AOH Pennsylvania State Board

Brothers, We believe this says it all. The Easter Rising Proclamation of the Republic in 1916 also uses the word Citizens.
We need to continue to push our United Ireland Resolutions.
Remember what it really means to all Americans
Jefferson changed ‘subjects’ to ‘citizens’ in Declaration of Independence

Washington Post Staff Writer
By Marc Kaufman

That’s what Thomas Jefferson first wrote in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence to describe the people of the 13 colonies.
This Story
But in a moment when history took a sharp turn, Jefferson sought quite methodically to expunge the word, to wipe it out of existence and write over it. Many words were crossed out and replaced in the draft, but only one was obliterated.
Over the smudge, Jefferson then wrote the word “citizens.”
No longer subjects to the crown, the colonists became something different: a people whose allegiance was to one another, not to a faraway monarch.
Scholars of the revolution have long speculated about the “citizens” smear — wondering whether the erased word was “patriots” or “residents” — but now the Library of Congress has determined that the change was far more dramatic.
Using a modified version of the kind of spectral imaging technology developed for the military and for monitoring agriculture, research scientists teased apart the mystery and reconstructed the word that Jefferson banished in 1776.
“Seldom can we re-create a moment in history in such a dramatic and living way,” Library of Congress preservation director Dianne van der Reyden said at Friday’s announcement of the discovery.
“It’s almost like we can see him write ‘subjects’ and then quickly decide that’s not what he wanted to say at all, that he didn’t even want a record of it,” she said. “Really, it sends chills down the spine.”
The library deciphered the hidden “subjects” several months ago, the first major finding attributed to its new high-tech instruments. By studying the document at different wavelengths of light, including infrared and ultraviolet, researchers detected slightly different chemical signatures in the remnant ink of the erased word than in “citizens.” Those differences allowed the team to bring the erased word back to life.
But the task was made more difficult by the way Jefferson sought to match the lines and curves of the underlying smudged letters with the new letters he wrote on top of them. It took research scientist Fenella France weeks to pull out each letter until the full word became apparent.
“It’s quite amazing how he morphed ‘subjects’ into ‘citizens,’ ” she said. “We did the reverse morphing back to ‘subjects.’ ”
France said the possibility that the erased word was “subjects” came up during a talk she gave to library donors and visitors about how to study historical documents without harming them. France had determined that a word existed beneath “citizens,” and she asked the group for ideas. One woman called out “subjects,” and library staff members immediately realized that she was on to something. The intensive work on the document soon began.
The erased word is on the third of the draft’s four pages, in the section that addressed grievances against King George III and outlined his incitement of “treasonable insurrections.” The sentence is not found in the later Declaration of Independence, but “citizens” is used elsewhere in that document and “subjects” is not.
Scholars previously determined that Jefferson had been writing his early version based on the first draft of Virginia’s constitution, where the words “our fellow subjects” appear.
Finding Jefferson’s erased word is the library’s greatest accomplishment using its new technology, but several other projects are in progress. The imaging device, for instance, found thumb and fingerprints on the Gettysburg Address using infrared light, and library researchers are seeking to determine whether they are President Abraham Lincoln’s.
Light outside the visible range has also brought to life details of Pierre L’Enfant’s design for Washington and notes on papers of Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
Van der Reyden said the research and discoveries illustrate why it’s so important to keep and protect original documents. The erased “subjects,” she said, could have been detected only from Jefferson’s original draft

This is welcome news for so many of our membership are not near enough to Ireland, by generations, to apply for a little piece of Ireland.

Irish Heritage Certificates Announced by Government
May allow discounts on many services in Ireland including airfares.
By: Patrick Cooper

Government to recognize 70 million diaspora

The Irish government is to introduce a certificate of Irish heritage for the 70 million Irish of the Diaspora who do not qualify for an Irish passport.
The certificates are expected to be available from the end of this year.
The initiative, was first put forward  at the Global Irish Economic Forum at Farmleigh last year.
The certificates may allow discounts on many services in Ireland including air fares, hotel accomadation and a range of other tourist related activities.
The certificates will be issued by a third party business working with the Irish government.
The government believes the heritage certificate will be a valuable heirloom for millions of Irish descent who will be able to display them.
Foreign Minister Michael Martin  said the Government had taken “a broad and inclusive approach to defining Ireland’s global community. The Irish diaspora is not limited to Irish citizens living abroad or to those who have activated citizenship. Instead, it encompasses all those who believe they are of Irish descent and feel a sense of affinity with this country.”
He stated that “the reach, power and influence of many members of the diaspora can provide Ireland with an important competitive edge”, he pointed out.
Some speakers at Farmleigh were critical of the fact that there was no attempt to reach out to those Irish who did not have access to Irish citizenship but who wanted to be part of the Diaspora.

