Nakba 65

Tomorrow 15th May 2013 marks the 65th anniversary of the Nakba - the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. In human terms, 1948 saw the mass deportation of 700,000 Palestinians from their cities and villages, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages. Mention of the word 'Nakba' in Israeli textbooks was banned by the Israeli Ministry of Education in 2009. The vast majority of Palestinian refugees, both those outside the 1949 armistice lines at the war's conclusion and those internally displaced, were barred by the newly declared state of Israel from returning to their homes or reclaiming their property. This dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people is known to them as al-Nakba, meaning "the catastrophe," or "the disaster.

The reporting of the continued suffering of the Palestinian people in the Prison of Gaza and in the Occupied West Bank riddled with illegal settlements occupied by Jewish racists from Brooklyn has been abysmal with absolutely no attempt at explanation and the usual photogenic IDF Spokesperson explaining that Israel only shot “very specific targets.” This of course in the occupied Golan Heights and in “Shabba Farms”, two villages equally illegally occupied by Israel when it withdrew from Lebanon.

Palestinian girl in a protest on Nakba Day 2010 in Hebron, West Bank. Her sign says "Surely we will return, Palestine." There are 788,108 Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA in the West Bank, most of whom are the descendants of people whose families hail from areas incorporated into Israel in 1948.

Today, the UN reports that there are more than 4.75 million registered Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza. Of these, nearly 1.4 million live in 58 UN-operated refugee camps. The total number of Palestinian refugees worldwide is estimated to be 5.5 million—the largest population of refugees in the world. Yet Israel has consistently refused to recognize the Palestinians’ right of return, as expressed in UN General Assembly Resolution 194, Article 11. Moreover, Israel’s expulsion and internal displacement of Palestinians continues to this day, albeit on a much smaller scale than in 1948. In a very real sense, the Nakba never really ended.

Arthur Balfour - British Foreign Secretary whose October 1917 letter to Walter Rothschild became known as "The Balfour Declaration." He was an anti-Semite whose motivation was to solve the "Jewish Problem" by removing Jews from Europe to Palestine. Palestine was administered by Britain under trust from the League of Nations and the commitment by Balfour was a breach of the right of self determination contained in the League's Covenant.

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/dead-zoo-at-tring.html

I wrote last December in relation to the tragedy of Gaza;

“Let us not forget in our PC world why Gaza exists is two words never used in Israel; Ethnic Cleansing. Gaza exists because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it – Askalaan in Arabic – were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They – or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don't come from Gaza.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-gaza-free-palestine-free.html

The Wikileaks cables show the complete lack of concern by American diplomats for the people of Palestine, they confirm that America is acting in this region with no moral purpose when it come to the Palestinian people and that it is utterly uninterested in the so called “Two States Solution” allowing Israel to set 100% of the agenda to stop a Palestinian State being a reality. Better to withdraw its 1.1 Bn Dollar military aid to Israel which is totally contrary to the US’s strategic interests. Better to withdraw its $1. 0 Bn a year aid to Egypt which allows the Pharaoh Murbarak and the military elite to run a repressive farce pretending to be a democracy. Why, America will really be surprised when Egypt implodes and the US loses another great ally? Far better to cut both these payments by America’s hard pressed taxpayer and divert the resources to addressing the results and righting the wrongs of the 1948 ethnic cleansing and making the “Two Nation” solution a reality.

Palestine

A Palestinian family in the 1930's

Malnourished children, restrictions on Gaza-fisherman, lacklustre sewage and water systems, and the confiscation of $4.5 billion in international aid will not improve Israel’s security in the long run. It will only increase the popularity of the Hamas Movement, decrease the effects of counterterrorism throughout the globe, and create the next generation of dangerous faith-based ideologues.”



Well the world has moved on since I wrote that. It may now be time for the State of Israel to start abiding by the concept of universal human rights. Not only would such activities have the symbolic effect of furthering international unity towards tolerance and respect (despite religion, ethnicity, or background), but may strengthen Israel’s right to exist by severely diminishing Arab hostility towards the Jewish people.



