fiscal year. The money is included in the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill passed by the House of Representatives late last week.
The funding level is the same as last year and was secured with support from both parties in Congress. The bill now goes to the Senate.
“The work of the International Fund for Ireland is now more important than ever to ensuring a lasting peace in the north of Ireland,” Rep. Joe Crowley, who worked to secure the funding, said in a statement.

DEATH OF
JAMES DENNISTON
James Denniston, a four-term president of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Emerald Society, has died. He was 52. Denniston was educated at Bishop Ford High School, Brooklyn College, and St. Francis College. He served 18 years with the TBTA, rising from officer to sergeant and, finally, to lieutenant in the Authority’s training division, from which he had retired due to a disabling stroke.
Despite being confined to a wheelchair, Denniston carried on his duties as Emerald Society executive board member and as president, a post he held from 1998 through 2001.

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GABRIEL KENNEDY
DEAD AT 58
The death has taken place of Gabriel Kennedy, a native of Tuam, Co. Galway, and for many years a union leader in the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and a member of the Irish Northern Aid executive committee.
Kennedy worked as advertising manager for the Irish People newspaper in its early years and was also associated with several other Irish-American organizations, including the Irish American Unity Conference.
More recently, Kennedy was a bar owner on Long Island and was a president of the Nassau County Liquor Dealers Association. He is survived by his wife, Mary, and his children, Sinead and Gabriel.

ENGEL SEES LIGHT
Rep. Eliot Engel believes that the political parties in Northern Ireland are intent on working together despite the current impasse in the peace process.
“I really feel that they are on the verge of a breakthrough,” the New York Democrat said after his recent visit to Northern Ireland as part of a five member bipartisan congressional delegation.
Engel said he felt that the Democratic Unionist Party would ultimately talk with Sinn F

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