These are key findings, we regret any replication of effort or information.

Point of fact: Martin McGuinness was a leader in the Provisional IRA, not the Official IRA, the OIRA which was thought to have fired up to three shots after the soldiers started firing. It is possible to be confused.

The witnesses who supposedly saw McGuinness with a Thompson machine gun was anonymous and every picture of which there are several that day does not show the young volunteer with such a huge weapon.

As Michael Cummings, former AOH Board Member, was good enough to point out before the report, the British have a way of trying to get people to “take their eye off the ball” by adding a diversion. This may just be that diversion.
The full text of Lord Saville’s report into the Bloody
Sunday killings can be found at the following link:
http://report.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org/

Below are some of the main findings from the report:

British army
- Firing by British soldiers of 1 Para caused the deaths of 13 people and injury to a similar number, none of whom posed a threat.
- This also applied to the 14th victim, who died later from injuries.
- “Despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers, we have concluded that none of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers.”
- The accounts of soldiers to the inquiry were rejected, with a number said to have “knowingly put forward false
accounts”.
- Five soldiers fired in the belief that no-one in the area they were firing at posed a threat.
- Two soldiers fired in the belief that they might have identified gunmen, but without being certain.
- Failure by the soldiers to give a warning was not a technicality.

British army commanders
- Soldiers of Support Company went into Bogside due to an order by Colonel Wilford, which should not have been given and was contrary to orders he received from Brigadier MacLellan.
- Commander of land forces in Northern Ireland, Major General Robert Ford, would have been aware that the Parachute Regiment had a reputation for using excessive force. But he would not have believed there was a risk of paratroopers firing unjustifiably.

Marchers
- No blame was placed on the organisers of the march, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.
Provisional and Official IRA
- Members of official IRA fired shots although paratroopersvshot first on Bloody Sunday
- Bloody Sunday strengthened the Provisional IRA, increasedvnationalist resentment and hostility towards the Britishvarmy and exacerbated the violent conflict.
- “We have no doubt that there was significant Official IRAvactivity in the five sectors during Bloody Sunday, though invour view, this did not provide an explanation for whyvsoldiers targeted and hit people who were not posing a threat of causing death or serious injury”.
- There was no evidence that any Provisional IRA member used or intended to use the march to engage the security forces with guns or bombs.
- “We consider it likely that Martin McGuinness was armed with a Thompson sub-machine gun on Bloody Sunday and we cannot eliminate the possibility that he fired this weapon after the soldiers had come into the Bogside”.
- Report concludes: “He did not engage in any activity that provided any of the soldiers with any justification for opening fire”.
- “With the exception of the shot fired by the Official IRA at a soldier near the Presbyterian church there is no evidence that suggests to us that other members of the Official IRA used the march for the purpose of engaging the security forces with guns or bombs”.

Governments
- Neither British nor Northern Ireland governments planned or foresaw the use of unnecessary lethal force by soldiers.
__________________________________________________________

The Irish American Information Service is a non-profit organization
providing up-to-the-minute political news from Ireland to the world.
The IAIS is funded entirely by your contributions. Please send your
tax-deductible contributions to IAIS at 505 S East St, Culpeper VA 22701
You can visit us on the Web at http://www.iais.org

Please respect Belfast’s Gaeltacht Quarter and include Irish-language signage at your Falls Road location.

Please do not engage in selective discrimination against the Irish-speaking community by means of stealth cultural warfare and ethnic cleansing,

Such is not befitting your company or any other conducting business in this 21st Century.

http://www.nuacht24.com/nuacht/3349/

http://apublishersblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/busted-flush.html

The statistics for Irish spoken by NYC residents and visitors here are interesting and deserve careful consideration:

● NYC welcomed 268,000 visitors from Ireland (presumably the 26 countries) in 2009.

