Conference tallis::celt

Associated Press Wed 05-MAR-1986 20:47                            Ireland Aid

   FitzGerald Says U.S. Aid Small, Appeals To EC, Australia And Canada
    With AM-US-Ireland
    
   DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald said
Wednesday a proposed $250 million U.S. aid package for Ireland was
small and appealed to the Common Market, Australia and Canada to
contribute.
   FitzGerald refused to say how much the Irish were hoping for,
but press reports after the Anglo-Irish agreement was signed on
Nov. 15 had predicted a $500 million package.
   ``It's small,'' the Irish leader told American correspondents at
a luncheon. ``If it were supplemented by the European Community and
other governments, it would be a more significant amount, but that
has yet to be seen.''
   President Reagan asked Congress Wednesday to approve a
five-year, $250 million aid program for Ireland, saying it would be
a stepping stone to ``peace for the people of Northern Ireland.''
   Some members of the House of Repesentatives said the aid should
be subject to stringent conditions. But House Speaker Thomas P.
O'Neill Jr., a prominent Irish-American, said it should be approved
without ``a long list of political conditions.''
   FitzGerald, who will come to the United States on March 13 and
spend St. Patrick's Day with Reagan, said the aid proposal ``wasn't
in exactly the shape we would most prefer.'' He said that when he
reaches Washington, ``I might presume to make suggestions.''
   However, FitzGerald said he was grateful for Reagan's support
for the Anglo-Irish agreement, which gives the Irish Republic a
consultative role in the administration of the British province of
Northern Ireland.
   Asked what the central message of his discussions with Reagan
would be, he said: ``I think (it is) the determination of our two
governments (Britain and the Irish Republic) to tackle this problem
together and gratitude for the American response to that.''
   FitzGerald said aid from the United States and other countries
would be used ``to try to remedy some of the damage'' resulting
from the Catholic-Protestant feuding which erupted in 1969 and to
promote the economic revival of violence-torn areas.
   Foreign Minister Peter Barry said there was an informal
agreement between Britain and the Irish Republic that three-fourths
of the aid will be earmarked for Northern Ireland and one quarter
    for the Irish Republic, where it will be used primarily in towns
along the border.
   A trust fund administered by trustees appointed by the British
and Irish governments will decide on specific projects.
   FitzGerald said the trustees won't be appointed until the first
aid package is approved.
   The British and Irish governments have found ``considerable good
will'' in the 12-nation European Community, he said. ``We hope they
will be willing to move fairly soon.''
   He said there had been contacts with the Canadians and

Associated Press Thu 06-MAR-1986 13:15                             US-Ireland

   House Panel OKs Irish Aid Package
                             By TIM AHERN
                        Associated Press Writer

   WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted
Thursday to approve a $250 million aid program for Northern Ireland
to help support the historic agreement between Great Britain and
the Republic of Ireland that gives Ireland a voice in governing
Ulster.
   The five-year program was approved by voice vote and sent to the
House floor, where approval is expected. Congress has already
passed a resolution endorsing the agreement.
   The pact signed last Nov. 15 is aimed at ending 17 years of
sectarian fighting between the Protestants, who are a majority in
Ulster, and the province's minority Catholics. Great Britain has
ruled Ulster for the past 64 years, since the province was created
when the Republic of Ireland came into existence.
   The committee's approval came only a day after House Speaker
Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., D-Mass., made a rare appearance before a
committee to urge approval of the aid package.
   Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said the British-Irish pact is ``a
fleeting moment of historic opportunity to put an end to the
fighting.''
   Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., called the agreement ``one hopeful
sign that has emerged as a first step in the hope for a final,
peaceful solution. This is a crucial step to try and bring peace
and justice to Northern Ireland.''
   Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif., also supported the package and
told his colleagues that he had been in Ulster in 1969 when the
first Catholic protests began and ``this is perhaps a way to help
end that tragedy.''
   The pact calls for creation of an international fund that would
oversee development of the economically strapped Ulster province.
   The U.S. aid package would provide $50 million a year. However,
for the current fiscal year and the fiscal year starting Oct. 1,
$20 million would be provided to the fund while the other $30
million would be used as incentives for private businesses to
invest.

Associated Press Tue 10-JUN-1986 19:10                     BRF--Scotland-Snow

   June Snow Closes Scottish Road

   GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) - It snowed as much as six inches in
northeast Scotland on Tuesday - pretty bad June weather even by
British standards.
   The snow forced closure of the main road from Perth north to
Braemar near the Spittal of Glenshee ski area, the Automobile
Association said.
   Two inches fell further north, on the Cockbridge to Tomintoul
road, although that remained open.
   The AA spokesman in Glasgow was unable to say whether it was the
last snow of last winter - or the first snow of next winter.

