Latest news with #JohnConnolly
The 42
2 days ago
- General
- The 42
Sunshine on Leith: The Irish origins of Hibernian FC, as they celebrate 150 years
THE BHOYS IN their green and white hoops are on a season-long commemoration of their Irish roots, having been founded by a cleric with the intention of helping the destitute Irish in their Scottish city. We are talking, of course, not of Glasgow Celtic, but of Hibernian FC. On 6 August, the Edinburgh club hosted a free exhibition at the St Mary's Street Hall that documented their formation exactly 150 years to the day. It was one of a series of events to recognise the landmark. A few weeks before, they staged a friendly with Rot-Weiss Essen of the German third tier; the opposition they met back in 1955 when they became the first British club to play in the inaugural European Cup. A casual look at what was on display in the historical display, however, shows how at one point Hibernian FC were the greatest charitable experiment for the Irish diaspora in the world; one that Celtic would faithfully imitate right down to the small details. **** Take it right back to the start and at the time of their formation, Edinburgh had an Irish problem. Over 100,000 had left Ireland in the years during and immediately after the Great Famine to go to Scotland. While the majority settled in Glasgow, like many other cities, Edinburgh struggled to accommodate the refugees. Two of whom were John Connolly, a labourer originally from Monaghan, and his wife Mary McGinn of Ballymena, Co Antrim. They lived in Cowgate, nowadays a thriving area of modern city life, but back then a slum known as the unflattering 'Little Ireland.' Their third born son, James Connolly, would later become an enormous figure in Ireland's political history, but it was with the then seven-year-old James Connolly in mind that Limerick-born Canon Edward Hannan of St Patrick's Church and Michael Whelahan of Kilglass, Co Roscommon, who had just turned 21 and would become the club's first captain, were thinking of. James Connolly. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Together, they imagined a football club that would raise money for the starving Irish and help them integrate successfully into Scottish society. At this early stage, the Irish influence was absolute, starting with the name itself: Hibernia being the Roman name for Ireland. The Catholic Young Men's Society was embedded from the outset and it was insisted upon that playing members were teetotallers and practising Catholics. The club motto adopted was 'Erin Go Bragh.' Naturally, there was opposition from certain elements of the establishment and Hibernian struggled to get opposition for games. Not only was there an anti-Irish feeling, but a class issue also as football was not yet a mass, working-class pursuit. It was Heart of Midlothian of all teams that helped them out and played a series of games until the stand-off melted away and they were accepted by those that ran Scottish soccer, the Edinburgh and Scottish Football Associations. A year into their existence, they began wearing green and white hoops, something they did for a decade. They called themselves the 'Bhoys.' In 1902 when they won the Scottish Cup, they did so with Dubliner Dan McMichael as the club secretary. While teams were effectively run by committee in those days, McMichael was the de facto manager. The Irish connection has not always been particularly strong, but some notable recent players include Nick Colgan, Daryl Horgan, Anthony Stokes and the late Liam Miller. Anthony Stokes. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill had three seasons there in the '90s under Alex Miller, while Ivan Sproule of Tyrone had two spells at Easter Road and hit a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over then champions Rangers. Advertisement No less than George Best fetched up in the 1979-80 season on a 'pay for play' basis. While the gates were quadrupled, he could not save Hibs from relegation. George Best in the colours of Hibernian. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo One quirky connection was that of Pat Stanton who was acknowledged as one of Hibernian's greatest servants, a winner of the Scottish Football Writer's player of the year in 1970 and one who fended off interest from Celtic until the very final years of his career because of his connection to Hibs. He was the great-great nephew of founding member Michael Whelehan. In July of this summer, the club named one of the Easter Road stands, 'The Pat Stanton Stand.' Pat Stanton at the dedication of a stand in his name. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Like any good Irish sporting story, there's also room for a good old gypsy curse saga. For Hibs, it centred around a Scottish Cup drought that lasted from the Edwardian era and the refurbishment of the south stand in the 1950s, that did not reinstall the Hibs' harp emblem. The finger of suspicion for such a decision landed on chairman Harry Swan. He was selected by the board as the first non-Irish Catholic to take the role. Any quick check though would debunk that theory. Swan had presided over a post-war period that had one of Hibs' most successful periods, including three league titles in five years. He himself ordered a hand-crafted mosaic harp for the club's boardroom. Still, there are grudges that never wither. The New Year's Day match between Celtic and Rangers in 1952 provoked serious violence on the pitch. The Scottish FA considered a request for the Irish tricolour to be removed from Celtic Park. Celtic refused. Sanctions were threatened. Other clubs had their say with a vote and Hibs – represented by Swan – voted against Celtic. **** Everything changes, everything evolves. Hibernian is like any other club; home to thousands of different philosophies. For a great deal of Hibs fans, the club was about the old dock town of Leith and the local culture. For some it was a badge of anti-establishment. Others felt they were just as Irish and indeed Republican as Celtic. It's a theory that has some references in popular culture outside of the terraces. For example, in Irvine Welsh's novel Trainspotting, following the misadventures of a group of heroin addicts and Hibernian fans in Edinburgh, there is a chapter detailing Francis Begbie's New Year's Eve party where the assembled are belting out a selection of Irish Rebel songs, including 'Off to Dublin in the Green.' Edinburgh author and Hibs fan, Irvine Welsh. