DSK seeks diplomatic immunity in civil case brought by hotel maid

Former IMF chief Dominque Strass-Kahn is seeking to have the civil case against him by a hotel maid who accuses him of sexual assault at a New York hotel in May dismissed.

The former front-runner in the French presidential election is claiming diplomatic immunity from civil litigation.

You'll find my report on the developments for RTE Radio 1's Morning Ireland at the link below.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0927/morningireland.html

GILMORE PLEDGES IRELAND’S “FULL SUPPORT” FOR PALESTINE’S UN BID

Palestine’s bid for membership of the United Nations is “entirely legitimate and understandable”, Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore told the UN General Assembly in New York. 

Mr Gilmore said Palestine had “the same right to membership of the United Nations as Ireland, or any other Member of the organization”, a remark that prompted applause from sections of the chamber. He promised Ireland’s “full support” in any vote on a proposal to admit Palestine as a member, or as an interim step, to give Palestine non-member observer status.

Mr Gilmore also held separate meetings yesterday with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki. The UN Security Council has begun consultations on the application by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. But the United States has threatened to veto the bid, even if Palestinians get the support of the required nine of the 15 members.

In his address to the Assembly, Mr Gilmore said that membership of the UN would not change the situation on the ground, or remove “the compelling need for negotiations”. But he said recognition of Palestinian statehood would “give dignity and support to the Palestinian people who have suffered for far too long”.

He called on Israel to halt all settlement expansion, and to end the blockade of Gaza by opening up land crossings to normal commercial, human and humanitarian crossings.

Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Gilmore praised the Arab Spring uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East as inspiring and historic. “We must ensure that the democratic changes underway are consolidated,” he said, “And that the promise of profound improvements in human rights in the countries concerned, particularly in relation to the role of women, is fully realized.”

He pledged Ireland’s support for the National Transition Council in Libya. But he expressed concern about the situation in Syria and warned President Assad that “no leader who refuses to listen to what his people are saying…can expect to remain in power.”

Mr Gilmore outlined Ireland’s determination to fighting world hunger, and said the government remained committed to achieving the UN target of providing 0.7% of GNP in Official Development Assistance. He said the international community had a moral obligation to act in the face of suffering in the Horn of Africa.

The Tanaiste also defended the United Nations itself, in the face of criticism from some countries. He said no other organization had the same global impact and legitimacy. “Ireland is deeply committed to the United Nations,” he said, “The UN is the embodiment of freedom and equality. It is a bulwark defending these core human values in a changing and uncertain world.” He said Ireland was strongly supportive of the UN’s role in peacekeeping and conflict resolution, pointing out that a 440-strong battalion from the Irish Defence Forces had recently returned to Lebanon.

GILMORE PRESENTS FIRST CERTIFICATE OF IRISH HERITAGE IN NEW YORK

The first ever Certificate of Irish Heritage has been awarded posthumously to an Irish American firefighter who died on Nine Eleven at a ceremony in New York.

Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore presented the certificate to Mrs Bridget Hunter, mother of Joe Hunter, at fire house in Maspeth, Queens where he worked.

“It’s definitely going to hang! Are you kidding me?!” said Mrs Hunter, when asked what she would be doing with the framed certificate. “It’s going to be right in front of everybody when they walk into my house.”

Mrs Hunter emigrated from Recess, Co Galway in 1958. Her son Joe was last seen walking into the south Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11^th, 2001 to help people escape.

The story of Joe Hunter first came to public attention, when it was featured in an RTE Radio documentary “Still Waiting for Joe” broadcast at the end of August. The Department of Foreign Affairs approached the family to see if they would like to receive the honour of getting the first certificate.

“(Joe) ended up losing his life in the Twin Towers, attempting to save the lives of others, and attempting to ease the suffering that was taking place on that occasion,” said Mr Gilmore. “I don’t think there is anybody more fitting to get the first Certificate of Irish Heritage than somebody who made such a sacrifice.”

He said Ireland was proud of the sacrifice made by all Irish-American firefighters on that day. Monday night’s presentation was attended by the Chief of the Fire Department of New York Ed Kilduff, who said it was “an extraordinary honour” to have one of its own singled out to receive the first certificate. He said photographs from the event will be distributed to the large contingent of Irish Americans in the Fire Department, to show that “the Irish government, by coming here to this location, is really expressing their appreciation to all firefighters”.

The event was also attended by FDNY chaplain Chris Keenan, Ireland’s ambassador to the US Michael Collins, Irish Consul-General in New York Noel Kilkenny and members of the Hunter family.

