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Sinead O'Connor is "in desperate need of a very sweet sex-starved man" and she wants everyone to know it. The Irish singer has taken to her blog and Twitter to snare a potential suitor and to lament the current lack of romance in her life. "My sh---uation sexually/affectionately speaking is so dire that inanimate objects are starting to look good as are inappropriate and/or unavailable men and/or inappropriate and/or unavailable fruits and vegetables. I tell you yams are looking like the winners," she writes. "Needless to say what I do for a living makes it hard for me to find...

Given its rich mercantile heritage in the Mediterranean, Greece should be the Hong Kong/Singapore/ Switzerland of the Balkans. Its emigrants and their descendants have been huge business successes in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada and elsewhere. Yet Greece is bankrupt, fiscally and politically. Why is Greece such a basket case? And what are the implications for Europe and the U.S.? Greek Power Summit 2011--Helping Greece Rebuild, which was held in Athens. Here's a wee incident that underscores how clueless and irresponsible the Greek government has become. The bulk of attendees at this confab were business and financial executives who...

After nearly half a century of riding his Blackness, Obama has the overwhelming desire to reconnect with his Irish forefathers! Ah, the proud Kenyan and spiritual leader of the Muslim world is wearing the green and sprouting shamrocks out the back of his trousers. His name now can take on an apostrophe and become O'bama, perhaps Seamus O'reilly O'bama. He has the ability to become anyone with his ghost writers. Perhaps Ayers can now write Green Dreams of my Irishness. Aye lads and lassies the great shape shifter has changed course, now he can be known as the most...

Nancy Lusignan Schultz / Photo Credit: Kim Mimnaugh Salem, Mass., May 12, 2011 / 05:55 am (CNA).- Rhode Island lawmakers voted last week to pardon an Irish Catholic man they say was wrongfully executed in 1845. The decision closes an ugly chapter in the long history of discrimination against Catholics in the U.S.  “Anti-Catholicism was certainly one of the first religious prejudices brought to the new world, and it became widespread” in the 19th century, according to Nancy Schultz, Ph.D of Salem State University in Massachusetts. Schultz was commenting on the May 4 decision by the Rhode Island legislature...

Her dance double for Black Swan has claimed that she did hardly any of the full body shots seen in the film. And now it is claimed that Natalie Portman used yet another body double for her latest film Your Highness. In fact, the actress is said to have avoided diving into an icy lake in Belfast and a local Irish girl was paid just £250 to take the plunge instead.

Even though green beer will flow freely today, one of the biggest drinking holidays of the year, few beer connoisseurs understand its appeal. "I don't knock people who drink green beer," says Kieran Folliard, who owns four Irish pubs — Liffey in St. Paul, Cooper in St. Louis Park and Kieran's and the Local in Minneapolis. "But to be quite honest, I wouldn't drink it unless I was stuck in the desert and it was the only thing around." Sean O'Byrne, who opened Great Waters Brewing Co. 15 years ago today, won't touch the stuff for any reason. "Never have,...

A new study claims that President Obama has 28 living relatives who share his Irish ancestry, but some of the newly discovered kin aren't eager to share a pint with him. In the study, released to The Associated Press by family history website Ancestry.com, genealogists traced the descendants of about two dozen passengers who came to America from Ireland on the ship Marmion in March 1850.

As House Speaker for most of Ronald Reagan's two presidential terms, bombastic liberal spendaholic Tip O'Neill was one of the fiercest opponents of the entire Reagan agenda, fighting it tooth-and-nail for six years. He called Reagan a "cheerleader for selfishness" and even went so far as to personally attack him as "most ignorant man that has ever inhabited the White House". Not one to be easily outwitted -but showing considerably more class and good humor- Reagan observed parallels between Yeltsin-esque Speaker O'Neill and the Pac-Man video game, as  "a round thing that gobbles up money". Yet despite the professional animosity, Ronald Reagan often...

Irish voters go to the polls this week as an ailing economy is forcing record numbers of disillusioned citizens to flee the country in search of a better life overseas. Less than three months after the government accepted an international bailout worth $115 billion to rescue an economy on life support, the public is furious with the entire political class. Fianna Fail is the centre-left party which has been in government for 60 of the 89 years of Ireland's independence. Polls indicate they will be trounced in Friday's election and will be lucky to come away with 20 seats out...

The mayor stirred up another brouhaha yesterday when the Irish Voice reported that "The remarks were met with a combination of laughs, boos and groans" when those words emerged from Bloomberg's mouth Wednesday night at the American Irish Historical Society, where more than 100 leading Irish-Americans were celebrating publication of a book about the 250th anniversary of the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

The Irish are hopping mad for the same reason Americans are hopping mad: government bailouts of banks and financial firms. But give the Irish parliamentarians credit for "keeping it real." Whether facing the Irish public or the Irish pubs, the Irish pols do not hide from the public as do their American counterparts. The Irish politicians may have played footsie with the financial and property firms of their country, as our own country did. But the Irish pols seem willing to stand center ring and take the shots they've got coming to them. Ours seem to be hiding in their...