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo And yet, one of the central characters in Mark Renton comes from a family of Hearts supporters with a brother in the British Army serving in Belfast. The passage of time brings a new generation. When Hibs reached the Scottish Cup final of 2016 and beat Rangers 3-2, their first Cup since 1902, it included a few elements. The contribution of Anthony Stokes was immense. He scored the first goal, a neat stab to the far post after finding himself in space down the left wing. Rangers then grabbed two goals before Stokes' equalising header in the 80th minute. But he was a complete menace throughout, hitting the woodwork and having another shot parried, before David Grey's header in added time sealed the 3-2 win. The big Hollywood moment came as the Cup was presented to Hibs for the first time in 114 years and Hampden Park swayed to the crowd belting out that most gorgeous Hibs anthem, 'Sunshine on Leith' by The Proclaimers. There were some Irish tricolours among the Hibs end. This was a century on from the Easter Rising and James Connolly's execution. Just on Connolly; as a child, he acted as a ball-boy on match days for Hibernian. He had a love-hate relationship with his home town. The love centred mainly around Hibernian but it is striking how monuments and statues commemorating Connolly have been erected in Belfast, Dublin, Chicago and Troy, but not in Edinburgh. There is a small plaque near his birthplace. Nonetheless, there is a Hibs supporter's club named after him. It is difficult to think of another example of just how Irish emigration succeeded than Glasgow Celtic. But it's debateable if it all would have happened without the example of Hibernian FC. Four years after their establishment, Dundee was a city with a strong Irish identity, a census conducted in 1851 revealing that 19% of the city was Irish. They found their voice with the formation of Dundee Harp in 1879. Following a suspension by the Scottish Football Association in 1894, Dundee Harp stopped playing, were replaced by Dundee Hibernian, before reverting back to the Harp name prior to going defunct. It lives on in one way. The area around Lochee was known as 'Little Tipperary.' Having been formed in 1904, Lochee Harp are still on the go at junior level. Then, there was Dundee Hibernian who formed in 1909. Their first game was in August of that year against Hibernian of Edinburgh and they joined the league the following year. In 1923, they almost went bust and it was decided to change the name of the club to Dundee United, and the colours from green and white, to white and black. They would later change to orange and black in 1969. In 1887, Brother Walfrid of Sligo was inspired by the success of Hibernian and wished to achieve the same for the Irish poor in Glasgow. At the time, Hibernian made donations to the fledging enterprise. Unbeknownst to the other Celtic board members as football was evolving from amateur to professional, two Celtic board members, Glasgow businessmen John Glass and Pat Welsh, were thinking in terms of running Celtic as a profitable venture. In time, the best players of Hibernian were tempted west by the Celtic largesse. Under the management of Willie Maley, born and bred in Newry, Co Down, Celtic developed ideas of producing players from the wider east end of Glasgow and surrounding regions that gave them a strong identity. Eventually, with the help of Jock Stein, Celtic would capture the European Cup in 1967 with a team of players all from within 30 miles of Celtic Park; a feat never done before, since, or ever with the remotest chance of happening again. The affections of the Irish were with Celtic and that's how it largely remains. But it may never have happened without the vision of Hibernian FC.
Irish Independent
08-08-2025
- General
- Irish Independent
Pressure mounts on Galway City Council to address pedestrian safety in one of city's busiest areas
Galway West TD John Connolly has called on Galway City Council to create such a scheme following representations from Shantalla residents who highlighted 'significant concerns' over the issue. Residents highlighted the issue of speeding cars passing through the area, as well as the number of vehicles parking there to access local public facilities and the city centre. Active Travel schemes promote walking and cycling, while also focusing on improving infrastructure and accessibility through safety improvement works. Deputy Connolly wrote to the Active Travel and Sustainable Transport department of Galway City Council, calling for such a scheme to be implemented in Shantalla. The Fianna Fáil TD also highlighted that the local school, Scoil Bhríde, had not yet been included in the Safe Routes to School Scheme, and called for this to be rectified. On Tuesday, August 5, Deputy Connolly was informed by the council that the Active Travel Section is currently progressing priority projects, as per the Galway Transport Strategy and in line with National Transport Authority guidance. The priority projects are identified as the Western Distributor Road, Bóthar Stiofáin, the Salmon Weir Pedestrian Crossing, and the Ballybane Road/Castlepark Road Cycle Network. However, Deputy Connolly says that the council has taken note of the concerns regarding traffic speed and other issues along Shantalla Road and says that funding has been received for the early development of safety improvement works in the area. Galway City Council says that it will be meeting with residents, additional key stakeholders, and representatives of Scoil Bhríde, and that this engagement will inform the future development of any possible scheme. 'An Active Travel scheme for Shantalla is sorely required to make motorists more conscious of the needs of people within the community. I am pleased that the work will commence with consultation with the community,' DeputyConnolly said. 'I am pleased that funding is available and that the Council is aware of the issues there, but I would call on the Council to also treat this issue as a priority, especially as Shantalla Road has essentially become one of the main routes into the city centre and so is already prone to experiencing high traffic.'