Joe Hunter was a quiet and reserved guy, according to his brother Sean. “He actually would have been embarrassed by all this attention, but he would be really honored too” he said. Joe’s sister Teresa said her late brother was fiercely proud of his Irish heritage. “He had an Irish shamrock on his racing helmet, he had an Irish shamrock on his car, he had an Irish shamrock everywhere. So this is a tremendous honor,” she said. “We have such a large family here. My mom is one of 14, and we have about 50 first cousins, who are scattered all over here. Not just for our family, but also our friends, this is overwhelming. It’s hard to put into words, being the first of something that’s going to be now carried on for years to come in Ireland, America and the whole world.”

The framed certificate contains a quote from the Irish constitution which says “The Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.” The inscription is on a colour background featuring Edwin Hayes’ 1953 painting of “An Emigrant Ship, Dublin Bay, Sunset”, one of three designs applicants for the new certificates will be able to choose from. The scheme to provide Certificates to Irish diaspora around the world will be formally launched next month at Dublin Castle during the upcoming Global Irish Economic Forum. It’s expected that former US President Bill Clinton will be presented with the second Certificate of Irish Heritage at that event.

The idea for the certificates originated more than two years ago and received support at the last Forum in Farmleigh in 2009. FEXCO, a company based in Killorglin, Co Kerry has been awarded the contract to manage applications and issue certificates. A website, www.heritagecertificate.ie, will go live at the end of this month, with applications being accepted after its formal launch in October. Each cert will cost €40 and applications are open only to people who were not born on the island of Ireland. Those who wish to obtain one will be asked to provide documentary evidence connecting them to a specific Irish ancestor.

Documents including birth certs, death certs, marriage certs, land records, ship manifestos, census records or other immigration documents will be acceptable. The requirements may develop over time, if necessary, to include the option of swearing a legal affidavit proving Irish heritage, where no records exist due to the passage of time.

Mr Gilmore said the document will have no legal, political, economic or commercial benefit, but was about officially recognizing someone’s connection to Ireland. “One of the things that we have been hearing from people of Irish descent is that they want to have some formal acknowledgment of their Irish heritage, something to hang on the wall that says officially that they are Irish,” he said.

At current estimates, over 70 million people worldwide claim Irish ancestry.  Mr Gilmore said there was no way of knowing what demand will be like for the certificates once they are launched, but suspects that it’s an idea that will grow over time. The certificates will be actively promoted through embassies and consulates, and through Irish-American organisations in the US.

Nine Eleven memories linger for Irish in New York

Even now, a decade on, Honor Molloy won't look at pictures or films
about the 9/11 attacks.

"I just don't," she says, "I want my own memories of it."

The Dublin-born playwright, who moved to the US in 1969, was living in
the shadows of the Twin Towers in 2001 - just three blocks north on
Greenwich Street.

She can recall going for a jog that morning, passing the flow of people
coming off ferries and out of subways on their way to work in the World
Trade Centre.

Many of them would never go home.

She was in the elevator of her building when the first plane struck, but
was out in the street with her partner and neighbours as the second
tower was hit.

"It was an explosion of orange. It was insane." she recalls.

"There was no frame to this experience. This was not a TV show. Time
compressed and expanded. There was no end. There was no narrative. I
remember the fear."

An overheard conversation sticks out in her mind - between a young
mother and her five year old child.

The boy pointed up and said: 'Somebody jumped'.

The mother said, 'No they didn't. It's just glass'.

Then, later when people were jumping, the boy said: 'Those buildings
could fall'.

The mother looked at her son, and reassured him: 'No they couldn't."

Like everyone else in Lower Manhattan that day, Honor was evacuated from
her home.

She remembers returning to the street where she lived the next day.

"It was like Dinosaur World. I mean, the cars were all burnt. There were
grey carcasses of cars, hundreds of them, lining Church St with ash all
over them."

Soon it became clear that they had lost people in their neighborhood,
and she noticed the loss in peculiar ways.

The normally-busy gym on her street was emptier, for example.

She plans to leave New York for the anniversary - she's going to
Pennsylvania for the weekend.

"It just hurts too much still," she says, "I can't stand sentiment."

"I don't talk about this with people. This is not something that I open
up about."

Maurice Landers, director of Failte 32, which helps new Irish immigrants
to the US, was working in Midtown when the Towers collapsed.

His first instinct, like many others, was to make his way downtown to
see if he could help.

"They were organizing volunteers, next to the courthouses, to go on
buses into the site to tend to the wounded," says Landers.

"They gave us cloths to wrap around any wounds, gave us face masks and
gloves.

"I went on one of the buses which drove through the plume of smoke that
covered the area but by the time we arrived near the site, the Army
Reserves were directing everyone away from the area.

"They knew the third building was going to fall, and were not going to
put untrained volunteers in amongst the rubble."

By then it was clear there would be few survivors.