For there is only one Middle Eastern “rogue state” which has attacked each and every one of its neighbours including destroying the EU funded infrastructure of Gaza, dismembering Lebanon, occupying the sovereign territory of Syria, occupying East Jerusalem and the West Bank which it is illegaly settling and applying collective punishment to the civilian population (in defiance of the “quaint” Geneva Conventions), which has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty and which has developed nuclear weapons. And did I mention that its previous Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, had personally led a terrorist massacre of women and children? During the raid on Qibya, Jordan in 1953, a total of 69 Palestinians were killed and forty-five houses, a school, and a mosque were blown-up. The act was condemned by the US State Department, the UN Security Council, and by Jewish communities worldwide. And the previous Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s father was Quartermaster of the Irgun terrorist organisation (you know the guys who killed both the British and UN Peace Envoys and hanged three British soldiers including a Jewish lad from the East End). Former Foreign Minister’s Tzipi Livni’s father was the leader of the Irgun group which carried out the King David Hotel massacre which killed 92 people including 17 Jews.

King David Hotel massacre

And did I mention that another previous Israeli Prime Minister, Menachim Begin, was the Irgun leader who gave the order? But less of rogue states with terrorist links whose support by the US is entirely contrary to America’s strategic interests. But perhaps Barack might suggest to Israel’s leadership that if it is to survive and prosper it will not do so by military means and it is now a time for change?

Suba - A district of Jerusalem ethnically cleansed of
Palestinians during The Nakba

I am not anti- Jewish, indeed quite the opposite. I document elsewhere in this Blog the Jewish communities of Prague, Krakow, Marrakech and Kos and the killing machine of Auschwitz-Birkenau. I am not anti-Semitic and abhor racism in all its forms. I do not equate Zionism with racism and I would never support in any circumstances any boycott of Israel, no matter how it is dressed up. I would never support it because I understand the resonance in Jewish history of boycotts and recognise that Theodor Herzl’s advocacy of Zionism was a valid response to the bullying and suffering Jewish people were suffering in 19th Century Europe. After the events of The Shoah there is no way I could look a Jewish person in the eye and argue in favour of assimilation, even though 60% of world Jewry lives outside of Israel.



But you do not fight racism and oppression by yourselves becoming the racists and the oppressors. Israel must acknowledge its terrorist origins and the part played by massacres of the Palestinians in the exodus of Arabs from Palestine, acknowledge the evil of the Deir Yassin massacre: the murder of roughly 100 Palestinians villagers by Zionist paramilitaries on April 9, 1948, and the other indefensible events in that tragic period.

For the only way forward for Israel is a genuine Two State Solution reverting to the 1949 Line of Control and internationalising Jerusalem (Yerushaláyim “The City of Peace”, القُدس,  al-Quds “The Holy Sanctuary”). There is no long term strategic interest for the United States in having Israel as its proxy military power in the Middle East and for Israel to rely on military might subsidised by a foreign power for its long term security. And for the United States perhaps when the sugar rush from the killing of Bin Laden has worn off perhaps it might reflect that the two greatest threats to its own security come from its own greed. It’s greed for oil which has made it dependant on the Saudi tyranny and its greed for cocaine which has created violent corrupt narco states in South America, in North America (Mexico) and in Afghanistan. Perhaps the greedy and incontinent consumer has to take some responsibility for the consequences of their own prolifigate greed? When considering Bin Laden perhaps the US and Israel should remember that before 1948 “Nakba” referred to the cynical partition of the Arab World into dependant statelets by France and Britain, two of the most enthusiastic interventionists in Libya. Not for nothing did Osama Bin Laden start his denunciations with the shameful Treaty of Sevres – a murderous medievalist he may have been but mindless he was not.



There is no going back; the Arab Spring will affect the Arab World, Israel and the children of the Nakba equally. Israel and Modern Judaism will have to reflect if a people who greet each other with “Shalom” and part with the words 'l'chayim' are really on a sustainable path to peace and security? And if the United States want to move on from the immoral and failed neo-colonial policy it has adopted to the Arab World and Islam then it should not despair because somebody called Thomas Jefferson has already come up with a better policy;

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;”

New York, New York – Part 1

Last year I returned from a remarkable and invigorating few days around St. Patrick’s Day (17^th March for those who don’t know!) in what we must now consider the Big Green Apple. I had been in New York City four times before (lastly in 1984) but always connecting or briefly on visit and had never gone just as a visitor. What a visit this turned out to be, made special by some special friends and reunions not to mention the present wife who had never been there and was wide eyed at the scale and bustle of this unique city!  Indeed so enjoyable was the 2012 trip that we retraced our steps this year to NYC for a second St. Paddy’s Day including a Sober St Paddy’s Day. Keep reading, New York, New York, a city so great we visited it twice!