Axios
29-07-2025
- Health
- Axios
140K Minnesotans could lose Medicaid under new law
An estimated 140,000 Minnesotans could eventually lose access to their government-funded health care under sweeping federal Medicaid changes President Trump signed into law this month. Why it matters: That's about 12% of all people currently using the state's Medicaid program, known as Medical Assistance (MA). The big picture: The prediction is a top takeaway from a new preliminary analysis from the state Department of Human Services saying that Minnesota will lose upwards of $1.4 billion in federal heath care funding over the first four years of implementation. Catch up fast: The federal tax and spending package, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, aims to reduce Medicaid spending by nearly $1 trillion through new work reporting requirements, twice-yearly eligibility checks and other provisions shifting costs to state and hospitals. Follow the money: DHS estimates that coverage losses related to the work reporting requirements alone will cut federal funding flowing to the state by $200 million a year. Local state, and tribal governments also face an additional $165 million in annual administrative costs related to implementation, and hospitals could eventually lose $1 billion a year under changes to the provider tax. What they're saying: John Connolly, a deputy DHS commissioner and state Medicaid director, said Monday that the law represents a "dramatic change for Minnesota" that will hit low-income adults without children, those parenting teenagers and rural hospitals particularly hard. A top concern, he said, is that people who are eligible for Medicaid will still "lose coverage because they can't complete the paperwork" required by the law. Others who still have coverage may see their out-of-pocket costs rise, he warned, leading fewer Minnesotans to seek preventative care. The other side: House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) defended the changes as "common-sense work requirements for able-bodied adults without children" that "strengthened program integrity measures to make sure only those who are eligible are receiving benefits." "In a state with such a massive fraud problem, these changes are a welcome step in the right direction to make sure Medicaid is strong for those who need it," she added. What we're watching: Officials are still assessing the direct impact on the state budget, which already faced a projected deficit down the road. Gov. Tim Walz says he probably won't need to call a special session to address the fiscal impact, since many of the Medicaid changes don't take effect until 2027 or later. But he predicted to Axios last week that lawmakers will face "very difficult decisions" when they return to St. Paul in February. 🍽️ Low-income residents may feel cuts to federal food assistance, while owners of high-priced homes could see tax breaks. 🧑🧑🧒🧒 Other tax deductions 🚘 People who gamble, give to charities or take out new car loans could also see changes to their tax bills.
The Citizen
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Citizen
Author John Connolly on how stories pitch up
Known for the Charlie Parker series, Connolly has long explored the edges of crime fiction. Best-selling author John Connolly does not approach writing with blueprints, formulas or sticky notes that define the narrative before he even sits down to write. Most of the time he doesn't even know how a story is going to unfold, let alone what happens in the next chapter. It's a creative process that he lets loose on himself, and it can be, at times, exciting and others, as droll as watching paint dry. It's a process that works. Few authors have the ability to engage, reel in and keep readers on a knife-edge from page one to the end. Connolly can, and it's probably because he goes through the same experience when putting pen to virgin paper. 'I am not a planner,' he said. 'Also, I do not play chess. I do not have that kind of strategic mindset. Usually, what will happen is that I have the opening scene to a book, and that is what I begin with. I sit down and write what is in my head, which is usually the first thousand words. And once that's down, I know the next thousand. But I do not know the ending. I have a vague idea of where it might go, but I could not tell you what I am going to write about tomorrow.' Charlie Parker is crime fiction at its best Known for the Charlie Parker series, Connolly has long explored the edges of crime fiction. His work blends the procedural with the mythic, adding shadows of the supernatural without losing its emotional realism or geographic markers. The method behind his own adventure, as he writes, is grounded in routine rather than revelation. 'You have to sit down regardless of whether you feel like the things you produce work.' He said his earlier career sortie in journalism was a good training for that. 'Newspapers are very unsympathetic if you come in and say, I don't really feel like writing today, the muse is not visiting me. They'll say, well, you can go visit the muse in the unemployment office and see whether she has anything to say to you there.' Also Read: Jo Watson's the Queen of steam books The difficult thing about writing,' he said, 'or doing anything creative, is that when you write the first line of something, you must psychologically commit to writing the last line. And that is hard'. He writes every day. And when the work is not going well, he sticks to smaller goals. 'Some days I write a thousand words. Other days I'll settle for three hundred. But you have to keep going. You take a day off and it is fine. Take two, and it takes an extra day to get back into it. Take a week off and it takes a week to recover. It's a muscle.' Character development is important to the author. There are no minor characters or throwaway personalities in his novels. Everyone who appears in the story, he said, must feel like they have a life beyond it. 