"It was ominous to see one medical centre that had prepared for the
arrival of the wounded by erecting a canopy outside the main entrance,
housing empty stretchers and other medical equipment.

"Staff were just waiting in hope to treat people but probably realized
that no one was coming at that stage. A sad day."
Prominent Irish-American radio host Adrian Flannelly had just finished a
broadcast when news broke that the terrorists had struck.

His thoughts immediately turned to his two daughters who worked in Lower
Manhattan.

One, Eileen, had phoned him moments earlier.

She had been on a bus, about four blocks from the Twin Towers, when the
impact of the first plane knocked the vehicle on its side.

At the time, Flannelly was unaware of how serious the attacks were, and
thought his daughter was just being a drama queen.

Now, he realized the enormity of what was unfolding.

It would be 36 hours before he heard from Eileen again, and a full three
days before he made contact with his other daughter Kathleen who worked
in the area to confirm she was safe.

"It was horrific. It was awful," he says, "The uncertainty of it all."

"Take the scene: no subway, no buses, the city in lockdown. No
communications. Cellphones down. There were people who didn't hear from
their kids for ten days. This was not unusual."

Flannelly was working as an Irish community liaison officer for New
York's mayor Rudy Giuliani at the time.

In the days the followed, it soon emerged that the cops, fireman and
other first responders who died were predominantly Irish-American.

"It seemed as each day went by that it was a woefully lob-sided
percentage of the fatalities," he said.

"We still know many people who were injured, some of them quite
severely. I don't think history will even record it. Those that were
merely hurt didn't even count."
Flannelly has been in the US since 1959, and says Nine Eleven has
changed the country.

Americans feel less safe.

"That's never coming back," he says.

LADDER 3 FIREFIGHTERS REMEMBER THEIR FALLEN HEROES

In the days that followed, those that were left at Ladder Three fire house in New York’s East Village kept searching through the rubble at the World Trade Centre.

“We kept looking. We kept going back. You wanted to find them, but in the back of your mind, you knew it wasn’t good. But you had to go down there and exhaust all possibilities,” says Jimmy Wind, one of a handful of the firefighters still working at Ladder Three ten years on.

The company lost 12 fire fighters that day – wiping out over a third of the entire staff there.

The men who died left 16 children behind.

It was a story repeated in Fire Stations across New York – 343 fire fighters in all lost their lives that day.

“You had to face it, as much as you wanted them, you were coming to the realization that you weren’t finding anybody after the first day or so,” says Wind.

In the following weeks, returning to the scene became counter-productive.

“It was hard between funerals and working a schedule. Guys were getting depressed going down there,” says Wind.

Mike Moran, another Ladder Three fire-fighter, lost his older brother John, who was a fire chief at Special Operations Command when the Twin Towers collapsed.

“We never found any part of his body. Maybe three or four days went by, and you were kind of hoping.

“You were hearing reports that people were trapped. But other than that first night, they didn’t get anybody out alive.”

And Moran was there working on the rescue line for days, despite his loss of family, friends and colleagues.

In the wake of the attacks, firefighters became heroes in the city.

The dangers of the job, taken for granted before, were now appreciated.

Ten years later, while the 343 Fallen are still honored, the city has returned to its old patterns.

“It was different in New York after Nine Eleven. There was not as much traffic but it seemed like any traffic that was on the streets, when you responded they pulled over and stopped. But now it’s kinda back to the rat race,” said Wind.

“I still miss all the guys, not only from my house, but from others. It was hard for all of them. Everybody lost people.”
Mike Moran became a folk hero among his fellow fire fighters in the weeks after Nine Eleven.
At a tribute concert in Madison Square Garden, Moran took the microphone and told Osama Bin Laden to “kiss my royal Irish ass”.

The audience – mostly cops and fire fighters – went wild.
“I was thinking to myself, if they let me say something, I’m not going to say anything nice,” he recalls. 


“I was in the mood for a battle”

“I think people were a looking for a little anger.”

The concert took place on the day of the funeral for his colleague Michael Carroll – who drove the fire truck from Ladder Three down to the World Trade Centre on the morning of the attacks.

Carroll had relieved Moran at six the night before.

“We shot the breeze for a little while. That was the last time I saw him,” he said.

He says he feels “a little silly sometimes” now when he thinks back on his moment in the spotlight, but it felt right at the time.

When Osama Bin Laden was killed by US Special Forces in May, Moran admits he was stunned.

“I always thought it would be one of those mysteries that you might never know if he was dead or alive,” he said.

That night he raised a new flag at this brother’s memorial close to his Rockaway home and admits to become “a little misty-eyed”.

Both Wind and Moran will attend a ceremony at the Ladder Three firehouse on Sunday in honour of their former colleagues.