Associated Press Fri 27-JUN-1986 10:44                         US-Ireland Aid

         Congress Okays Irish Aid After Last-Minute Battle

   WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress has approved and sent to President
Reagan a bill appropriating $50 million in aid for Northern Ireland
to support the Anglo-Irish agreement aimed at bringing peace to the
province.
   The aid provision proved to be one of the last contested issues
in a $1.7-billion catchall spending bill approved late Thursday
night to provide extra funds for various purposes during the fiscal
year that ends Sept. 30.
   The White House said Reagan, who sought the aid for Ireland
earlier this year, is expected to sign the measure.
   Sen. Edward Zorinsky, D-Neb., led an attempt to delete the aid,
but the Senate voted 65-31 to keep the provision.
   ``The stark reality at home is: we're broke,'' said Zorinsky.
``It's simply not the time to send money to yet another new foreign
aid recipient.''
   In fact, he said, Ireland doesn't need the money, and it would be
aid to the United Kingdom, relieving Britain of part of its
responsibility for taking care of the province.
   Proponents of the aid, however, said British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher had taken a courageous stand in signing the
Anglo-Irish accord and that she was limited in how much money she
could get for Northern Ieland from Parliament.
   Backers of the aid said also that it was an important leadership
step for the United States to take so that other countries might
follow suit.
   Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., said that if the United
States failed to provide aid, ``it would be devastating, and the
Senate would have blood on its hands.''

Associated Press Tue 09-SEP-1986 09:40                      Ireland-Jet Delay

   Curious 8-Year-Old Strands Jumbo Jet

   SHANNON, Ireland (AP) - It was one of those ``What does this
button do?'' cases, and it ended with a damaged jumbo jet, repairmen
flown in from the United States and 400 passengers stranded
overnight.
   The incident - estimated to cost $750,000 in damages - was caused
by an 8-year-old boy who tampered with the boarding ramp linking the
plane to the terminal, according to a Philip Carney, spokesman for
Northwest Orient Airlines.
   The boy's identity was withheld, but he is reportedly from New
York.
   He was disembarking with his father on a stopover at Shannon
International Airport en route from Prestwick, Scotland, to New York
when he touched the controls of the boarding ramp, Carney said.
   The ramp moved up abruptly, smashing into the exit doorway of the
Boeing 747, the spokesman said.
   No one was injured, but three engineers had to fly in from the
United States to repair the door, and the passengers were sent to
hotels before continuing their journey Monday on different flights,
Carney said.

Associated Press Wed 24-SEP-1986 05:49                      BRF-Book Of Kells

                Facsimile Of Early Manuscript To Be Published
    
    DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - A color facsimile of the ancient Book Of Kells,
    one of the world's most prized religious manuscripts, is to be
    published in a limited edition of 1,500 copies, which will retail at
    about $10,000 each. 
    
    Publishers Faksimile-Verlag of Lucerne, Switzerland, will pay Dublin's
    Trinity College an undisclosed sum for the right to publish a facsimile
    of the 680-page book that the college has held since the 1660s, school
    officials said Tuesday. 
    
    Dating from the 9th century, the book is named after the Irish village
    of Kells where it originated. It includes a Latin text of the Gospels,
    and is regarded as one of the finest examples of early Christian
    manuscript art. 
    
    Displayed under tight security at the college, a page is turned each
    week for the thousands of visitors who come to see it. 

Associated Press Thu 09-OCT-1986 10:59                     Waterford-Wedgwood

   Waterford Glass Plans to Buy Wedgwood PLC for $358 Million
Also moved business wire
   LONDON (AP) - Irish crystal maker Waterford Glass, in an
aggressive attempt to extend its reach on the dinner table, plans to
buy Britain's Wedgwood PLC, the 227-year-old maker of fine china.
   The $358 million deal announced by both companies Wednesday would
create one of the world's largest fine-tableware companies, with
significant sales in the United States.
   Wedgwood's management recommended that shareholders approve the
merger and said: ``the prospect of our companies working together is
very exciting.''
   Waterford Glass, one of Ireland's largest companies, said that
under the offer it would swap 14 ordinary shares for every three
35-cent shares in Wedgwood, or $7.88 a share.
   The combined annual sales of Waterford and Wedgwood are currently
running at more than $395 million a year. The U.S. market accounts
for about a third of Wedgwood's sales and about half of Waterford's.
   Founded in 1759, Wedgwood is one of the most prestigious
fine-china companies. Its plates and saucers grace the tables of
Britain's royal family. Waterford, which employs Irish craftsmen who
                                                            More -->
Associated Press Thu 09-OCT-1986 10:59            Waterford-Wedgwood (cont'd)

