Decembership - Why join the PHS
PDX HIBERNIAN INDEPENDENT 4 December 2025
More than an email. Less than a newspaper. Delivered every Thursday (except Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2025). Published by The Portland Hibernian Society.
SATURDAY – DECEMBER 13 – COME TO THE CROSS AT MT. CALVARY
There are no guarantees in life or weather around here, but it’s even money that the conditions at the Oregon Potato Famine Memorial (SW Skyline & West Burnside) will be better this Dec. 13 than they were in 2008. We’ll gather in the Mt. Calvary parking lot at Eleven A.M. Tim Birr and Rob Sullivan will play the bagpipes. Memories of Dedication Day will be summoned. Hot coffee and donuts will be served. The PHS Christmas Lunch will follow at Noon at Kells on SW Second. There WILL be prizes after lunch.
DECEMBERSHIP – BECOME A PROPER MEMBER OF THE PHS THIS MONTH
We'll keep this short. Why should you join the Portland Hibernian Society? To connect with what's Irish, for one reason. Besides this weekly newsletter, we offer monthly get togethers, special events (see you at The Cross Dec. 13) the best St. Patrick's Day Banquet in Portland and, most of all, good company. By joining, you'll make all this possible and help fund our charitable giving in 2026.
PROFILE: GEMMA WHELAN
One of the joys of our Third Thursday meetings at Kells Restaurant this past year has been hearing Gemma Whelan read from her own work and that of Claire Keegan. The written word is a big part of Gemma’s world these days, as Daniel Curran discovered. Here’s what he wrote for the PDX HI.
ALL IRELAND MUSICIAN IN TOWN TOMORROW NIGHT (12.5)
Irish music at its finest. LIVE Friday Night at the Tualatin Grange. "Born near London to a Wexford father and Tipperary mother, John Whelan has won seven All-Ireland button accordion titles, including the prestigious senior championship in 1983, and six All-Britain titles." An Irish Ceili, folk dance, with live music AND our annual food drive for the Tualatin Food Bank. Friday, Dec 5, 2025, 7:30pm. Winona Grange, Tualatin. Details and Tickets.
'TIS THE SEASON
Christmas parties with a Celtic theme kick off Friday night, December 5, at Kells on SW Second. Irish Network Portland is taking over the upstairs banquet hall for its annual December event. Details.
PRESIDENT TO PRESIDENT IN DUBLIN
Ireland's neutrality in World War Two hasn’t kept it - a modern European nation - from stepping up and standing up to Russia by backing Ukraine. President Volodymir Zelensky paid a very well-covered visit to Dublin earlier this week and was officially received by President Catherine Connolly. In April 2022, Zelensky said Ireland had not been neutral to the ‘disaster Russia had brought to Ukraine”. Ireland has pledged 200 million euros in “non-lethal” aid to Ukraine so far in 2025.
KATIE TAYLOR TIES THE KNOT (NEW INFORMATION)
Center - Katie Taylor after defeating Amanda Serrano this summer. That's her new husband Sean on her left and her ma Brigid on her right.
What a year it’s been for Katie Taylor. Ireland’s greatest woman boxer ever became, by consensus, the best woman boxer in the world. She had a reunion with her dad/trainer after defending her title at Madison Square Garden. But the big news has been that she’s married a widower with five kids in Connecticut where she trains. Katies 39. Sean McCavanagh, a real estate broker who showed her the home she bought, is 47 with five kids from ages 11 to 23. It’s a great story.
FROM THE GAA IN CO. DOWN TO THE NFL
A young man from Mayobridge in Ireland kicked a 56 yard field goal for the New Orleans Saints last weekend. Charlie Smyth grew up playing Gaelic Football. This has never happend before (we're fairly certain). Here's the improbable story, complete with videos of his kicks and the reaction back in Ireland. Not bad for a 24 year old Irishman from Newry who had trained as a primary school teacher with Irish language.
THERE'S A NEW STOUT IN TOWN AND IT COSTS LESS
Guinness in a can is not as good as Guinness on tap, but it’s better than any other stout that comes in a can. And the price of four 16-oz cans – the equivalent of $10.50 - shows it. But now there’s serious competition in Ireland from Mulligan Stout, which sells four paks for $7.50. It’s made by a convenience store chain called Aldi’s. A reporter in Dublin set out to discover - Can Aldi's fresh Mulligan's stout rival the established Guinness flavour? Aldi’s is German-owned and has 2,000 stores in 38 of the United States. But none so far in Oregon.
THE "SINN FEIN RABBI" CAUGHT IN A CONTROVERSY
This will sound familiar to anyone who’s witnessed what happens when place names are changed to acknowledge past deeds. Sometimes people object, which is the case in Dublin. A prominent family in Israel that played a role in Ireland's early history as a nation is caught right in the middle.
THE IRISH CONTRIBUTION IN OUR REVOLUTIONARY WAR
The PDX HI sure hopes Ken Burns gets it right. The long Thanksgiving weekend was more about family and fantasy football than an epic, non-fiction documentary called The American Revolution, Burns's latest contribution to American history. I haven't watched all six two-hour episodes yet (I've barely watched Episode One) and can’t tell you whether Irish immigrants are given the credit they deserve for victory over the British. If Burns and company ignore or underplay that Celtic/Gaelic contribution, they wouldn’t be the first historians to do so. So we’re clear on what a key role the Irish played, here's an article from the PHS Archives..
HO HO HOW COME YOU HAVEN'T BECOME A PHS MEMBER YET? IT'S PRETTY EASY NOW.
GOOD NIGHT AND JOY BE WITH YOU ALL