Neither they nor any rank-and-file firefighters or policemen have been invited to Ground Zero for the anniversary.

It’s something that upsets Jimmy Wind.

“It seems like it’s a photo op for the president. I don’t know where he was on that day, but I know where I was, and I know where the rest of my guys were,” he said.

9/11 and the Forgotten Tragedy of Belle Harbor

It is often forgotten that just two months after the 9/11 attacks one suburb of New York was visited again by devastating tragedy.

Residents of the Irish-American suburb of Belle Harbor in Queens had just buried the last of 12 residents killed in the 9/11 attacks, when a plane carrying nearly 300 passengers crashed there, just after takeoff from JFK Airport on 12 November.

All on board were killed.

The suburb is home to many fire-fighters, who had been at Ground Zero just after the attack. They now found themselves battling with death and disaster on their own doorsteps.

I went to Belle Harbor ten years on for RTE's News at One to see how the community is coping.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0909/belleharbor.html

Eric Foner: How will history judge America's reaction to Nine Eleven

For Morning Ireland, Eminent historian Eric Foner, professor at Columbia University and current holder of the Pullitzer Prize for History, talked to me about what has changed in the past 10 years for the US, and what history might make of he reaction of the Bush and Obama administration. (Hint: neither comes out well!)

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0909/morningireland.html

At Ground Zero, a new World Trade Center begins to take shape

On Sunday next, New York will reclaim a patch of land from history.

For ten years, a high perimeter fence has blocked Ground Zero from public view, but now the first piece of the re-imagined World Trade Center is set to be unveiled. The fences will move, and a permanent 9/11 Memorial Plaza will become a part of Lower Manhattan’s landscape.

In the footprints of where the Twin Towers once stood, two giant reflecting pools have been carved out of the ground. When water starts cascading down their granite sides next week, they will be the biggest man-made waterfalls on the planet.

One of the pools with museum behind

Called “Reflecting Absence”, Michael Ared’s design strikes the right tone. At once, it conveys the scale of what was lost when planes smashed into the iconic buildings a decade ago, and offers a dignified nod to the thousands who died.

Towers will rise around them, and thousands of people will once again call the World Trade Center their workplace. But not here – not on the exact spot where the old towers stood and so many perished.

Around the edges of the pools, carved in bronze are the names of all the victims of the Nine Eleven attacks – not just those in New York, but in Washington and Pennsylvania too.

“What we hope is that the families who lost so much – husbands, wives, kids – walk out in the Plaza next week, will say that we did our job with dignity, humility and honouring the people we lost,” said Bill Baroni, as he took me on a tour of the site last week.

With Bill Baroni on site last week

Baroni is deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is responsible for the rebuilding effort. The former New Jersey Senator, who holds dual Irish and US citizenship, is keenly aware of how important it is to get the memorial finished in time for the 10^th anniversary.

“We are doing something unique for history and all of us know that,” he said. “The pressure to make sure we finished this on time was extraordinary. The entire world is watching to see if we do our job and open this memorial on time.”

And open on time it will.  More than two hundred oak trees line the Plaza – when the entire complex is completed, there will be over 400. In amongst them stands a powerful symbol of resilience - the Survivor Tree, found in the rubble in 2001, and nursed back to health since. It was here, in May, that President Obama laid a wreath after Osama Bin Laden was killed by US Special Forces.

In order to finish the plaza on time, engineers and construction workers have turned building logic on its head. Instead of building from the ground up which would have taken years, they’ve started building at the top. The Plaza is, in fact, a roof for the 9/11 Memorial Museum which will open next year.

It’s just one of the many engineering marvels that make the World Trade Center rebuilding, one of the most complex and fascinating construction projects ever.

....

Eighty feet underground Bill Baroni points to some exposed stone.

“One question I often get asked when I show people around is ‘Where exactly is Ground Zero?’ he says. “That is Ground Zero,” he says pointing to the exposed stone “That is the original bedrock of the South Tower.” 

Original steel bolts which were attached to the steel tridents of the old tower are visible in the bedrock, and above it the concrete foundation of the old building. From here those mighty towers stretched skywards. And down onto here and above where we now stood they tumbled to ruins.

 “It’s impossible to come down here and not realize the gravity of what we’re doing,” says Baroni. “It’s hard, you know. Three thousand people died on 9/11. More than a thousand victims have never been identified – no remains have ever been found. For those families, indeed for all families, this truly is a sacred final resting place.”

....

The 9/11 National Museum will not be open until September 12^th, 2011 but already the shape and layout are clear. A beautiful glass building, shimmering and reflecting the light around it, rises no higher above the ground than the oak trees beside its entrance. But inside, it stretches down three levels, most of which are still under construction. 

