ORE - IRE Sister State Committee WANTS YOU

PDX HIBERNIAN INDEPENDENT 28 August 2025            

More than an email. Less than a newspaper. Now delivered every Thursday. Published by The Portland Hibernian Society 

Next Meeting - September 18 at Kells Restaurant - 112 SW Second Ave. Portand. Dinner at Six P.M.  Details in next Thursday's PDX HI.

Applications being accepted for Ireland-Oregon Sister State Committee

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek's Executive Appointments Director has reached out to the Portland Hibernian Society to let you all know that if you'd like to serve on the new Sister State Committee, you should apply right away. From Maya Crawford Peacock - "I am hoping your organization can share the application link with interested people. The task force will be up and running for a first meeting in January 2026. Here is a link to the application for the Committee:  Board & Commission Member Opportunities. Appointment terms are for two years and members are eligible for reappointment. The Committee will hold one or two meetings per calendar year. From the PDX HI - The Committee will be made up of nine people.The mission is to increase Oregon exports to Ireland and encourage Irish investments here according to the bill. Besides inviting and hosting delegations from Ireland, the committee “may"  travel to Ireland once every two years. Oregon is the eighth state to create a Sister State relationship with Ireland.  

Hibernian Tip Sheet - For your reading, watching and listening consideration this Labor Day weekend

KATIE HENNESSY forwarded this article from America Magazine - Migration and Irish Identity. "Just five undocumented Irish immigrants were deported from the United States to Ireland in the whole of 2021. By the end of July in 2025, that number had already reached 56...There is a sense that the new attention to undocumented Irish, long previously tolerated on U.S. shores, represents another symbolic collapse suggesting that the United States is not the ally it used to be anymore." Yet Ireland was once called by many the 51st State of the Union.

Read more about The immigration case of Cliona Ward of Santa Cruz, California.

ED CURTIN passed along this listening recommendation for a Sunday afternoon. "Music of the Irish" (“Ceol na nGael”) every Sunday (since 1974!) from noon to 4 p.m. The link is here:  https://wfuv.org/content/ceol-na-ngael   and we can pick up archived shows here: https://wfuv.org/archives  Ceol na nGael is the most popular Irish radio program in New York. It began as the brainchild of two Fordham students, Gerry Murphy and Mary Maguire, back in 1974. Over the years it has continued to be hosted by students, who have kept the tradition alive."

TIM BIRR forwarded this two alarm article.  "Anti-immigrant sentiment seems to be a growing thing not only in the North and the Republic, but in many parts of the world…" Tim writes after reading this.

PDX HI MOVIE DESK - Have you got a library card? If you do, you can access a long list of quality Irish movies, documentaries and music FOR FREE! No subscription required. For example, at Kanopy.com you'll find films from The Quiet Man - John Ford's classic set in Connemara - to The Quiet Girl - the remarkable 2023 Oscar-nominated Irish language coming of age drama. Check out It Came From Connemara  - Roger Corman's Irish Film Studio. The American master of B movies made more than a few on the West Coast of Ireland. Fascinating film. There's not the great variety of Irish films and music there is at Kanopy, but Hoopla.com has some worthwhile offerings. (Did I say FREE? Check your latest property tax bill. I paid $206.07 to support the Multnomah County Library. That's $17 a month.)

This fun documentry from the Gaeltcht can be found on Kanopy.com

Latest population numbers from Ireland still far from what they were before An Gorta Mor

For whatever reason, twice as many Americans moved to Ireland in the latest 12 months reported. That’s “a 96% surge in the numbers coming from the US as 9,600 came to live in Ireland, up from 4,900 in the previous 12-month period.” Twice as many Australians as  Americans are moving to Ireland. But the big story here is that Ireland's population in The Republic has risen to almost 5.5 million. It was 8 million before The Great Famine. The total population of the island is now 7 million.

Mark the date - Looks like late October for the Irish Presidential election

Catherine Connolly is not aligned with any of the three major parties in Ireland.

In Ireland they don't hold elections according to the calendar the way we do here in America. Thanks to British political customs, Ireland inherited no predetermined schedule for the Presidential election. But it's looking like OCTOBER 23 will be the date. Thereis, so far, only one announced candidate to replace Michael D. Higgins. That would be Independent Catherine Connolly. But there should be more candidates jumping into the deep end shortly.

Some Irish emigrants in Aran Sweaters and Ed Sullivan

CB & TM March 9,1961

There's a new documentary on Netflix called SUNDAY BEST - THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW. Here's the back story: Set aside your preconceptions about Ed Sullivan - that he was a lightweight host who just happened to introduce the Beatles to America and tried to censor rock and roll. Many of you have unforgettable memories of seeing all those rock and roll acts first on Sunday nights on CBS introduced by this grandson of Famine immigrants. But did you know that Ed Sullivan put Irish music on the American map? Before the British Invasion there was the Irish Invasion.

Kneecap not coming to Portland

The hottest act out of Ireland these days is always in hot water for its on-stage advocacy of Palestine. As a result, Kneecap has cancelled a sold out show in October at the Wonder Ballroom, aka the old Hibernian Hall on NE Russell.

Hibernian Hall

College football custom comes to Dublin again. Cue the leprechaun.

The Athletic reports - "For the fourth straight year, college football kicked off another season from its quaint vacation home on the east coast of the Emerald Isle. Kansas State and Iowa State brought 22,000 fans to Ireland for the premier Week 0 matchup of AP Top 25-ranked teams in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. The NFL will come to town in September for its first-ever regular-season game on Irish soil". What caught my eye in the report was a photograph from Grafton Street where there's a booth called Leprechaun Yourself.

Ireland's Men's World Cup hopes face September test

The long slog to next summer's World Cup in America, Mexico and Canada continues with a couple of pretty important matches for Ireland next month. September 6 Hungary comes to Dublin, three days later Ireland heads to Armenia. Veteran Seamus Coleman  may have seen his last days as one of the Boys in Geen. Ireland Men's manager for WC 2026 is Heimir Hallgrímsson. He's from Iceland.

Remembering Daniel O'Connell - The Liberator

From the Irish History Podcast. "Daniel O'Connell stands as a towering figure over Irish history. King George IV once called him "the uncrowned King of Ireland." More commonly known as The Liberator, O'Connell rose to fame in the 1820s and he spearheaded the campaign for Catholic Emancipation and the final abolition of the Penal Laws. 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of his birth in Waterford." In a future edition of th PDX HI, I'll look at the row between O'Connell and the Irish Catholic Bishops in America who shunned the Abolitionist cause.

NEXT PHS MEETING SEPTEMBER 18 AT KELLS RESTAURANT IN DOWNTOWN       PORTLAND AT SIX P.M.