Ireland unveiled the harshest budget measures in its history Wednesday, a four-year plan to slash deficits euro15 billion ($20 billion) so it can get a massive bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. The plan seeks to cut euro10 billion ($13.3 billion) from spending and raise euro5 billion ($6.7 billion) in extra taxes from 2011 to 2014. It axes thousands of state jobs, welfare benefits, and pension payments while raising university fees and taxes, forcing even Prime Minister Brian Cowen to concede it will hurt the living standard of everyone in the nation.

Biden's Irish eyes mist as he bids farewell to retiring DoddLARA MARLOWE in Washington The Irish Times - Wednesday, November 17, 2010 THE SECRET Service searched the Irish ambassador’s residence, then they blocked the street off. Promptly at 7.30pm on Monday, Joe Biden, the first Irish Catholic vice-president of the US, was met on the doorstep by the ambassador, Michael Collins, and his wife, Marie. The Collinses were hosting a dinner in honour of Senator Chris Dodd, who will retire at the end of the year, after 35 years in the US House and Senate. All eight of Dodd’s great...

The body of an elderly woman that was taken from a plane in Gatwick Airport and unofficially driven to Co Kerry by her son for burial is thought to be back in the UK. Gardai believe the woman's body may have been driven to the UK via Northern Ireland by her son after he was warned by a coroner that if he did not bury the body it would be confiscated and put in cold storage at his expense. The matter came to light when Kerry Coroner Terence Casey was contacted by the gardai after the landlord of a rented...

Euro Shoots Straight Down, Anglo Irish Bank Set To Report Gigantic Loss Joe Weisenthal Aug. 30, 2010, 8:43 PM In addition to the selling in the Nikkei, the other big "risk off" move this evening is the straight negative action in the euro. Look. Meanwhile, investors are bracing for the release of some very ugly numbers from Irish zombie Anglo Irish Bank. The Irish Times: STATE-OWNED ANGLO Irish Bank is expected today to report a loss for the first half of this year well in excess of the previous six-month deficit of €4.1 billion posted last year. This would lead...

Gaea Rich and her family were in full holiday mode aboard their yacht on the Fourth of July as they motored from Stamford, Conn., across Long Island Sound and into Oyster Bay, off the North Shore of Long Island. The trip, with more than 15 relatives and friends, was supposed to be the high point of a weekend family reunion. But a few hours into the cruise, after what began as an apparently routine stop by a marine patrol of local and federal law enforcement officials, two passengers — a Guatemalan caterer hired for the day and Ms. Rich’s boyfriend,...

A new survey shows 34 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population, say they have no religion. Even more significant is that one-third of those, about 11 million people, are Irish Americans. The survey by professors at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, does not explain why Irish Catholics are by far the highest number of people who are losing their religion every year in America. We can only surmise the reasons for this, but I have some definite ideas. Think church sex scandals. Let's look at the timeline first. The number of non-religious or "Nones" has nearly doubled between...

The Early Years Born Irish, in a family of eight, my early childhood was fulfilled and happy. My father was a colonel in the Irish Army until he retired when I was about nine. As a family, we loved to play, sing, and act, all within a military camp in Dublin. We were a typical Irish Roman Catholic family. My father sometimes knelt down to pray at his bedside in a solemn manner. My mother would talk to Jesus while sewing, washing dishes, or even smoking a cigarette. Most evenings we would kneel in the living room to say the...

LONDON: British prime minister David Cameron apologized on behalf of his country Tuesday for the 1972 slaughter of 13 Catholic demonstrators in the Northern Ireland town of Londonderry, an outrage that became known as "Bloody Sunday." In a solemn statement to the British House of Commons, Cameron said that a mammoth, 12-year investigation into the killings left no doubt that the soldiers confronting crowds of Catholic demonstrators in Londonderry's hard-line Bogside district mowed down unarmed protesters without provocation. "What happened on Bloody Sunday was both unjustified and unjustifiable. It was wrong," Cameron said, as a crowd watching him from Londonderry...

The Government has announced plans to introduce a certificate of Irish heritage for up to 70 million people of Irish descent around the world who do not qualify for citizenship. Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said at the weekend he had decided to proceed with the initiative, which was first proposed at the Global Irish Economic Forum at Farmleigh last year. The certificates will be issued by a third party agency acting under licence from the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is considering charging a fee for each document issued. The initiative is intended to be self-financing, according to...