Tridents on original Towers

Several weeks ago, the Museum moved some of the many large precious artefacts that it will house into place. The first thing that will greet visitors are two giant steel tridents –unmistakable as the ground level facade of the Twin Towers. Other remnants that survived intact among the rubble have also been brought from storage to be exhibited – for example, the concrete stairs down which thousands ran to safety before the North Tower fell. All are covered for protection as construction continues apace around them.

Drawing back the parapet on one, I’m confronted with huge piece of gnarled steel, twisted and bent out of shape. Impact steel, Barino tells me, from the part of the building where the plane struck.

....

When the families of victims are given access to the Memorial Plaza on Sunday, one of the first things they’re sure to do is search for the names of their loved ones among the thousands of others cast in bronze around the reflecting pool. For the first time, here they will find a permanent memorial in their honor at the place of their death.

But once the tenth anniversary passes, access to the Memorial Plaza will be open to everyone. 1,500 people an hour are expected to come. While tickets are free, visitors have to pre-book a time and date on www.911memorial.org.

All around the plaza, construction work will continue – the swarming visitors just another complication for workers well used to navigating the particular nature of this complex project. Every day, 75,000 commuters use the PATH train station located on the site – the busiest in the entire system. And since the beginning, the 1 Subway train has run through the site in a specially constructed shell. The work continues around it. On the 16 acre-site, 3,500 construction workers are active around the clock, among them scores of Irish.

....

On September 11, 2001, Willie O’Donnell from Listowel, Co Kerry was working on nearby Canal Street and he witnessed the two towers crumbling with his own eyes. In Midtown, Jimmy O’Sullivan from Dunmanway in Cork was working on the 30^th floor of a new high rise, when a colleague remarked to him that something was wrong when a plane passed unusually low above their heads. Together they watched the first plane fly over Manhattan and into the tall building at the other end of the island.

Some of the Irish builders at Ground Zero

Over in Queens, Mike Carmody from Tarbert, Co Kerry was also working on a high rise, and had clear view of the East side of Manhattan. He remembers the second plane performing a “semi U-turn” as it smashed into the skyscraper. Little did the three men know back then, that ten years later they would be working to help the World Trade Center rise out of the ground again.

All three now work at Ground Zero for Navillus, a Kerry company, responsible for much of the concrete work on the new Plaza. “It’s definitely a privilege to work here,” Willie O’Donnell tells me. “The day you start working here, you remember Nine Eleven, where you were and everything. But then you get over it after a while and you just work away – just a regular pain in the ass job!”

“It’s great to involved,” said Jimmy O’Sullivan, “It’s something that you would be honoured to be involved in. I’ll never forget that plane, and I’ll never forget that gentleman that stood beside me and said ‘There’s something wrong’ - that’ll stay with me forever.”

Mike Carmody agreed that it was “an unbelievable feeling” to be working at Ground Zero. “It’s a great honour to be working down here. Soon you get over that, and it just becomes a big project and a lot of headaches and a lot of schedules to meet.”

Another two Irish men I meet on site, work on health and safety, for Bovis, the general contractor for the Plaza and museum project. Michael Deere, from Pallasgreen in Co Limerick has been here for five months. “We’re here on the Memorial Plaza, so all the pressure was on us for the last couple of months to get it completed on time. There’s been massive progress in the last six weeks or so. Six weeks ago, you wouldn’t have thought it would ever open on time.”

Niall Marshall from Birr, Co Offaly, is also proud to be involved. “A lot of American people look at this as something great - a rebuilding that’s going to bring everyone back together, to see this coming out of the ground again. Obviously, it’s a good feeling to come in here every day and to know that you’ve something to do with it.”

....

Tower 1 rising high

From the unfinished 72^nd floor of World Trade Center Tower 1, formerly known as Freedom Tower, the view of New York is spectacular in all directions. The Statue of Liberty looks the size of a Lego piece from up here, and you’re already at eye level with the Empire State Building uptown. WTC 1 is already the tallest building in Manhattan, Baroni tells me, and when it’s finished you will be able to see the Earth’s curve from its top. The tower, when completed, will be 1776 feet tall, a height chosen because of its significance in US history (Independence), and also higher than the original towers were.

Any fears that people might not want to work here seem to have been dispelled by the recent announcement that publishing giant Conde Nast will take one million square feet of the new property. The Federal Government and a Chinese bank are also signed on as early tenants. Conscious that, like all other iconic buildings in New York, the tower could become a target again once it’s built, the safety measures being taken are setting new records. Each foot of steel used weighs 3,000lbs, and the concrete is 14,000lbs per square inch, seven times thicker than the concrete used in building sidewalks. “It’s designed to be stronger than any office building ever built,” said Baroni.