● According to the Central Census Office in Dublin, 41.9% of people in the 26 counties speak Irish. If this is accurate, the percentage of those who can READ Irish (and hence, can use an Irish ATM interface) would have to be higher. (If not fully accurate, the census answers certainly indicate an enthusiastic support for Irish.)

● If these Irish visitors to NYC are indicative of the norm in Ireland, we can safely assume that more than 112292 of last year’s visitors can read Irish.

● Still, a combined report by the University of Ulster and the University of Limerick indicated that Irish-speakers enjoy higher incomes than the rest of the Irish population. Hence, we may suppose that a disproportionate number of these are included among those who can more readily travel to NYC.

● Furthermore, to these, we MUST add those visiting from the North of Ireland, where enthusiasm for Irish is most remarkable.

● To these, let’s add the 1290 Irish-speakers already living in Queens, the 590 in Manhattan, the 305 in Brooklyn and the 455 in the Bronx.

● Other visitors come from surrounding regions and States to visit us and are proficient in Irish.

Irish adds up!

An Irish-language ATM interface would be a win-win endeavor for Chase Bank, as well as NYC & Co (the City’s tourism & marketing office) and the Queens Tourism Council given that they show some of the imagination that is lacking in companies such Aer Lingus and too many “Irish”-American organizations in New York.

Further info: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=112321272139421

Recommended reading: http://tinyurl.com/Capitalising-on-Culture

Note to ALL AOH Pittsburgh Brothers from Ed Blank:
I have not seen the movie mentioned here, but it was Oscar-nominated a couple of months ago as Best Animated Feature and is primarily Irish in origin.  It was made in County Kilkenny.

“The Secret of Kells” will run  May 21 through June 3  at Regent Square Theater, where many of us saw “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” about three years ago.

Fridays at 8:00
Saturdays at   2:00, 4:00. 6:00 & 8:00
Sundays at  2:00, 4:00 & 6:00
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at  8:00

A publicity blurb on “The Secret of Kells”:
Audiences everywhere are applauding this Oscar-nominated animation from the producers of Triplets of Belleville and Kirikou and the Sorceress. Magic, fantasy and Celtic mythology come together in a riot of color and dazzling details in a sweeping story about the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity through dark times. Young Brendan lives in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids. One day a celebrated master illuminator arrives from foreign lands carrying an ancient but unfinished book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers. To help complete the book, Brendan must embark on a dangerous quest through an enchanted forest. (Tomm Moore; Ireland/France/Belgium; 2009; 78 min)

Brothers,

On Thursday February 25th, I was notified about an advertisement  that Denny’s was using as a promotion and I could not believe it so I made some calls and found out it was true. I contacted Joe Brady our National Anti Defamation Chairman who immediately got to work on it verifying it and getting the address phone # etc and getting a letter of to them after a phone call to them went unanswered yesterday. Click the following link (AOH Denny’s Letter) for the letter I sent to them on Thursday and since then I have heard nothing although I have been busy with a death in the family and doctors appointments. I ask all of you especially anyone near the area of their corporate offices in South Carolina to put pressure on them. On Monday morning in the philadelphia area we are having a protest outside their restaurant on City Line Ave across from the ABC Studio’s. I ask all of you to get involved if you have a Denny’s in your area and if not write them a letter and keep the phones hopping. Thank you and again I ask that all State Presidents send this info to all your county and division presidents. Thank you all.

Seamus Boyle National President

Webmaster note: Here is the phone number for Denny’s Customer Service Line – 800-733-6697, See my personal blog post here.

Wonderful news on the Irish Language that is so very important to Irish Culture, “You have no culture without language.”

As the prime defender of Irish Culture here in the United States the Ancient Order of Hibernians is well aware of the long time struggle in the Six Counties to preserve the Irish Language and all that it means to the Nationalist people of the North.

The English Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to be commended in his efforts to finance with 20 million pounds dedicated to the effort supporting the agreement from St. Andrews, which both Dublin and London guaranteed..

The collaboration with the Welsh and Scottish Committees again seems to be a very positive happening.

We should be optimistic but careful with what is occurring.

