Brink’s job was a cinch, Millar says

Sam Millar, writing in “On the Brinks,” claimed that the robbery, which netted a record $7.4 million, was as easy to pull off as robbing a “cheesebox.”
And he further claimed that he and Limerick-born Melkite Catholic priest Fr. Pat Moloney stashed a portion of the haul in Manhattan.
Millar — who is now living in his native Belfast — and Moloney both served prison sentences for possessing stolen money but were never charged with actually carrying out the heist.
And neither will be now because the statute of limitations in the case ran out in 1998.
Moloney, who could not be contacted by press time, has always maintained his innocence, though shortly after the robbery, over $2 million was recovered by the FBI from a Manhattan apartment he was subletting.
In his book, Millar describes heaving “mountains of money” into sacks. And he claims that the bulk of the haul, about $5.2 million, was subsequently stolen from the home of a lawyer by an unidentified cocaine addict.
The main focus of investigators, retired Rochester cop and then Brink’s security guard Tom O’Connor, was acquitted in his trial.
Moloney served four years in a federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania and was released in late 1998.
“I never did the Brink’s,” he told the Echo shortly after his release.

IMMIGRANT PROTEST
HEADING FOR QUEENS
The plight of undocumented immigrants, Irish among them, is being highlighted across the U.S. this week by means of an “Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride” that will converge on Queens on Oct. 4.
The freedom ride began Tuesday with busloads of immigrants setting out from 10 U.S. cities bound for New York City.
The event, which is being sponsored by the AFL-CIO, is intended to mimic and pay tribute to the civil rights freedom rides of the 1960s.
“Something’s broken in the system. The road to U.S. citizenship should be paved. Instead of a welcome sign we’ve got potholes,” Brian McLaughlin, president of the New York AFL-CIO and chief organizer of the Oct. 4 rally in Flushing, said.
McLaughlin added that while shares the desire for secure borders, he is deeply concerned over the “unfettered discretion” given the U.S. government under present immigration laws to detain people at great lengths.
The freedom ride, McLaughlin said, would focus on this issue and also the need for all immigrants, including the undocumented, to be treated with dignity in the workplace.
Estimates of the total number of undocumented or immigrants in the U.S. range as high as 8 million. Some recent estimates place the number of undocumented Irish at anywhere between 30,000 and 50,000.
Efforts to address the problems faced by the undocumented have been stirring in Congress, where onetime talk of an “amnesty” for illegals has been replaced with the revised and less politically explosive concept of “earned adjustment.”

HELPING STEPHEN MULVANEY
Friends and family of Stephen Mulvaney will gather this weekend to raise funds in aid of Rockland County resident Stephen Mulvaney, who suffers from a rare and debilitating illness with symptoms similar to rheumatoid arthritis.
Mulvaney, whose father, Sligo native Thomas “Vinny” Mulvaney, recently died, has been unable to work as a result of the combined effects of his condition and medication.
The Mulvaney benefit will be at the Rockland Irish American Cultural Center in Blauvelt on Saturday, Sept. 27, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Details from Brigid Murray (718) 549-9408, Peter Madden (845)359-1580 or Tommy Madden (845)735-4126.

RALLYING FOR O’REILLY FAMILY
A benefit to defray medical and funeral expenses incurred by the tragic death last month of a young Queens boy is being held next month in Sunnyside, Queens.
Cailean O’Reilly, who was just 11, died Aug. 8 in Albany Medical Center, where he had been on life support after suffering a brain aneurysm.
Cailean’s remains were flown back to Ireland for burial. His parents, Michael O’Reilly from Cavan and Rosemary from County Monaghan are well known in the New York GAA.
Michael O’Reilly is president of the Shannon Gaels GAA Club of which Cailean was a playing member.
The benefit will be held at Bliss Street Station bar and restaurant on Sunday, Oct. 19, beginning at 3 p.m. Details from Cathy Loftus (917)414-2332, Mary Sweeney (917)270-4455 or Mary Hurley at (718)898-1425.

LIEBERMAN CALLS
FOR NORTH VOTE
Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman has called for the postponed elections in Northern Ireland to be held immediately.
In a statement carried by his campaign website, Lieberman accused President Bush of “very rarely” being personally involved in the peace process.
“Joe Lieberman would not only be personally involved, but personally invested in forging a lasting peace,” the statement said.
It added that the principles on which the Good Friday agreement was based remained sound and that the British government should “immediately set a date” for assembly elections “to ensure that there will be no reversal of the democratic process in Northern Ireland.”

COMPTROLLERS WARN
OVER DISPUTE
The comptrollers of both New York City and State have warned that Empire State pension-fund investments in companies doing business in Northern Ireland might be jeopardized by a dispute centered on the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.
The warning was issued jointly by state comptroller Alan Hevesi and his city counterpart, William Thompson, in a letter sent to both the Irish and British governments.
Hevesi and Thompson control roughly $180 billion in pension-fund money with more than $15 billion of this total invested in U.S. corporations doing business in the North.
Hevesi and Thompson did not threaten a withdrawal of investments but stated that the investments could be jeopardized by charges that the commission is undermining Northern Ireland’s fair-employment laws.
Both comptrollers wrote that the pension funds they control “operate under statutory guidelines that mandate the promotion of fair employment practices” in Northern Ireland.

WHEN IN NAPLES
The Irish American Club of Naples, Fla., has a new president. Michael F. Ward, a local restaurateur, said he was looking forward to his year-long term of office.
The reason that the club was formed was to “preserve and foster our precious legacy, our Irish culture which has been handed down to our generation,” Ward said in a statement.
Education programs and concerts would be the centerpiece of the club as it went about this task, Ward said.