spend hours blowing and engraving single pieces of crystal, is
best-known for its goblets and chandeliers.
   Waterford's friendly bid is worth about $158 million more than a
hostile bid this past summer by London International Group PLC, the
rubber and electrical products company that already has a 10 percent
share in Wedgwood.
   London International Group's bid was thwarted in June after
Britain's Monopolies and Mergers Commission ruled a merger would
create unfair competition in the fine china market. The group owns
Royal Worcester Spode, another fine china manufacturer.
   The group described Waterford Glass' offer as ``very generous''
and said it would accept such a deal for its one-tenth share in
Wedgwood.

Associated Press Sat 27-DEC-1986 00:05                    Britain-Free Scotch

   Free Scotch Runs Out On Eriskay After 45 Years
   STORNOWAY, Outer Hebrides (AP) - After 45 years, the ``Whisky
Galore'' island of Eriskay has finally run out of free scotch and
farmers and fishermen now have to pay when they want a wee dram.
   The truth came out when island resident Allan Macdonald asked
the Western Isles licensing authority for permission to open a bar
on Eriskay.
   Macdonald, a Gaelic television producer for the British
Broadcasting Corp., said Saturday he will call his bar, to open in
June, the politician.
   The name recalls the ship that made Eriskay, an island of 200
people off northwestern Scotland, famous and brought it a tourist
trade that continues to this day.
   The Politician, carrying 20,300 cases of Scotch whisky, was
wrecked on rocks off Eriskay in 1941. Despite the efforts of police
and customs officers, most of the precious cargo was looted by the
people of Eriskay and the neighboring Hebridean islands of South
Uist and Barra.
   Whisky was so plentiful on Eriskay that women were seen pouring
it on their peat fires to make them burn more easily.
Associated Press Sat 27-DEC-1986 00:05           Britain-Free Scotch (cont'd)

   The wreck gave novelist Compton Mackenzie the plot for his comic
novel, ``Whisky Galore.'' He called his ship the Cabinet Minister.
   Ealing Studios made the novel into a hit film with the same
title in 1948. It was renamed ``Tight Little Island'' in the United
States.

    I have a cheap(er) repro of bits of the book, that includes a preface
    which discusses the value of the high-quality calf-skins of the
    original document.
    When the book was created, these probably had a combined value of
    several tens of thousands of dollars, in today's terms.
    
    I'm a fan of the script too, though I've not had much success with
    the illuminating.   One related thought - are there any
    machine-readable copies of any mediaeval illuminated script or
    features?   Strikes me someone with a digitiser and a VAXstation
    could copy a few features from Irish banknotes, or other common
    source, and mail them out to those of us with colour VT241s.   Any
    takers?

    GEORGE,
    I've got one on my desk!
    peggy

    
    New "Lovejoy" TV series has an episode coming up filmed in Ireland.
    "Irish stew" is its title. Lovejoy fans take note (it may already have
    been shown in Europe).
    

    
    Front page column in today's Wall St Journal talks about exodus of
    Ireland's city poor to the country. 
    

    Thanks for the pointer Chris.  And from that article...
    
    "...She and other housewives also must cope with the isolation
    of lonely cottages.  Most men, meanwhile, find themselves struggling
    with such exotic tasks as growing vegetables and cutting peat for
    the fire.  One Dubliner has twice had to be rescued after falling
    into swampy bogs.  He also planted potatoes, then pulled them up a
    month later, mistaking their sprouts for weeds.  Another man phoned
    Rural Resettlement in great alarm to report an intruder - a mouse..."

    If someone could type the entire article here it would be of great
    interest to  us Irish who are in the frontline, as it were, of such
    developments.
    It seems to make sense to me in a post-industrial context , to resettle
    unemployed people where the accomodation is cheaper and readily
    available, and where living is less cash-intensive.
    Cities are, in my opinion, O.K to live in if you have plenty of money
    and a steady job. The unemployed quickly become overwhelmed by the high
    cost of accommodation and end up in areas from which employers are very
    reluctant to hire anybody. They also end up in bad company and can
    easily fall into drug and alcohol abuse, crime and other socially
    undesireable acts. At least in the country there is some hope of
    isolating the next generation from such evils. 
    I see in the future a huge increase in such subsistence living in rural
    areas where food and fuel can be obtained through the unemployed
    persons own labour and allowing their dole money to be spent on things
    they cannot make or grow. It could even revert to the days when people
    made their own clothes and furniture but I doubt times wil get that
    hard.
    The alternative is to let these people destroy society in a welter of
    violence, destruction and drug abuse brought by their pointless,
    soul-destroying existence in our cities. Our minister for Social Welfare
    had tried to stop dole payments to people who moved from the city and
    were by definition not " available for work" but he was overturned in
    his decision. At last the government is copping on that there will
    NEVER be jobs for a lot of people in our country in the traditional
    sense and are not stepping in the way of their search for a safe, 
    peaceful life.
    