AOH National PEC Committee

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From: sfusa@earthlink.net
To: sfusa@earthlink.net
Sent: 2/15/2010 8:27:23 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Fw: Progress on Irish Language – Adams

Progress on Irish Language – Adams

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams in his Blog ‘leargas’ on the Belfast Media Group site (www.leargas.blogspot.com has revealed that the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure,’ Nelson McCausland, has committed to bringing forward a draft strategy on minority languages to the Executive by the end of March, one element of which will be “to enhance and protect the development of the Irish language as set out in Section 28D of the Northern Ireland (St. Andrews) Act 2006.”

The Sinn Féin leader has also revealed that following discussions with the British Prime Minister on the need to continue resources for building the Irish language infrastructure and the arts, Mr. Brown has “committed the British government to carry on funding the Irish Language Broadcasting Fund for a further four years after 2011, and will provide resource to continue the development of Irish language infrastructure. The resource, including the extended funding for the Broadcast Fund will amount to £20 million.

Given that this is not coming out of the Executive budget this is a welcome development.”

Writing about the Irish Language in his Blog Mr. Adams said:

“Martin McGuinness and other republican Ministers on the Executive have engaged at the British-Irish conference on this issue and with the Scottish Executive. I have engaged with Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary of State and Martin and I have talked at length with Gordon Brown on Irish language issues. We will continue all these discussions with the two governments and the Welsh and Scottish Assemblies. Bairbre de Brún MEP will also continue with her work in the European Parliament.

Our position in relation to the British government is straight forward.

The 1737 Act must go. (The 1737 Administration of Justice Act bans the use of Irish in the courts)

The British government, as part of the agreement at St. Andrews, undertook to introduce an Irish Language Act reflecting on the experience of Wales and Ireland and to work with the incoming Executive to enhance and protect the development of the Irish language. Sinn Féin has continued to hold the British government to that commitment.

It was our negotiating team which won this in the first instance and we have no intention of giving up on it.

At Hillsborough we agreed with the DUP to set up a working group to deal with outstanding elements of the St. Andrews agreement. The First and Deputy First Minister will provide a report to the Executive by the end of February detailing the level of progress made on each outstanding matter. This includes the Irish language.

They will also seek Executive approval to set up a Working Group to recommend on how progress could be made on those matters which have not been acted upon. Within four weeks of the Working Group’s initial report the First and Deputy First Minister will agree a programme to effect completion of the agreed conclusions of the Working Group.

Martin McGuinness has also raised Irish language issues directly with Peter Robinson.

In the meantime Sinn Féin Ministers will continue to support and introduce gaeilge-friendly policies in their departments, including bi-lingual services and signage, and the DUP is in no doubt about the need also for the Executive to deliver for everyone, including gaeilgeoirí.

The Minister of Education Caitriona Ruane is doing pioneering work in respect of Irish medium education. An Gaelscolaíocht has been put on a more secure footing across the north as it continues to expand and develop. At a time of falling enrolments and school closures across the education sector parents in increasing numbers are choosing Irish language schooling for their children. There are now 23 freestanding schools, 12 units and plans to develop more schools and nurseries over the next 18 months. Millions of pounds of funding and capital investment has been secured for the sector.

Our activists will continue with the work of winning support for the gaelicisation of communities, including An Ceathrú Gaeltacht in Belfast.
The work of our Irish language Cumainn will get support from the party leadership, as will initiatives like – Glór na Poblachta – our own Irish language magazine available from Sinn Féin shops and an Ceathrú Póilí. Or contact Niall Ó Donnghaile in our press office.

So, the Irish language cause is being actively pursued on a number of fronts by Sinn Féin.
This Blog has also been busy lobbying the British Prime Minister on the need to continue resources for building the Irish language infrastructure and the arts.

I am pleased to be able to reveal that Gordon Brown has committed the British government to carry on funding the Irish Language Broadcasting Fund for a further four years after 2011, and will provide resource to continue the development of Irish language infrastructure. The resource, including the extended funding for the Broadcast Fund will amount to £20 million.

Given that this is not coming out of the Executive budget this is a welcome development.

The work goes on.

But it’s bigger than Sinn Féin. We cannot change society on our own. But we can and do work with others. Our party wants to be used as a resource by those who want to create a bi-lingual society. This has to include services that ensure cradle to the grave opportunities to live through the medium of Irish, if that is your choice.

There is plenty of room for everyone in this endeavour.

It should truly be a national effort. Bígí linn.” CRÍOCH

Gerry Ennis – PA State Secretary