The Irish tricolour on the mast of The Empire State Building

A suitably illuminated  Empire State
Building on St Patrick's Day

First we had to get there. Now many years ago I boycotted British Airways, after they left me stranded in Dublin for three days, but for this trip the boycott ended as we were flying on a BA 747 from Terminal 5 across the Atlantic. It is with a heavy heart I have to concede BA and their terminals were somewhat superb. Terminal 5 worked a dream even though it repeats the basic BAA mistake of being an overpriced shopping mall with an airport attached. Arriving in JFK BA’s Terminal 7 was calm, well run and relatively small scale. It was far better than I remember Terminal 4 where the Aer Lingus flights arrive with its larger scale and long immigration queues.  These days getting into USA is no mean feat – strange as 9/11 exposed that 20 people used rubbish security on INTERNAL flights to do their dastardly deeds so the  response by the Bush bureaucrats who couldn’t see a Mack truck coming at them was to tighten security on EXTERNAL flights. In the immortal word of one H. Simpson of Springfield, DOH!

Still, as the shambles of British Immigration and border controls continues it is worth making a comparison with the way the US knows what it’s doing as much as the UK has not got a clue. In fairness it is done efficiently and with indefinite visas cancelled (such as the B1-B2 I had!) they now charge you $14 to file your ESTA form online – a gesture which really says “Welcome to America!”  Immigration is now efficient and largely automated, neither was the case the last time I went in. The investment in technology shows as you are now digitally photographed and finger printed on entry in in less than a minute. In defence of the US at least the know who has gone in and have their photo, ID and accurate details (from ESTA) and as they clock you out they know exactly who is in, who is out, who has overstayed and can ID them. Contrast this with the UK and its laughable Border Controls which actually do none of the above? The other thing about US immigration law (if you are not a citizen of God’s own country) is everything is on the basis of strict liability. In other words one false declaration (hence the tedious ESTA stuff asking if you were a member of the Nazi Party, participated in genocide, intend to commit an act of terrorism (!!!), etc.;) and you are kicked out, no ifs, buts or maybes. There would be no question of arguing that you have established a right to family life in the US because you have a pet cat, as an illegal immigrant successfully argued in the UK!

The Light of Liberty enlightening the World

British Airways at JFK goes into Terminal 7 which is fairly compact and new compared to what I remember as the bedlam and chaos of Terminal 4 where I (and half of the Caribbean and South America!) used to arrive on the Aer Lingus flights. From JFK to downtown Manhattan is 45 mins on a good (non rush hour) day and the fixed taxi fare is $45 plus tolls and a tip, say $55 - $60. As two in an uncomfortable (and not very accessible for those with mobility issues) minibus would cost $38 plus tip, the cab wins on convenience and door to door service with luggage for only a small premium.

"Imagine" The Strawberry Fields memorial to
John Lennon in Central Park

The Dakota Building

Coffee New York style!

The Garment District

The first sight of Manhattan from the expressway into town never fails to seduce. The skyscrapers lit up at night across the East River are one of the iconic enduring images of our world and what an amazing island Manhattan is. Only 13 miles long and 2.5 miles across at its widest point Manhattan means the “hilly island” in the Algonquin language.  It is only at the northern end of the island you get the idea the wooded hilly place seen by the first settlers from Holland who founded Nieuw Amsterdam at the southern tip of the island. This was a commercial venture by the Dutch East Indies Company which also commissioned one Henry Hudson to explore the North West Passage to the Indies. He travelled up the river now named after him believing this led to another sea. A not unreasonable assumption as the “Hudson River” is in fact a deep fjord and contains salt water for its first 150 miles.

It is the island of Manhattan set in one of the world’s greatest natural harbours which made this place so coveted as the gateway to the Americas and in 1664 the British Colony of New England to the north annexed it from the Dutch and named it after the 17th century Duke of York, James Stuart, future James II and VII of England and Scotland. The Dutch were allowed to stay and continue trading and their names are preserved in Harlem, Brooklyn, The Bronx and the street named after the defensive wall they built, Wall Street. The river is also the secret to New York’s economy. The entry point to the huge interior of America was up the Hudson and across to the Ohio River on the Erie Canal from which you could connect to the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas and Red River basins. Hence the financial services to support a merchant economy began in New York as well as all the other supply functions such as clothing as exemplified by the Garment District.