Signing the frame of Tower 1

As I stand on scaffolding outside where the windows of the 72^nd floor are going to be installed, Bill Barino calls me back in. He hands me a white marker pen and asks me to sign a steel girder on the north side of the tower. So I write: “Vincent Murphy 01/11/11” – my signature forever etched on the interior of this historic building. “This will be someone’s office one day,” Baroni smiles, “You can tell them your name is written there.”

....

As I exit the complex, I take one last look around in an attempt to take in the scale and meaning of what I see. Most of Ground Zero is a construction site still and will be for years.

It’s a workplace and will be long after it’s done.

It’s also a commuter hub.

A PATH train pulls in as I leave, and hundreds of commuters swarm around me. Building has only just begun on the Transportation Hub that will rise here – a spectacular design by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrave, who was responsible for the Samuel Becket Bridge in Dublin. “It will be a downtown Grand Central,” Baroni claims.

It’s a tourist destination – all around the perimeter people arch their necks to see Tower 1, or take pictures of themselves at a place which is part of history – and that’s only likely to grow.

But it’s also a burial place.

And it’s a memorial.

And on Sunday, as families gather here to remember, and the perimeter fence is taken down around the new Plaza, the reincarnation and reclaiming of the World Trade Center site will send its own message to the terrorists who came here to destroy ten years ago.

What new WTC will look like when complete

1st Irish Theater Festival brings cream of Irish playwrights to NYC

George Heslin, of the Origin Theater Company sits down with Vincent Murphy in advance of the 1st Irish Theater Festival which begins next week.

It's a measure of just how much the 1st Irish Festival has established itself in just four years that George Heslin, the power and brains behind it all, received 94 applications this year from theatre companies all over the United States and in Ireland, who wanted to take part.

And that doesn't even include the approaches he had from individual artists.

In the end, the cream of the bunch will be on show throughout September in theatres across New York City.

And many more of them are sure to feature in future editions of the 1st Irish.

It's the only theatre festival anywhere in the world dedicated purely to the work of Irish playwrights - even the Dublin Theater Festival features works by international writers and companies.

Not only that, but all of the Irish-penned plays on show, will be making their US premieres.

It's no wonder that even among jaded New York theatre-goers the festival generates a frisson of excitement.

Heslin, a Limerick native, who studied drama in Trinity College Dublin and treaded the boards for years as an actor, spotted in 2002 that there wasn't a huge amount of Irish theatre making it across the Atlantic.

"If you look at our history on Broadway," Heslin points out, "it has had work by probably 8 to 10 Irish playwrights over the last 40 years.

"And when you look back at the amount of playwrights in Ireland, I felt that there was an opportunity there in terms of working with a lot of the playwrights who I'd come to know in Ireland."

Heslin set up the Origin Theater, which soon gained a reputation for bringing fresh material to the US for the first time.

"Our mission was to launch European playwrights in America - not just Irish," he explains. "We were the first company in the world to produce Mark O'Rowe, we launched Enda Walsh here in America, Abbie Spallon, and a huge amount of others."

Then four years ago, he realized that his audience at Origin were hungry for even more original contemporary Irish theatre.

He set up 1st Irish with just two rules - the work had to be from a playwright born on the island of Ireland, and it must be making its American premiere.

"The festival presents work by playwrights from the island of Ireland, and in four years we've produced work by 62 Irish playwrights in 16 theatres across New York City during the month of September."

So how hard was it making a buzz in a city with so much theatre already?

"One of the first projects I came up with was a play called End of Lines where I brought five playwrights from Ireland and I put them on the subway here in New York for a week. And each playwright had to write a play inspired by each different subway line. And it was ideas like that that engaged communities," he explains.

"Playwrights are great for doing marketing and PR, and it didn't take long for word to spread, certainly among the Irish theatre community in Ireland about the festival here in New York.

"Also through Origin since 2002 we have worked with a huge amount of organizations on the ground here in the city.

"The trick about New York is that you kind of have to be here for a long time before you see how it works, and indeed meeting the right people. A lot of projects pass through New York. On any given day there are 300 theatre companies in the city, believe it or not, and you have to be around for a while before people actually believe in you and start endorsing the project."

"When I first moved here in 1994/5, it actually took me eight months to find the Off Broadway community. Because while now in New York we have fantastic buildings, just like in Ireland, in the mid-90s a lot of these well-known theatre companies were housed in the 3rd or 4th floor of buildings in derelict streets."

Heslin can also be credited with fortunate timing.

He says the facilities available in New York for Off-Broadway theatre improved dramatically during the economic boom of the early 2000s.