    

    
    
    Thats ok if the people WANT to move...it should be their choice.
     
    Such "socially undesirable acts" as you call them are not unique to
    cities in Ireland
    
          rgs
    
    Mick

    I didn't make it clear in my last note, I am referring to voluntary
    resettlement of people, I am talking about mothers at their wits end
    trying to contain children in a depressing environment with no
    facilities for play and of fathers who realise they have no hope of a
    job or of obtaining reasonably roomy accommodation for themselves or
    their families. In spite of our atrociously high unemployment rate of
    20%, Charlie McCreavey wanted to cut the dole off anyone who moved out
    of our congested inner city areas into the less populated rural areas
    because they were " not available for work ". The same madness applies
    to those who attend third level colleges to get a degree in order to
    improve their chances of getting that elusive job offer, they are cut
    off the dole and have a stark choice: remain unqualified or starve.
    While antisocial actions such as drug abuse and alcoholism are not
    unique to cities I believe that the crowded, depressing, polluted and
    noisy athmosphere of the working class areas of such cities increases
    the occurrence of such actions and that most people would live in
    smaller towns if they had a choice. Most cities I have been in are
    dumps and I wouldn't live in them if I had the choice.
     

Article: 2494
From: [email protected] (UPI)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.terrorism,clari.news.europe,clari.news.gov.state,clari.local.massachusetts
Subject: Irish PM sees Ulster peace possibility
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 93 5:26:59 PDT
 
	BOSTON (UPI) -- Irish Republic Prime Minister Albert Reynolds says the
peace accord between Palestinians and Isreal proves the Northern Ireland
situation can also be resolved.
	``It has to give you hope,'' Reynolds said during a visit Wednesday
to Boston.
	He said this week's reconciliation between the long-time Middle East
enemies makes him optimistic peace can come to Ireland.
	``That was a very intractable and old, bitter conflict,'' he told the
Boston Herald. ``If you can find a settlement for that, you can find a
settlement anywhere.''
	Reynolds also said he is encouraged by progress in talks between the
Irish and British governments over the future of British-ruled Northern
Ireland.
	He said there are negotiations going on behind the scene that could
result in eventual peace in Northern Ireland.
	``There are meetings going on, and soundings going on behind the
scenes -- which can often be more effective than something out in the
open,'' Reynolds said.
	Reynolds, on a six-day visit to the United States, met for about an
hour withMassachusetts Gov. William Weld, Senate President William
Bulger and House Speaker Charles Flaherty.
	He said the discussions centered on ``the hopes for peace in Northern
Ireland arising out of the settlement between the Jews and the
Palestinians. If it can be done there, there's no reason why it can't be
done in Ireland.''

  
           DUBLIN, Ireland (Reuter) - An Irish engineer published new
  research Thursday which he said would shake the foundations of
  modern physics by proving that Einstein's theory of relativity
  was wrong.
           ``It demolishes the whole of the general theory of
  relativity,'' said Al Kelly, a fellow of the Institution of
  Engineers of Ireland, ahead of a lecture in Dublin's Trinity
  College where he will explain his new theory.
           Einstein's theory is founded on the argument that space and
  time are relative and may seem different to different observers.
  But Kelly thinks Einstein got it wrong. ``Time and space are
  absolute, not relative,'' he told a news conference.
           In a research paper last year Kelly said he had disproved
  Einstein's theory of the behavior of light, but was unable to
  provide an alternative theory. He now says he has discovered how
  light really behaves and his demolition of Einstein is complete.
           Kelly's new article says the speed of light can be different
  for different observers, depending on their relative motion.
           He said he discovered his theory by re-examining several
  well-known experiments. Some produced results which contradicted
  Einstein's theories, and were swept under the carpet by the
  scientific establishment as a result, Kelly said.
           ``It was like a detective story,'' he said. ``I looked at a
  number of experiments, some of them dating back to 1725, and
  many did not fit Einstein's theory. But they fit mine.''
           Trinity College, Ireland's oldest University and one of its
  most respected, said it expected Kelly's lecture to be packed.
           Kelly said he plans to lay down a challenge to the assembled
  scientists at the end of his lecture. ``I will ask them to find
  fault with the arguments I have presented -- or accept that
  Einstein's theory is wrong.''