Consul General coming to town and Irish holiday happenings
PDX HIBERNIAN INDEPENDENT Volume Two. Number Forty. 5 December 2024.
More than an email. Less than a newspaper. In your email box the first and third Thursday morning of every month. Published by The Portland Hibernian Society.
Maidin mhaith.
Ireland’s West Coast Consul General coming to Kells...Celebrate your Irish Citizenship soon with a proper swearing in...Meet the Director of Corrib’s Waiting for Godot TONIGHT...Hibernian Holiday Happening 12.14....Greetings from Clonmacnoise...Whatever happened to Kathleen’s of Dublin in Downtown Portland?...Have you seen Say Nothing? You haven’t seen anything yet...And Election News from Ireland for those of you who care.
CHRISTMAS SURPRISE
Irish Network Portland President Denise McElwain announced Wednesday afternoon that there will be a special guest at the INP holiday gathering at Kells on Friday December 6. No, not Santa Claus. Micheal Smith, Consul General for Ireland in San Francisco, will be attending the annual event upstairs at Kells (112 SW Second Ave.). "He’s looking forward to meeting many of you there, so if you haven’t already confirmed your attendance, I encourage you to secure your tickets," said President McElwain. You can still get tickets.
Ireland’s Consul General here on the West Coast, Micheal Smith, on stage at Kells in July 2023.
IRISH CONSULATE CONSIDERS CITIZENSHIP CEREMONIES
If you’re one of the thousands of Greater Portland residents with Irish citizenship, would you be interested in attending an official swearing-in ceremony put on by the Irish Government? This announcement arrived the other day: The Consulate General of Ireland is delighted to call for expressions of interest to attend our first citizenship ceremony, to be held in San Francisco. This ceremony is being organised to acknowledge citizens who acquired their citizenship through Foreign Birth Registration." Interested? If enough Irish “citizens” from Oregon and SW Washington are, there could be a citizenship ceremony in Portland. Click here to sign up.. "Further details as to the date, time, location and event particulars will be shared with eligible applications in due course.”
CITIZENSHIP CEREMONIES IN IRELAND – A LOT OF THEM
Numbers just released in Dublin show a steep increase in the number of new citizens of Ireland. In 2024, 30,000 people were granted citizenship. In 2023 that number was 20,000. In 2022 15,000. For a nation that’s known for more people leaving than arriving this is a turnabout. It’s estimated that 20% of Irish citizens today weren’t born in Ireland. (To attain Irish citizenship, one must live there for a minimum of five years.) "Our new citizens play an essential role fueling growth in our economy. They also contribute immensely to industries where we have labour shortages like construction, agriculture and healthcare. They also make our workforce more diverse and inclusive,” said Minister of Justice Helen Mc Entee. A significant number of the new citizens are nurses.
IRISH THEATER IMMERSION IN NW PORTLAND
Tonight – Dec. 5 - is your chance for the full theatrical experience of seeing the play Waiting For Godot AND meeting the play’s director, cast and crew. Corrib Theatre is staging Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, directed by Patty Gallagher, from tonight Dec. 5 until Dec 15, 2024. Performances run Thu – Sat @ 7:30pm and Sun @ 2pm at COHO Theatre (2257 NW Raleigh St, Portland, OR 97210) Tickets are $40 ($15 Student) and can be purchased by calling 503-389-0579 or visiting https://corribtheatre.org/waiting-for-godot. Post-show talkback with Artistic Director Holly Griffith, Director Patty Gallagher, and cast members-- Thursday, Dec 5.
JOIN US AT THE PHS HOLIDAY LUNCH - DEC. 14
Instead of our Third Thursday monthly meeting in December, your Portland Hibernian Society is having a holiday luncheon Saturday December 14 at Kells Restaurant – 112 SW Second Ave. It’s a great reason for a holiday season trip to our city center. Tim and Katie Hennessy will be sharing some of the highlights of their recent visit to Clonmacnoise. It’s there that they saw the original Cross of the Scriptures, which is the model for the Cross at the Oregon Potato Famine Memorial at Mount Calvary Cemetery. Tim and Katie were assured by staff at Clonmacnoise that they are well aware in Ireland of the Cross of the Scriptures in Portland, Oregon. The original was dedicated in the Tenth Century. The Cross at Mt. Calvary was dedicated on December 13, 2008.