"When I first moved here in 1994/5, it actually took me eight months to find the Off Broadway community. Because while now in New York we have fantastic buildings, just like in Ireland, in the mid-90s a lot of these well-known theatre companies were housed in the 3rd or 4th floor of buildings in derelict streets.

"So at the time that I began this journey there wasn't a huge amount of contemporary Irish playwrights. Yes, we had the award winners, the Brian Friel's, the McPhersons, all of those big names.

"But there's a wonderful Irish website called irishplayography.com, and if you go on there, there's probably 400 playwrights writing in Ireland at the moment. And if we say each of those writers has an average ten plays, that's 4,000 plays. That's just a rough estimate.

"And that was the kind of area that intrigued me more: the new generation of playwrights. Because I had worked with a lot, like Mark O'Rowe and Enda Walsh in Ireland, and to this day that is the wave that excites me and I think that's what keeps this festival going, the new energy."

The 1st Irish has proved a springboard for many Irish artists in building their reputations here in the United States, and it offers a particular attraction for smaller Irish companies.

"Coming to New York is a big journey. We have special agreements with the unions here. We are allowed to invite theatre companies directly from Ireland, and that's a big cost saving for the Irish taxpayer and the companies themselves because they are allowed to pay salaries back in Ireland - we don't have to put them onto the high Broadway or Off Broadway contracts."

Heslin has noticed an increased interest in US audiences from the Irish theatre companies since the start of the recession.

"You know for many years, the Irish had a focus on Europe. And I was sitting here in New York for a number of years, and I was frankly amazed. And on a number of occasions I talked about how we have here 300 million people who speak English, and craving Irish culture.

"So since the downturn in Ireland we are definitely seeing a huge upsurge here in people trying to break into New York, certainly with playwrights realizing that there is so much opportunity in a country like America.

"You look at regional theatres across America like the Pittsburgh Public or the Seattle Rep - these companies have budgets of $12-15m and they're just regional theatre companies.

"Another idea with this festival is that, very often when you produce a play in New York, it does get picked up across America. We've brokered deals. For example, there's theatre companies in Washington DC, Las Vegas and when you introduce the playwright here... a lot of those companies haven't heard of these writers until they come through Origin or the Festival.

"So there's a long term gain for Irish theatre as well in that way."

"We have the great 'Cirque Legume', which is a very physical theatre piece from a wonderful company with Jamie Carswell from Sligo. That is a circus with vegetables basically and very, very funny."

This year's festival features four theatre companies from Ireland, each of which Heslin is enthusiastic about.

"We have 'A Night with George' from Brass Neck in Belfast written by Brenda Murphy and Donna O'Connor. That's a play that is set in West Belfast and it follows an evening of a woman fantasizing about a night with George Clooney.

"We have the great 'Cirque Legume', which is a very physical theatre piece from a wonderful company with Jamie Carswell from Sligo. That is a circus with vegetables basically and very, very funny.

"We have 'Bogboy' from Deirdre Kinahan. And we have 'Noah and the Tower Flower' which has been a big hit for the Fishamble Theater in Dublin."

Heslin says he's excited to introduce American audiences to these new artists.

"We had Deirdre Kinahan here last year with 'Human Cry' and this is her second visit to the festival. And we have partnered with Fishamble in the past on other projects.

"But for the majority of the playwrights this is the first time that their work has been seen in America."

The 1st Irish has secured the backing of several major sponsors including Mutual of America, the Irish government, Northern Ireland's Arts Council, Aer Lingus and the Irish Examiner USA newspaper.

The festival has also partnered with several venues and theatre companies across the city.

"We work a lot with 59E59 which is on Park Ave and 59th St, this year we are working with 78th St Theatre Lab, the Flea Theater, The American Irish Historical Society, Times Square Arts Centre, Irish Arts Center and Mint Theater among others," says Heslin.

"The key for this Theater Festival is partnering theatre companies with venues here in New York that have a high profile. It's very important because when you arrive here, you really need a network to kind of plug these organizations into. And they are relationships we've built up over the last while too."

"While this is an Irish Theatre Festival, most of our audience goers, as you can imagine in New York, are not Irish. But plugging into the correct venues for that is ever more important."

For more on the 1st Irish Festival, including a full list of shows, venues, dates and times, check out www.1stIrish.org

The Irish workers giving Big Apple a renewed sense of hope (Irish Independent)

By Vincent Murphy

Saturday September 03 2011

IT IS the most high-profile construction project on the planet, but to the builders on site, it's just a regular job.

Scores of Irish construction workers are employed at Ground Zero, helping to rebuild the site left devastated by the fall of the Twin Towers.

"It's definitely a privilege to work here," says Willie O'Donnell (40) from Listowel, Co Kerry, who has been on site for two-and-a-half years.

