MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Northern Ireland

The Company We Keep

By HomepageNo Comments

greece_3402538bMy son asked me a question the other day that still cuts very deep.

“How are you comfortable being in league with racists, xenophobes and reactionaries?” he asked.

What prompted the question was my support for Brexit.

I’ll admit it is true that the likes of Boris Johnson, the idiotic and racist former London mayor, and Nigel Farage who leads the UK Independence Party (UKIP), a right-wing political party, stoked anti-immigrant fervor to sell their successful campaign to get Britain out of the European Union.

And, let’s not forget our own resident bigot, one Donald Trump, the next president of the United States, was ecstatic at the outcome. Just yesterday, Marine Le Pen of the French racist National Front political party wrote an Op-Ed in The New York Times praising the Brits’ courage for their Brexit vote.

The reactions to Brexit, especially in the media, have been hyperbolic. In a highly emotional editorial yesterday, the Times castigated Brexit proponents for “backing away from the false claims and dubious promises that they made in the run-up to the referendum to take Britain out of the European Union.”

I know the financial markets have been tantrumy since the vote but everything is going to be all right. The world on Friday and since has been no different than it was on Wednesday, the day before the Brexit vote. Despite corporations and the markets behaving the way they are, nothing is really being lost.

Let me rephrase that. Read More

Visiting Irish Rugby Player Drops the Bowl Near Goal By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments
Thursday, March 13, 1997

An Irish rugby team traveled thousands of miles with a precious $ 2,000 hand-crafted crystal rose bowl for Mayor Giuliani but it was ruined when a player dropped it 30 feet short of its destination.

The good-will gift which survived a worldwide obstacle course of customs and airport security checkpoints, plus bumpy New York City streets fell to the floor as it was being placed into a City Hall metal detector.

Its base shattered into “10 million pieces,” one player said.

“I was tripped,” groused player Arthur Campbell, who was carrying the bowl. He fingered the culprit as the City Hall security officer who ordered him to put the box containing the gift through the detector.

The team with players from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will play two games this weekend for charities and attend the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Mayoral spokeswoman Colleen Roche said Giuliani was unaware of the bowl debacle, even as he posed with Campbell who was holding what remained of the bowl for photographs.

But there were other gifts in the offing a plaque and letter from the lord mayor of Belfast, and a decanter of powerful Black Bush Irish Whiskey.

“It’s rocket fuel,” George Martin, another team member, told Giuliani of the whiskey. “I suggest one little thimble at a time, first thing in the morning when you get up.”