The flap over the big bank bust in Northern Ireland continues through the New Year, as some continue claims of IRA involvement with others taking the opposite sides. Police maestro Hugh Orde is promising to step down if he is proven wrong about the IRA link but no names have come forward yet from higher-ups as to any possible replacement in case of misplaced condemnation. As the political posturing continues, somewhere, someone is counting his/her record stash of £26.5m snatched from the headquarters of the Northern Bank and probably puzzling out how to spend it all. One can presume they won't donate anything to tsunami relief.

Tim Losty, the director the Northern Ireland Bureau, a business/cultural promotion organization headquartered now in D.C., has been making Stateside rounds. He’s been chatting up opportunities for linkages on many fronts between Yanks and the North. The bureau represents the Northern Ireland Executive and administration in the United States. Losty recently swept through Chicago to speak with community development guru John Norquist and visited Mayor Tom Barrett in Milwaukee to discuss city linkages and redevelopment issues. While in Beer Burg, he also visited with Milwaukee Irish Fest officials and stopped by the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center. Losty’s agenda ranges from promoting joint education to technology and research projects, as well as health care.

On that note, outgoing Health and Human Resources Tommy Thompson shook hands and slapped backs at an Irish embassy reception during Prexy Bush's inauguration week. As he roamed the crowd, perhaps he was eyeing how he could become involved in the developing partnerships between the National Institute of Health, University of Ulster, Queen’s University, Trinity and other institutions on health issues. He did say he was a commodity on the open market now that his term in the administration would soon be over. 

Congratulations to SDLP Leader Mark Durkan and his wife Jackie at the birth of their first child, Dearbháil Sarah Isobel Durkan. She was born in Altnagelvin Hospital, Derry, at 7.50 p.m., Monday, Jan. 10. For the statistic-minded, the baby weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces.

And for more birthdays, the St. Andrews Society of Milwaukee recently put on a splendid party in honor of Scottish poet Robert Burns. The soiree was held at the ornate Wisconsin Club, once home of Alexander Mitchell, a notable (and wealthy) Milwaukee businessman who hailed from the land of sheep, thistles and good whiskey. Naturally, there was plenty o’ piping and dancing despite the dumping of 11 inches of snow across Wisconsin that morning. At the party, Milwaukee County Chief Judge Michael Sullivan, resplendent in his kilts, hinted that he was recommending Judge Kitty Brennan to take his place when he retires from that position this summer.

Congratulations to Irish film director Terry George for all the well-deserved awards nominations his latest epic, Hotel Rwanda, has garnered. And note all the Irish references in Clint Eastwood's much-talked-about boxing epic, Million Dollar Baby.

Martin Hintz, publisher.

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