"The first day you start here, you remember 9/11, where you were and everything like that.

"But you just work away and it becomes just a regular, pain-in-the-ass job!"

Mr O'Donnell works for Navillus, a Kerry company responsible for most of the concrete work on the new Memorial Plaza and 9/11 Museum.

On the day the terrorists struck the Twin Towers in 2001, he was working on nearby Canal Street and saw the giant buildings crumble before his eyes.

Rebuild

Now, a decade later, he's helping to rebuild the site they once stood on.

The attacks were also witnessed first-hand by two of his colleagues.

Jimmy O'Sullivan (47) from Dunmanway, Co Cork, was working on a high-rise on 47th Street in midtown Manhattan, when the first plane flew suspiciously low over their heads.

A colleague remarked to him: "There's something wrong", and then, "everybody just froze".

He said: "It's great to be building it back up again. It's something that you feel honoured to be involved in."

Mike Carmody (37) from Tarbert, Co Kerry, was working 30 floors up on a building project across the river in Queens.

And Michael Deere (43) from Pallasgreen, Co Limerick, was working underground across the bridge in Brooklyn on the day of the attacks.

By the time he emerged, all he could see was a cloud of smoke hanging over all of Lower Manhattan.

He has been working as a carpenter with Bovis, the general contractors for the Memorial Plaza and Museum, for five months.

"Six weeks ago, you wouldn't have thought it would ever open on time, but there's been massive progress," he said.

Working alongside him with Bovis is Niall Marshall (31) from Birr, Co Offaly.

"I am very proud of being here," he says. "A lot of American people look at this as something great -- a rebuilding that's going to bring everyone back together."

- Vincent Murphy

Hands that Rebuilt America (Irish Independent)

By Vincent Murphy at Ground Zero, New York 

Saturday September 03 2011

IN THE footprints where the Twin Towers once stood, the man responsible for the rebuild takes in the enormity of the task at hand.

"We are doing something unique for history and all of us know that," says Bill Baroni.

"The pressure to make sure we finished this on time was extraordinary. The entire world is watching to see if we do our job and open this memorial on time."

Mr Baroni, who holds dual Irish and US citizenship, is the deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey which is responsible for rebuilding the site.

The taps were not turned on in the giant reflecting pools at the new 9/11 Memorial Plaza in Lower Manhattan when the Irish Independent was given exclusive access to the site this week.

Beginning

But when water finally cascades down their giant granite walls next week it will signal a new beginning at the site known asGround Zero.

Families of 9/11 victims will be the first to see the spectacular design completed, on next Sunday's 10th anniversary of the attacks.

For the first time, there will be a permanent shrine at the place where their loved ones' lives were lost.

Mr Baroni is keenly aware of how important it was to get the memorial finished in time for the anniversary.

"What we hope is that the families who lost so much -- husbands, wives, kids -- walk out in the plaza next week and will say that we did our job with dignity, humility and honouring the people we lost," he said.

The plaza will open to the public a day after the anniversary, and is expected to host 1,500 people per hour.

The memorial is the first part of the old World Trade Centre site to reopen, but the rest of the 16 acres remains a massive building site.

Directly underneath will be the 9/11 Museum, which is due to open on Sept 11, 2012.

It goes more than 80 feet underground, and will hold many precious remnants including original steel tridents from old towers, damaged fire trucks and other mementos from the buildings.

Across the complex, One World Trade Centre, formerly known as Freedom Tower, has been rising at a remarkable rate of one storey per week in recent months.

At more than 80 floors, it's already the tallest building in Manhattan, and will stretch to 1,776 feet by the time it's complete -- taller than the original Twin Towers. Conscious that it may be a target for future attacks, Mr Baroni says it's constructed to be the "strongest office building ever built".

Publishing giant Conde Nast will occupy a large section of the tower, also known as 1 WTC, when complete.

The federal government and a Chinese bank have also been confirmed as future tenants.

Also under construction is a new transportation hub, designed by Santiago Calatrava, who was responsible for the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin. But the opening of the plaza represents a significant milestone -- the first glimpse behind the high fence that has blocked the view of the 'giant hole in the ground' while controversy and wrangling delayed the project for years.

And now 10 years on, New York is finally ready to reclaim a piece of hallowed ground from history.

- Vincent Murphy at Ground Zero, New York

New York prepares for Hurricane Irene

On Friday August 26th, New York braced itself for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, and I reported for RTE's Morning Ireland as the city prepared for shutdown.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0826/morningireland.html

DSK sex case is 'too weak' to proceed

Here's a link to my report on the collapse of the Dominque Strauss-Kahn case on RTE's Morning Ireland, broadcast on the morning before his release.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0823/morningireland.html