WHAT BECAME OF KATHLEEN’S OF DUBLIN
Christmas shopping in downtown Portland “back in the day” (the day being 1993 to 2011) always included a stop at Kathleen’s of Dublin. First at the 860 SW Broadway location and then at the corner or Salmon and Park (where Coffee People used to be). So, when Hibernian Mike Phillips asked recently, “Whatever happened to Kathleens of Dublin?” the PDX HI reached out to owner Cynthia Myers. Stand by for a happy ending. In 2008 Kathleens had just moved into the Salmon St. location. “That winter, nine days before Christmas, Portland was hit with one of the largest recorded snowstorms, planes didn’t fly, highways were closed, and side streets were unpassable for days up to and beyond Christmas. We lost a huge amount of Christmas sales and the revenue needed to make it through the next three-quarters,” explains Myers. Click here for her full accounting of Kathleen’s of Dublin. When she was forced to close that store in 2011, she told the Oregonian “"Our wonderful customers, rightfully, have had to be very cautious about their spending. Nothing we sell is anything you must have to live. We just added a little joy to people's lives." Kathleen’s Lives. From Myers, “Under the brand GPD Designs, my jewelry can be found in Irish and Scottish Shops across the US and in Canada. The Celtic Jewelry Studio.com is my retail website. Traveling to Ireland and the Celtic Isles for many years for the shop I became very familiar with the folklore and legends, the Celtic people, their history and the wonderful mythology of the Celts. I took that living history and have handcrafted Jewelry with an ancient story.” One that has a happy ending.
WHAT TO MAKE OF THE IRISH ELECTION RESULTS
If Ireland’s recent snap election was the Olympics, the top three political parties would be on the podium. Fianna Fáil (formed by Anti Treaty forces in the 1920s) won gold with 48 seats in the Dail. Sinn Fein (the political arm of the IRA back in those days) won silver with 39 seats. Fine Gael (the party of the Free Staters) won bronze with 38 seats. By joining in a coalition, FF and FG will still run the government. Micheal Martin could be the new Taoiseach. RTE provides some depth here. What DIDN’T happen was newsworthy to Fintan O’Toole “The far right did not make enough gains on Friday to win Dáil seats, but its plethora of would-be tribunes of “the people” did eat into parts of Sinn Féin’s traditional ethno-nationalist base.” The pro-business mindset in Leister House will stay, according to CNBC.
SAY NOTHING AGAIN
There’s no intention here to spoil any of the surprises in SAY NOTHING, the Hulu series based on the book of the same name about The Troubles in Northern Ireland. So, let’s just say, if you haven’t seen Season One yet, there won't be a Season Two. “Unlikely,” said the show’s creator Joshua Zetumer, “It had to be one season. We are trying to cram as much into one season as most shows do in three.” Forbes reports Say Nothing is top o’ the pops, so to speak. “Say Nothing currently has a stellar 93% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and a matching 93% from audiences, making it one of the highest reviewed recent shows across streaming services.” If you’ve seen it and want to see more about The Troubles, “Zetumer recommends Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland. A four-part docuseries that "mixes extraordinary archive footage and emotionally compelling first-person testimonies to create an intimate, multi-generational portrait of Northern Ireland’s past, present and future with an emphasis on understanding and empathy for all points of view," It’s streaming on PBS.org. SPOILER ALERT! If you don’t want to know how it all turns out, DO NOT read this article about a threatened lawsuit against Disney by one of the sisters portrayed in Say Nothing.
THE MUSIC MAN OF IRELAND – PHIL COULTER
During Hibernian David O’Longaigh’s excellent session on Irish music at our November meeting, brief mention was made of a man who has had a huge impact on modern Irish music as we know it. It’s quite possible one of his songs will still be sung prior to sporting events in Ireland a century from now. He is Phil Coulter. Luke Kelly’s version of The Town I Loved So Well, written by Coulter about his hometown of Derry, was a highlight of David’s talk. Van Morrison. Sinead O’Connor. Tom Jones. Planxty. Celtic Women. Couter has worked with them all and many more Irish and English musicians going bac to the Irish show bands of the early sixties. “He has also written the ‘neutral’ anthem Ireland’s Call used by sports teams drawn from across the island of Ireland.” He’s still touring. Born in Derry. Lives in Bray. Loves Donegal. “Derry may be The Town I Loved So Well but Donegal would be like my spiritual home. I still love to visit Lough Swilly. It’s like going back to the well.”
PLEASE JOIN US ON SATURDAY DECEMBER 14 AT NOON FOR OUR ANNUAL NO HOST/SEPARATE CHECK HOLIDAY LUNCHEON IN THE RESTAURANT AT KELLS DOWNTOWN. GO RAIBH MAITH AGAT.
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