St Giles The Court Hotel in Murray Hill, Midtown East

We were lucky in our choice of a base in the Big Green Apple; St. Giles The Court on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 39^th Street set in the somewhat happening area of Lower Midtown known as Murray Hill. The hotel is well located within walking distance of Grand Central Terminal, the Chrysler Building and Fifth Avenue. More importantly the immediate area has a good selection of restaurants, diners and convenience stores, some of which open 24 hours.  What attracted me were the room sizes having stayed in some rabbit warren hotels in NYC in the past. Originally opened as part of the fashionable “W” chain its rooms are larger than average at around 400 ft2. Each room comes with the same basic amenities, including a 27-inch flat-screen interactive TV, comfortable pillow-top mattress, luxury linens, down pillows, luxury toiletries, bathrobes, a mini-bar, and 24-hour room service.  Our room had a great view of the Chrysler Building and a walk in closet and dressing area as well as an ensuite. The bed was huge and probably the comfiest I’ve experienced in a hotel and along with a proper sitting area it provided a relaxing base for six days. Along with the in-room amenities, there is a cafe downstairs called Icon that serves breakfast but we didn’t use it instead going to Blooms Diner at the next corner.

The view from our room: The Chrysler Building

Grand Central Station

There is a very snazzy reception area and the desk staff and Concierge were friendly and helpful, with 192 rooms St Giles The Court is small scale and restful, not like the railway station concourse feel of some of the larger hotels.  The Court Bar is billed as a meeting place for movers and shakers with a designer ambience and windows onto Lexington Avenue. It cites some celebrity customers such as the purple artist formerly known as Prince but the night we were there it had young self-regarding New York lawyers in trying to tell the girls what super jocks they were. Not a pretty sight. It also has a sister hotel next door, St Giles The Tuscany where the bar is called Audrey’s as Audrey Hepburn lived in the area and was an habitué. There is a business Centre in The Court and a Gym in the Tuscany available to residents of both hotels. There is also a Beauty Spa as part of the Court which also does hairdressing and the usual laundry, room service and so on. The location, large rooms, small scale and helpful staff made it a good and relaxing place to stay in this hectic city.

Meeting the Irish Wolfhounds who lead the Parade

The next morning it was the main event, St. Patrick’s Day, an event which is older than the United States. The St. Patrick's Day parade was first held in New York City on 17 March, 1762 when Irish soldiers with the British garrison marched through the city fourteen years before the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Today it is the largest parade in the world. The first St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York was held on lower Broadway in 1762 by a band of homesick Irish ex-

Mike Bloomberg, Mayor of New York

patriots and Irish military who served with the British Army stationed in the American colonies. This was a time when the wearing of green was a sign of Irish pride and was banned in Ireland. The parade participants revelled in the freedom to speak Irish, wear the green, sing Irish songs and play the pipes to Irish tunes that were very meaningful to the Irish immigrants who had fled their homeland. We had a great viewing position at the start at the corner of 47 th Street and 5th Avenue where we met a number of wonderful Old Hibernians who filled us in on the spectacle.

A spectator in full regalia

For the background to St. Patrick see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/st-paddys-day-blog.html

The iconography of the Parade is revealing. When the great wave of Irish migration to the United States started after the Potato Famine the Irish flooded into New York having first having to go through quarantine and vetting at Ellis Island.

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/gorta-mor-irelands-great-hunger.html

Penniless and without connections they settled in the worst area of New York, the notorious Hell’s Kitchen, now renamed “Clinton” by that never knowingly undersold group, The NY realtors. They suffered discrimination and worse, for this was the era of NINA, No Irish Need Apply.

