Free Republic

After generations of his family spent their lives as outlaws for making the infamous Irish poitín, Pádraic Ó Griallais has finally been able to carry out the family business in the open just under a decade after the spirit was outlawed. Taking a career break from his job as a high school teacher to establish a new business based on his old family recipe, Ó Griallais is free to produce and sell the highly alcoholic spirit as he pleases without the interference of the Gardaí [Irish police], who hounded the previous poitín distillers in his family with raids to put...

On the first stop of his 11-day, six-country trade mission to Europe, Gov. Sonny Perdue found something in far-off Dublin that felt familiar to him. "I'm struck by the similarities of Georgia and Ireland," Perdue wrote in an account of the trip posted at www. stateofgeorgiamissions.com. "Specifically, we share a parallel transition from a primarily agrarian economy to a high-tech hub for manufacturing and life science industries." Oh, if only that were true. Certainly, Ireland has made that transition to high-tech hub. Its economic growth over the past decade or so has been astounding. Once a slumbering backwater of Europe,...

BOAZ - Lewis Lee, an immigrant from Northern Ireland, says he isn't a racist. He doesn't have anything against Hispanics. But since they are the immigrant group in the news today, there is one word Lee would add to the national discussion. "With these Mexicans, the country is happy to ignore the law and let companies ignore the law," Lee said last week. "It's very unfair." Lee, 57, is speaking out as the debate on changing America's immigration law reaches a key moment. The U.S. Senate could pass its version of reform this week, setting up a final reconciliation with...