The Ambassador and the Pope

PDX HIBERNIAN INDEPENDENT Volume Two - Number Fifty-Two – 15 May 2025    

More than an email. Less than a newspaper. Delivered early on the first and third Thursday morning of every month. Published by The Portland Hibernian Society. 

MAY IS MEMBERSHIP MONTH

Can you take a minute to consider supporting The Portland Hibernian Society by becoming a member? We’ve made it really easy. Just click here. Your membership fees will make possible the PDX HI Newsletter twice a month (at least), a swell website, fun and informative monthly meetings at Kells Restaurant and special events now and then. Why not be a dues-paying, Irish community-supporting Portland Hibernian? Go raibh maith agat.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, RFK REDUX

At our April meeting, Hibernian Tom Markgraf told with personal insight the story of how RFK came to Oregon running for President in 1968 and became the first member of the famous Kennedy family to lose an election. If you missed it, or would like to revisit our presentation, CLICK HERE. 

NEW AMBASSADOR TO IRELAND A BIT OF A MYSTERY

President Trump’s pick to represent the USA in the Republic of Ireland  got his marching orders from the Senator in charge of Foreign Affairs: Persuade Dublin to spend more on military defense and improve its relations with Israel. Ed Walsh, a billionaire philanthropist who made his fortune in the construction business in New Jersey, sailed through a friendly Senate confirmation hearing That Walsh won the golf championship at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster may have figured in his appointment. When asked about Israel and Palestine and underseas cables Walsh assured senators he would be briefed extensively but doesn't have much to say yet. Confirmation by the Senate is a sure bet. There have been 31 US Ambassadors to Ireland since 1927. Not a lot is known about Walsh. neither his age nor his handicap is revealed on his brief Wikileaks page. 

Edward Sharp Walsh will likely soon be confirmed as the 32nd USA Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland. He owns a worldwide construction firm and contributes great sums to charities and the GOP.

ONLY IN IRELAND: SHORTS NOT SKORTS

“It is mental to be even having these sorts of conversations in 2025.” said Clara Ward, the new team manager of the Irish woman’s camogie squad, who couldn’t believe her players are not allowed to wear shorts.  “Camogie, one of Ireland's GAA games and the female equivalent of hurling, has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons with teams protesting a rule which allows them to wear a skirt, skort or divided skirt, but not shorts.” Denis Walsh wonders why the match officials can wear shorts but not the players.

POPE LEO'S TIME IN COUNTY TIPPERARY 

Who thought there was a better chance of seeing a Pope born in Ireland than from America in our lifetimes? Chicago native Pope Leo XIV, an unpredictable pick for Pontiff, spent the lion’s share of his priesthood in Peru, but was seen in Co. Tipperary at times. “This is something that I never thought I would say. I met the Pope. In McCarthy’s. He has visited Fethard on more than one occasion. He was the General of the Augustinian Order and he came to town for the celebration of 700 years of the Abbey in Fethard.”  A Facebook post from McCarthy’s of Fethard in Co. Tipperary shared the joy. “When I heard that a former head of the Augustinian Order was made Pope today, I rang Fr Gerry Horan to see if it was the same man. It was.” Details and photos of the new Pope's time in Fethard can be seen at the town website. 

Pope Leo XIV (centre) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from May 8, 2025. He is photographed above in Fethard when he was General of the Augustinian Order in 2005, and where he con-celebrated Mass in Fethard Abbey. L to R: Fr. John Meagher OSA; General of the Augustinian Order, Fr Robert Prevost; and the newly appointed Provincial, Fr. Gerry Horan OSA, Fethard. (© Joe Kenny) www.Fethard.com

IT TAKES TWO TO TARIFF

Picture this.  All of a sudden, movies made in Ireland cost twice as much to see at your local theater. Streaming prices for the same films soar. American directors can no longer afford to shoot scenes of Ireland's coast along Ireland's coast because then it would be a foreign film and subject to 100% tariffs.  Followed by retaliatory tariffs that hike prices for Irish filmgoers who like American movies. In So Cal, film industry jobs are leaving town. No doubt these are very tough times. But Trump has a plan: Tariffs of 100% on films from afar.  "WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN! Posted the President. Coming soon Once Upon A Trade War? Irish-English producer David Putnam (Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, The Killing Fields, ten Oscars) is, not surprisingly, opposed. And not just because you can’t find West-of-Ireland scenery in Hollywood. “…filmmaking's about stories. And for us in Ireland, it's about our own stories. We happen to be very good storytellers.” Sorting this out sounds like a job for the new Ambassador.

Scenes from Star Wars: The Lost Jedi were shot on Skellig Michael off the southwest coast of Ireland. Suggested tariffs on foreign film products could make filming US movies in Ireland cost prohibitive.

TOURISTS: LEAVE MOLLY MALONE ALONE

If you’ve ever been in Dublin on Suffolk Street and snapped a shot of the statue of an extremely buxom and bronze Irishwoman, there’s a photo in your phone of Molly Malone. The Dublin City Council decided that due to the effect of people rubbing the statue, it needed a makeover. Some structural issues need fixing too. That revamp will take a couple of weeks, during which a fence will surround sweet Molly. The statue was part of the celebration of Ireland’s first millennium in 1988. Some were shocked. “The Tart with the Cart,” as the statue is called, was "entirely deficient in artistic point and merit," said the head of Ireland’s Arts Council. It’s the boobs that bothered him and others. Jeanne Rynhart, the sculptor, also created statues of the Rose of Tralee and Annie Moss of Co. Cork, the first emigrant processed through Ellis Island. Work should be completed by June 13, which is Molly Malone day in Ireland.

MOLLY MALONE

In Dublin's fair city, 
Where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

"Alive, alive, oh,
Alive, alive, oh,"
Crying "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh".

She was a fishmonger
But sure 'twas no wonder
For so were her father and mother before
And they each wheel'd their barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying "Cockles and mussels alive, alive oh!"

(chorus)

She died of a fever,
And no one could save her,
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.
But her ghost wheels her barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"