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/no-irish-need-apply.html

Little by little, like so many immigrant groups before and after, they dragged themselves up and fought back. In days when strikes were broken up by Police and the hired thugs from the Pinkerton Agency the Irish were at the fore of the organised labour movement, the took part in politics aligning themselves with the Democratic party and they joined the Police and the City administration, often in the most menial roles but working their way up. They allied themselves with other groups, particularly the Italians as they went to the same schools and churches and they joined the Union Army in their thousands to fight in the Civil War against slavery and for a land which had rejected the rule of a British King and asserted “that all men are created equal.” Soon the Irish made themselves part and parcel of the story of America to the extent that over 40 million Americans claim Irish heritage. So here in New York there are no floats and displays but the emphasis is on the people marching and their achievements. So you get the Police Forces, the NYPD, the Colleges, the county associations, the Irish Bands and Dance schools, the historical societies, the fellow Celts from Galicia, Brittany and the Basque Country, The Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Emerald Societies and much, much more. And in this, the 252 nd year of the Parade, all these associations and the Mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg, the 17th richest man in the world, parade before the Cardinal Archbishop who reviews the Parade on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The Parade Grand Marshall

South Street Sea Port

The wonderful book commemorating the
250th St. Patrick's Day Parade

The iconography is clear, the Irish may have been treated with scorn by the WASP establishment when the fetched up on these shores but slowly and surely they have taken Manhattan and then some. After 9/11 the Parade was rededicated to the heroes of that day and for me the most moving spectacle is the fire-fighters of the NYPD carrying 343 Stars and Stripes, one for each of their comrades who died on that fateful day.

New York Firefighters carrying 343 Stars and Stripes - one for each of their comrades who perished on 9/11

After the Parade we went to a remarkable and hopping event a “Sober St. Patrick’s Day Celebration.” At Regis High School on East 85^th  Street. As well as great musicians it had contributions by Fionnula Flanagan, acclaimed Irish actress, Malachy McCourt, actor and author, Tara Conner, Public Advocacy Consultant for Caron Treatment Centers and Former Miss USA, Noel Kilkenny, Consul General of Ireland, and many others. I was delighted to catch up with an old buddy from Bolton Street College over 30 years ago Pat Carroll who was there with his wife Joan Burton, the Irish Minister for Social Protection who spoke at the celebration and sagely observed it was an idea whose time had come.

“We’re not anti-drink, we are anti-drunk ” The audience at the Sober St.Patrick's Day celebration in Regis High School.

Ruth Riddick at the Sober St Patrick's
Day Celebration NYC

http://www.soberstpatricksday.org/

Sober St. Patrick’s Day began in 2011 when William Reilly, an Irish-American television producer, attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City. As he looked out onto the crowd, a young twenty-something man’s outfit caught his eye. His green shirt read: “ST. PATRICK’S DAY TODAY, HUNGOVER TOMORROW.” Reilly decided to approach him – politely asking where he bought his shirt. Beer-in-hand, the young man responded, “In my local mall in New Jersey. Isn’t it cool?”

The sober party in full swing

Writer Malachy McCourt regaling the
Sober St. Pats party goers

After nearly losing a family member to alcoholism, Reilly didn’t exactly see it as “cool.” Surely this man wasn’t the only person in New York celebrating the holiday in such a way, but there was something about this encounter that resonated with Reilly. Disappointed with how the Irish were being portrayed, alas, this was the moment that Sober St. Patrick’s Day was born. Aiming “to reclaim the true spirit of the day and to change the perception and experience of what St. Patrick’s Day can be,” the inaugural event began in 2012, drawing nearly 800 attendees to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day the sober way. This year in 2013 the event has grown so the original party was sold out with an overflow party also taking place and events taking place in other cities, not just in the United States, but across the world. This step change is due to the great energy and vision of the organisers including my good buddy Ruth Riddick who is the organisation’s Development Director.

Next morning we met for that great New York tradition Sunday Brunch with some good buddies Jessie, Ruth and Yvonne in the fashionable Chelsea eatery, Cafeteria. A popular celeb hangout in hip Chelsea this eatery is open 24/7 and I can heartily recommend the Smoked Salmon Benedict washed down with at least one Jalapeño Bloody Mary! Breakfast of Champions!

http://www.cafeteriagroup.com/

Washington Square, Greenwich Village

Ladies who Brunch

Cafeteria, Chelsea NYC

That night we went to an amazing trad session in “Alphabet City” in the East Village hosted by Tony de Marco and among the musician dropping in was Sean Keane from the Chieftains! It was all the more enjoyable for being in the company of our remarkable friend Jessie, no mean singer herself who we had last met in O’Donoghue’s in Merrion Row. Located on 11th street between Avenue A & B, the 11th street bar is open every day until 4am with Happy Hour from 4pm to 9pm every day ($2 off everything). 11th St. Bar is available to host a variety of events, such as live music, poetry readings, pub quizzes, live sports and birthday parties. Live Music with no cover charge from 9pm-11pm every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and also their famous live Irish Seisiun every Sunday starting at 10pm.

