Irish California Herald Will Expand In Southern California The publishers of The Irish Herald have announced their decision to launch an exclusively Southern Californian edition of the newspaper towards the end of the summer. The Irish Herald has of course always been distributed all over the West Coast, but this new expansion will enable us to establish a truly community-based newspaper in the Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County areas as well as in the San Francisco Bay Area. "We are all enormously excited about this venture," said publisher and editor Séan Canniffe, "It is exactly the right thing to do. We already have over 15,000 readers in Southern California, and the feedback we have been getting is that they love the paper, but just wish it would cover more of their own local news and events. That will mean a completely different local news section, a different calendar section and a whole new set of ads." Plans are already well underway for the new edition. Local journalists have been contacted and the distribution network is being expanded. There will be more information in the July edition of The Irish Herald. Former IRA Man In Deportation Case by Sean O'Driscoll A former IRA member can be deported from the US because his crimes were acts of "moral turpitude," and were not political offenses, the US government has said in a letter presented to a Denver court late last month. The new Homeland Security Department, set up in March in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, rejected claims made by former IRA prisoner, Ciaran Ferry, that his crimes were "political offenses relating to the conflict in Ireland" and should therefore be excused. Ferry, who is married to a US citizen and has a two-year-old daughter, has been locked in a Colorado prison since agreeing to meet with Homeland Security Officials last January. In a hard-hitting letter revealed at a District Court in Denver, Homeland Security official, Michael Comfort told Ferry that "the only favorable fact you present is that your spouse and your daughter are US citizens. The negative factors are your extremely serious criminal record and your misrepresentations of that record at the time of your admission [to the US]." Ferry had been released from prison in Northern Ireland in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement after serving seven and a half years for attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life. In a case that could define how the new US government assesses other visa claims by former paramilitaries, the Homeland Security Department is strongly rejecting Ferry's claims that he has a right to live in the US with his wife and daughter. In the letter sent to Ferry's prison cell in Littleton, Colorado, the Homeland Security Department said that Ferry had said the offenses were "relating to the conflict in Ireland" but didn't provide any evidence to prove that claim. However, a district judge hearing the case agreed with Ferry's lawyer, Jeff Joseph, that the Homeland Security Department was showing a certain obstinacy by not replying to applications made by Ferry's legal team. Joseph told the court that Ferry's crimes were clearly political and that he had to be allowed access to appeal the Homeland Security Department's decision. He said that Ferry was now married to a US citizen and should therefore be allowed to stay in the US under the terms of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Judge Nottingham said that the Homeland Security Department had shown a certain obstinacy in dealing with the case but noted that US immigration laws were very intricate. Ferry's wife, Heaven, her family, and members of Irish groups in Denver were in court for the hearing. The Homeland Security Department has yet to make representations before Judge Nottingham makes his ruling or passes the case to an immigration judge. New York Famine Memorial Closes by Francesca Ryan A Manhattan memorial dedicated to the Irish famine has closed for repairs less than one year after its unveiling by President Mary McAleese last July. The commemorative monument had sustained serious damage over the bitterest of New York winters and has been deemed unsafe for public use. Ironically the fieldstone cottage had endured over 150 years of Atlantic gales and Irish weather prior to being shifted from its location on the west coast of Ireland to Battery Park in Manhattan. The guilty party was not the old Irish stone but the modern-day materials that were employed to resurrect the memorial. The heavy snow, rain and wind of last winter essentially liquefied and dissolved many of the new elements. Drainage problems and general wear and tear from an influx of tourists merely intensified the damage leaving the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) with no other option but to close the memorial. Timothy Carey, president and chief executive of the BPCA cited the composite material used to replicate an old Irish lane as the main offender. "It performed miserably-It was this claylike substance-It got slippery when wet." He said. The rain and drainage problems compounded this situation making the walkway a danger to the public. Artist Brian Tolle, designer of the memorial, has reacted angrily to the above claims. He claims that the