'We are the centre of our own universe,' he said. 'Even the smallest character should feel like they've lived before the page and will live after it. You cannot discard people like they're just scenery.' He paints pictures in your mind Connolly writes like he speaks. It's colourful, it paints pictures in your mind, and his warmth of personality is embracing. A chinwag with him feels like you have just spent time with a long-lost friend. The kind of man where a few shared pints in a pub would create lifelong memories. And he's probably enjoyed a lot of conversations around the world, because Connolly visits the places he writes about and believes the detail gives his stories the kind of weight that makes the more unusual elements easier to accept. 'The books have that element of the supernatural, so they require a bit more suspension of disbelief,' he said. 'But if you get the landscape right, that is, if the reader can look up the places and see they're real, then the fiction becomes harder to separate from fact.' He said that he has never written a book he didn't want to write. 'I've never written because the kids needed a swimming pool or because I had a contract deadline. I write them because I want to. That matters. 'All writers have one or two subjects,' he said. 'For me, it is corruption. Not just of institutions, but of the human soul.' Books sparked by something unexpected His new book, The Children of Eve, began, like many of his novels, from something unexpected. While touring in Latin America, Connolly's car broke down in Argentina. He missed the destination he had planned to visit and stumbled instead into a strange, macabre museum filled with archaeological fragments. 'Writers are magpies,' he said. 'We collect things that are shiny and interesting, even if we do not know when we'll use them. That museum was one of those things I stored away.' That experience became The Children of Eve. The book opens in Mexico and traces its way through to the Tennessee borderlands. It is threaded with themes of hidden histories, cultural decay and ancient belief systems that persist beneath the surface of the modern world. 'Charlie Parker moves through a physical landscape, but the book also moves through a psychological one,' Connolly said. In between, the plot that's as twisted and curvy as a good Connolly gets. 'I am not trying to write the perfect book,' he said. 'Just a better one than the last. That's all I aim for.' Now Read: Joburg's Forgotten Movie Empire
CBS News
07-07-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Trump's "big, beautiful bill" means massive cuts to Medicaid — here's how Minnesotans could be affected
President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" is now law, and Minnesota, like other states, is confronting the reality of sharp cuts to Medicaid, which in Minnesota is called Medical Assistance. The bill means tax breaks as well as cuts to the nation's safety net programs. It will extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts for most Americans and create new temporary tax cuts on tips and overtime, as well as taxes on social security for many Americans. But the cuts in Medicaid, over $1 trillion over the next 10 years, are expected to reshape not just the federal budget but state and local budgets too. Minnesota state officials warned the bill would cut $500 million a year in reimbursements for hospital and nursing home coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates 152,000 to 253,000 Minnesotans could lose their health insurance coverage. The cuts would shift costs to state and county governments, a move that could lead to higher local taxes. "I think it's a tremendous increase in the cost to both state and county governments, but also to providers in terms of uncompensated care," John Connolly, the state director of Medicaid, said. The president's bill also creates new work requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients. It requires monthly and quarterly proof that work requirements are being met. The provision, while hailed by many, is expected to create more paperwork and require an increase in the need for more government workers to manage it. "We are scouring the bill to understand everything that is in it and how it interacts with our state policies and programs," Connolly said. The bill is expected to have a major impact on hospitals and nursing homes, which rely on Medicaid reimbursements. Hennepin Healthcare in downtown Minneapolis is the area's largest safety net hospital. The hospital estimates it will lose $145 million in funding a year. About 95,000, or half of all its patients a year, depend on Medicaid. Eighty-seven percent of all births at Hennepin Healthcare are paid for by Medicaid. However, the hospital will still be required to treat all patients regardless of their ability to pay. The predicted result: long lines in the ER and cuts to major specialty programs. "If my patients can't come in to see me, they are going to wait until things get really bad," said Dr. Tyler Winkelman, who works at Hennepin Healthcare. "And that means once things have hit that point, they will need to see my colleagues in the emergency department, and we really worry about the emergency department filling up." The bill is structured so that most Americans will feel the impact of the tax cuts in the spring of 2026, but some of the provisions, like work requirements for Medicaid, do not take place until 2027, after next year's midterm Congressional elections. You can watch WCCO Sunday Morning with Esme Murphy and Adam Del Rosso every Sunday at 6 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