http://www.11thstbar.com/

http://tonydemarcomusic.net

The craic in the 11th St Bar. Siobhain Butler dancing,
Sean Keane from The Chieftains  (who had played Carnegie
Hall the night before) on fiddle

The next day we strolled a couple of blocks from our hotel which brought back memories of my first night in America in 1981. For on that occasion I had a somewhat distorted view of America for I stayed at 301 Park Avenue within walking distance of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Rockefeller Centre. That address is better known as the famous  Waldorf –Astoria Hotel and I was stunned at this 48 storey Art Deco landmark. I stayed in the Towers and before I got to enjoy the wonderful vistas from our room at the “top of the house” you experienced the basement car park with its wall-to-wall limos and its lift which could take Franklin D. Roosevelt’s car directly from the platform at the adjacent Grand Central Station as he went to the Presidential Suite where all US Presidents stay when they are in New York. Then you had to walk through six lobbies to get to the huge reception (the hotel has 1,450 rooms) where by tradition all reception staff are mother tongue French speakers. Only then did you go to the room in the Towers to enjoy awe inspiring views of Manhattan.

The lobby clock, Waldorf Astoria

“Basildon Room”, Waldorf Astoria

There is a local connection with a stately home near us Basildon Park. In 1929 when the Waldorf-Astoria was rebuilt the owners bought the contents, including the panelling of the Ballroom of the house and many of the decorative fittings can now be seen in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York where fittings and wall panels from the house form the “Basildon Room”.

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/basildon-park.html

For me I have always loved the fact that the great American songwriter Cole Porter lived in a suite at the Waldorf for over 30 years. His piano is in the lobby and to this day the hotel only permits Cole Porter’s music to be played on it.

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/well-did-you-evah.html

Monday and Tuesday was taken up with the “tourist stuff” doing an excellent 5 ½ hour tour in a small bus with the guide walking you to the sites at the stops with OnBoard Tours and that evening going to the “Top of the Rock” at the Rockefeller Centre for amazing vistas of NYC at night. On Tuesday we did the wonderful Circle Line Cruise for 3 hours around the island of Manhattan with a wonderful commentary by Mike, a captain on the line and author of several guides. Afterwards the magic of Macey’s, which despite the hype is like a Museum of Retailing with poor customer service values and a Visitor Desk which conspires to be as unhelpful as possible to visitors!

Rockefeller Centre

The new World Trade Centre rising above New York

Ellis Island

Fred Koch's New York residence at 6 East 80th Street, just 

off 5th Avenue on "Museum Mile " opposite the Metropolitan 

Museum. The centre "McCann" House was 

(March 2012) on the market at 90M USD

Brooklyn Bridge

On Wednesday we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art one of the World’s great repositories and around the corner on East 80^th Street to see 3 of New York’s finest Townhouses built by Frank Winfield Woolworth for his three daughters. Designed by Charles P. H. Gilbert they were built from 1911 to 1915 on East 80th Street. These were for his three children: Edna (Mrs. Franklyn) Hutton, at 2 East 80th; Helena (Mrs. Charles) McCann, at 4 East 80th; and Jessie (Mrs. James) Donahue, at 6 East 80th Street. The Donahue house is owned by Frederick E. Koch and it has a seamless addition on the top, designed in the 1990s by the architect Charles T. Young. The centre "McCann" House was (March 2012) on the market at 90M USD. 

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/villa-torre-clementina-roquebrune-cap.html

Afterwards we headed down on a balmy day (not typical March NYC weather) to Greenwich Village where I fulfilled a quest by paying my own personal tribute to Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo in Jones Street, Greenwich Village NYC. Suze Rotolo  appeared with Dylan on the cover of his breakthrough album “Freewheelin' Bob Dylan” walking down a snowy Jones Street in Greenwich village and he wrote "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and "Tomorrow Is a Long Time." about her.

Freewheelin' DaithaiC paying his tribute in Jones Street

Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo in Jones Street,
Greenwich Village

http://daithaic.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/suze-rotolo.html

Then it was over on the subway to Brooklyn to see Manhattan for the last time from the historic district of Brooklyn Heights before heading for JFK and home.

More on forthcoming Blogs on Sober St. Patrick’s Day, New York Redux, New York Eats and much more. Stay tuned dear Blogistas!