Irish stew. Event tonite. What’s new.
PDX HIBERNIAN INDEPENDENT 18 September 2025
More than an email. Less than a newspaper. Now delivered every Thursday. Published by The Portland Hibernian Society
MEETING TONIGHT – Thursday, September 18. Kells Restaurant. Six P.M.
Thank You Lucille McAleese
Irish hospitality should never be taken for granted. So, at this evening’s meeting, your Portland Hibernian Society will salute the co-owner of Kells and spotlight both her work in the “front of the house” and behind the scenes managing the philanthropy of the McAleese clan in Greater Portland. And we’ll share some stories. Like the one about the theft of the framed JFK portrait from Kells one night. And how Lucille invented the first fusion feature at Kells – Irish Nachos. Seisiún with Lucille begins at 7 P.M. at Kells Restaurant (112 SW Second)
Bagpipes Too
Hibernian Tim Birr will share a couple of tunes at 6:50 P.M. It's the 25th anniversary of his "band", TVF&R Pipe and Drums. Check out this history and how their first public appesarance was on Sept. 11, 2001..
Thank You Brendan McGloin and David O'Longaigh
Some sad news since we last met. We got word that Brendan McGloin of Co. Limerick, the man who sculpted The Cross of the Oregon Potato Famine Memorial at Mt. Calvary Cemetery, passed away in April. He was 56. Here’s his story and the story of The Cross, one of only two auhtentic existing replicas of the ancient Cross of the Scriptures at Clonmacnois in Co. Offaly. TONIGHT we’ll screen a short RTE documentary and hear about Brendan’s monumental achievement from Hibernian David O’Longaigh, who did so much 20 years ago to bring the Cross to Portland.
Just before it was dedicated at Mt.Calvary, the Cross sculpted by Brendna McGloin was covered to protect it from the elements.
Before there were Celtic Crosses in Ireland
Recently "discovered" Stone Memorials from the Bronze Age (2500 BCE to 500 BCE in Ireland) sit across from Croagh Patrick in Co. Mayo along Clew Bay.
Some Notre Dame students on their semester study abroad in Ireland recently happened upon a memorial of a different kind in County Mayo. Long before the original Cross of the Scriptures appeared in 900 CE, there were simpler structures designating where people were buried. Two thousand years before the Birth of Christ in the West of Ireland, there was “An Chloch Mhór, which basically is two huge standing stones, and one fallen...we are back to prehistoric times... an age of early farming. Neolithic times, where woman and man, ancient people, left something behind, a territorial mark, a territorial stone, a boundary stone. This could be an ancient portal where people moved from one existence to another." Not your usual semester abroad educational experience. Here’s the story.
Doctor first. 1916 Rebel second.
From the PHS website – Doctor Kathleen Lynn, the Irish Rebel Doctor who put her patients – women and children – first, is being remembered this week on the 70th anniversary of her death. But not in the way some people had hoped. There was a campaign to have Ireland’s new national children’s hospital named in her honor. Well, officials can’t tell you when the $2.8 billion facility will open, but they CAN tell you it won’t be called the Kathleen Lynn Children’s Hospital. Despite her many contributions to the health of Irish women and children. Read her story here.
How Guinness got to be the business it is today
A week from today Netflix drops its eight-part series House of Guinness. Set in 19th century Ireland and New York but filmed in the 21st century in Manchester and Liverpool, the series is the work of Steven Knight, who gave us Peaky Blinders. The set up is that the benevolent founder of the brewery, Benjamin Guinness, dies and sets off a Succession-type battle among his four kids. No big name actors but some faces you’ll have seen before (like the guy who played that twit Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones). This is NOT a documentary because “what actually happened to the Guinness family is unlikely to be known given how long ago it was.” The Irish Mirror noted as much, “The giant brewing company's early leaders used a cut-throat business model to run all Guinness rivals in Dublin out of business,” but there's no mention of that, apparenty. Debuts Thursday 9.25.
Katie Taylor marries a Yank
The pride of Ireland in the ring, the undisputed light heavyweight champion of the world, married a guy from America and didn’t tell anyone. Taylor (39) the greatest woman boxer in Irish history, introduced her husband Sean McCavanagh a week ago in a very uncelebrity way, “The newlyweds visited the Tiglin Men's Centre in Ashford, Co Wicklow together last Friday, where Taylor (39) gave a talk to the men who are receiving treatment for drug and alcohol addiction,” according to this report in the Irish Examiner. Her pro ring record is 25 and 1. There’s talk she may take on the one fighter she lost to in a future fight at Croke Park, Dublin. Her husband is a property agent in Massachusetts. He’s moving to Ireland. When asked if he enjoyed his recent trip to Ireland, he said: "How could you not?" before adding "I loved my time in Ireland, I'm home now."
Conor McGregor pulls his cap OUT of the ring
Not this time. Conor McGregor won’t be running for President of Ireland. He announced he couldn’t get the number of endorsements from current elected politicians that he needed to make it on the ballot. On his socials he claimed the system was rigged and blasted "the straitjacket of an outdated Constitution that is selectively upheld by the main Oireachtas parties, and exploited to prevent a true democratic Presidential election being contested, but rather fixed to ensure only Establishment approved candidates may be selected on the ballot." Elon Musk tried to help but his statements of support didn’t move the needle.
Easy Ryder Cup
A team made up of America’s best golfers will compete against Europe’s best for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage golf course on Long Island beginning Fri. Sept. 23. Ireland’s two best golfers, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are on the European team so pardon me for wanting those two to do well. Here’s the pre-Ryder Cup buzz: For the first time ever, America’s golfers will get paid. Europe’s linksters will not. In fact, Rory said he’d pay to play on Europe’s side. Read more here.
Today in Irish History
On this date in Dublin, Ireland in 1889 Kathleen Behan (nee Kearney) was born. Which is a good enough excuse to print some of the best quotes (see below) allegedly delivered by one of her four sons, Brendan Behan (seen here with American television talent Jackie Gleason). Katheen herself was a folk singer and a soldier with Cumman mBan, the Irish women who fought the British in the Easter Rising. Her older brother, Peadar Kearney, wrote The Soldiers Song, aka the Irish National Anthem. One of her four sons, Dominic, wrote the classic song The Patriot’s Game. But it’s Brendan who’s best remembered for his drunken escapades in America, his books, his plays and these words of wisdom.
No strangers here, just friends you haven’t met. (Often credited to Wm. Butler Yeats)
I am a drinker with writing problems.
I only drink on two occasions — when I’m thirsty and when I’m not.
There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.
And this, his personal political platform:
I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.
Kathleen Behan in 1978. She was born on Sept. 18, 1889 and died in 1984.