memorial was opened prematurely last summer before the waterproofing work that would have avoided the current predicament had been completed. "It's not corrective work, it's unfinished work," he said. Tolle is not the only one to have foreseen problems from an early stage, soon after the opening of the memorial Dennis Smith, retired firefighter and author, claims to have e-mailed the BPCA voicing his concerns regarding the drainage system at the site. Smith detailed the possible dangers that could (and did) occur to create a 'life hazard.' Carey charges that he cannot remember the e-mail. The re-construction is due to continue through June although Carey asserts that the memorial should be open to visitors after a new concrete pathway has been laid. Ideally the work will be complete for the festivities that will accompany the Jeanie Johnston's docking in New York in July. Shortfall In Irish Student Visas Predicted This Summer by Sean O'Driscoll Staff at Senator Ted Kennedy's Washington office are continuing discussions with the State Department about the massive backlog in Irish student visas this summer. Senator Kennedy is making the representations on behalf of the many Irish students who could be left without J1 visas this year, and also hundreds of Massachusetts businesses that rely on cheap student labour each year. The American Embassy in Dublin posted an urgent notice on their website this month warning of a "serious shortfall" in the number of student visas issued this summer. It has also warned that "a high percentage of students hoping to travel to the US this summer may not have their visas in time." The embassy said that the visa shortfall has been brought on by a number of factors, including increased anti-terrorism security screening, and later closing dates set by program sponsors. According to Siobhan Dennehy, executive director of the Emerald Isle Immigration Centre in New York, New England will be the worst affected area of the US because of the high number of companies relying on seasonal Irish student workers. "The areas affected worst will be the traditional areas that rely on J1 workers, but we're hearing reports about it from all over the country," she said. Stephanie Cutter, a communications director at Senator Kennedy's office, said that staff would continue to persuade the State Department to speed up the process and "make amends" for the delay. According to the US embassy statement, program sponsors submitted information approximately four to six weeks later this year than in previous years. "As flight departure dates have not been pushed back, we predict that we will be unable to process all of the anticipated 10,000 visa cases within this reduced time frame." The embassy has also apologized for "the inconvenience and disappointment" caused to the students involved. Bruce Morrison Offers The Irish Hope In A Culture of "No"10 A woman who tried to ship three semi-automatic weapons to Northern Ireland is to request a suspended sentence before a Florida court, on the basis that the offense was committed before the Good Friday Agreement was signed. Margaret Bannon, who is qualified to practice law in California, was arrested after the guns and ammunition fell out of a container in a Dublin sorting office. Ms Bannon's lawyer, Peter Kenny, said that although the Good Friday Agreement had no legal standing before the US courts, it could be used in a mitigation plea, especially as people convicted of much more serious terrorist offenses had already been released from prisons in Britain and Ireland. He said that he intended to study the wording of the Agreement and present it as a mitigating factor when Ms Bannon is sentenced on May 23rd next. Mr Kenny said he will also plead that Ms Bannon suffers serious mental and physical problems, and had recently undergone an operation to stop her epileptic seizures. Ms Bannon was charged with an illegal export of weapons last January, only four days before the statute of limitations was due to run out in the case. A US customs official told an Orlando courtroom at that time that the case should have been dealt with a long time ago but Irish authorities has delayed the return of the evidence to the United States. Federal prosecutors eventually asked the US Justice Department in Washington to make a formal request before Irish authorities complied. In a plead agreement signed at the end of February, Ms Bannon agreed that she bought the guns in Orlando gun shops and had tried to ship them to a house she owned in Derry. She also agreed that she had wrapped the guns and ammunition inside a protective device designed to hide them from customs x-ray machines. She also deleted the serial numbers from the guns, but gardaí called to the sorting office in Dublin were still able to read segments of the numbers. Ms Bannon was linked to the guns by one of a number of books that lay over the weapons, one of which had the word 'Bannon' written on the side, written in her handwriting.   These are a few sample stories. For more, pick up your free copy of The Irish Herald. Click here to find the Irish Herald vendor nearest you. Main | Where's the Craic? | Advertising Rates Classifieds | Where to Find The Irish Herald Subscribe to The Irish Herald | Links About The Irish Herald | The Irish Yellow Pages