[caption id="attachment_67448" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Ciaran O'Reilly and Charlotte Moore."]
Visitors to New York City whose presence has an Irish context often remark that there are an extraordinary number of Irish events in the town on a given night, even if that night be Monday.
The Monday just passed was a case in point. There was the Irish American Writers and Artists event at Rosie O'Grady's in which the Irish Repertory Theatre duo of Ciaran O'Reilly and Charlotte Moore were deservedly lauded.
Just across town there was an Irish Americans for Crowley fundraiser at the Fitzpatrick Grand Central Hotel for Congressman Joe Crowley. Is there an election year looming perchance?
The listed hosts for the gathering included Loretta Brennan-Glucksman, Andy Breslin, John Breslin, Michael Carey, Michael Carroll, Sean Crowley, John Dearie, JP Delaney, Bob Donnelly, Sean Downes, Bill Driscoll, John Fitzpatrick, Adrian Flannelly, Terry Flynn, Marty Glennon, Laura Jean Hawkins, Dennis Patrick Kelleher, Joseph Kelleher, Cody McCone, Mike McGuire, Brian Meara, Tom Moran, Royce Mulholland, Scott Murphy, Reilly O'Connor, Stella O'Leary, George Reilly, James Ryan and Veronica Sullivan.
Crowley will need every penny just to pay for the Christmas card list arising out of this bunfight, never mind the reelection campaign.
Earlier in the evening, the action was at the Irish Consulate on Park Avenue where the grand marshal for the 2012 St. Patrick's Day parade, Francis Comerford, was introduced at a packed reception.
And that, dear readers, was just Monday, and merely the events that crossed IF's desk.
INTERESTING TURN
Interesting indeed that the latest opinion poll front runner in the Irish presidential election is not a politician or an academic, but an entrepreneur. You would think that after all the years of entrepreneurs dominating Irish life to the point of collapse that Sean Gallagher would have difficulties presenting himself as the most worthy occupant of the presidential pile in the Phoenix Park.
But no. There is, it would seem, a second act in Irish life too.
TIMES LINES
The 1989 murder of Pat Finucane went unreported for a month in the New York Times and there was uproar. So somebody at the Old Gray Lady must have been on the ball when the British government last week ruled out an inquiry, 22 years on.
Here's what she said: "The British government said Wednesday that it would reopen its investigation into the involvement of British forces in one of the most high-profile killings in Northern Ireland during the 30 years of violence known as the Troubles.
"But the decision to appoint a prominent British human rights lawyer to prepare a report on the extent of police and army "collusion" in the 1989 killing of Patrick Finucane, a lawyer who had represented Irish Republic Army activists, angered his family.
"They had demanded a full judicial inquiry similar to the one that was completed last year into the 'Bloody Sunday' killings of 1972, when British troops shot and killed 13 unarmed Catholic protesters, with another protester dying later of his wounds. The $300 million cost of that inquiry, and the 12 years it took to complete, were cited by the government as reasons for not appointing a similar inquiry in the Finucane case. A previous inquiry had shown that Mr. Finucane was shot 14 times by Protestant gunmen as he ate a meal at his home with his wife and children."
