August • 2011 www.ianohio.com Music on My Mind - Flogging Molly... Page 3 Illuminations - Maud Gonne... Page 8 Irish Heroes... Page 10-11 Wizard Falls; Photo by Craig Scotland, Smith Scotland Productions 2 ianOHIO www.ianohio.com irish american news • August 2011 to find my social security card, my Happy Summer! The sea- the hard work of our columnists birth certificate, son so slow to approach roars over the first five years and take my passport and by with such speed that we are the Ohio Irish American News my marriage li- afraid to blink, to miss part of to the natural next step—we cense. I think get- a season short in duration but have weathered the storm, now ting into the CIA jammed with so much music, we seek to expand. We need is easier. family and fun events that we you! New columnists and new Look at Your Driver’s License - Now The writ- can’t taste them all; yet try we features are readily available, ten test is not so must! just waiting for the opportunity, I have been practicing law for almost twen- simple, though I did pass on the first try. There Maybe we appreciate these and the space generated by ad- ty-five years and have extensive experience in are many complicated rules of the road that we days of summer warmth be- vertiser support. We ask you to criminal defense and traffic law. I have helped simply do not encounter every day, or, for some cause they are so rare up in take an active, rather than pas- many folks with DUI and traffic issues get their of the rules, any day ever, but they are on the these northern states, where sive ownership. Investing in driver’s licenses back (or at least get them limit- test—and if you miss one of them, you lose a winter seems to take the pace John O’Brien, Jr. your OhIAN by advertising your ed driving privileges on a suspended license). So point. Ten points off is a fail. of the glacier and last at least business, your event or simply, you would assume (and I guess that I assumed) Thank God there was a book that I could a year. I know I am never in favor of sum- your support, will allow us to add those new that I would know all there is to know about quickly review while my wife drove me to the mer ending... the lights come on, the nights a features and columnists ready to share new in- driver’s licenses and the rules that surround how exam and while I waited in line. The test is done song, and the streets all turn to gold. Heat is sights, old experiences and the joy of gather- driver’s licenses are issued, renewed and can- on a tap-based computer screen. Once you pass my friend. ing together to celebrate. celed. Never assume. the written test, you get what is called a “tempo- August begins, and we’re just coming off Thanks for your patience with my pitch On my way out of town for a short family rary” driver’s license. festivals in Cleveland and Dayton. Now we’re each month. Now on to the good shtuff! We vacation a few weeks ago, I was told by the lady With this type of limited driver’s license, you all off to Dublin in the green, in the green… hope you are having a fantastic summer. I at the car rental place that my driver’s license have to have a licensed driver, over the age of As weather is so integral to many of our fes- love seeing everyone at the festivals, the pre- had expired—you need a valid driver’s license to eighteen, with you while you are driving. So my tivals’ success; advertising is integral to our and post-parties and sitting down to catch up. rent a car. At first, I could not believe it. I took a wife had to be with me while I drove, and my efforts to provide an entertaining, educational Sharing the wealth is a favorite of mine. Send look at my license, and, yes, she was right. I had 16-year-old son, who has his regular driver’s li- and vibrant newsmagazine. us your favorite festival pics and memories assumed that my driver’s license was like my cense, had to be the “driver” of the car when he The day we stop growing is the day we and we will add to the next issue. license plates/sticker—and that the Ohio BMV and I went somewhere. He really thought this start dying. August and September are the See you Out & About, would send me a notice, long in advance of the was funny at first, at least until he got sick of time of harvest. We are ready to harvest all John renewal date, that my license had to be renewed. having to drive me everywhere I needed to go. Never assume. The road test is something you have to sched- * www.ianohio.com, www.facebook.com/OhioIrishAmericanNews, And then things got even worse. When I ule, like making a reservation at a restaurant. It www.twitter.com/jobjr, www.myspace.com/ohian, went to the BMV to renew my driver’s license, is the same test that you remember from high http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ohioirishamericannews I was told that, in fact, my driver’s license had school—with the uniformed BMV official sit- been expired for more than six months—which ting in the passenger seat next to you giving you it. I knocked over one of the cones—they are all time. When I took the test again, the testing of- means that I had to “re-test.” A ‘re-test” is where specific directions on where they want you to below the line of sight when you look out the ficial could not have been more nice and profes- an older fella like me has to take an on-screen go—waiting to sting you if you make the slight- rear view mirror—while backing through the sional. She knew why I was there—and knew of written exam, a road exam and, then, a maneu- est mistake. Ten minutes of nerve-racking driv- course. my predicament. verability exam—the same tests that any six- ing. I think they are just checking to make sure I had to schedule my make-up test for a week After I passed, she kind of laughed and let teen-year-old must pass in order to get his or her that you are not completely ignorant of how to later because if you fail, the earliest they let you me know that plenty of people in my age group first driver’s license. So I said to myself, what drive a car correctly. I passed this test—but my take a make-up test is seven days later. I had a fail the test because they don’t take it seriously can be so hard about that? Never assume. hands were wet from sweat. week of driving on the “temporary” driver’s li- enough and/or have too many other things on The paperwork was a nightmare. If this But on to the maneuverability test. It is not the cense, a week of getting hard but fun grief from their mind when they take the test. So I had that should happen to you, be sure to bring “your parallel parking test my peers and I took at the age all of my friends and family, and a week of hav- going for me. papers.” You need some very verifiable and spe- of 16. It is a test involving five cones set up in a ing to have my wife in the car with me wherever Take out your driver’s license now and look cific type of paperwork to please that BMV that manner that requires you to drive through four of I drove. to see when it expires. Put that date in your you are who you say you are—and the expired them, and then go left of right of the top cone— When I took the make-up test, I used my smart phone or paper calendar—live not my ex- driver’s license is not one of the accepted forms and then back up the same way you came in. mother-in-law’s Honda Civic—and I actually perience here. Teasing aside, the extra time and of identification. So when I first arrived at the That was unexpectedly hard, and I was so practiced the night before in a parking lot near work needed to get back on track is a lesson in BMV, I learned that I had to go all the way home overconfident that I failed it the first time I tried my home. I was not taking any chances this itself. www.mariannemangan.com Ahern Ca tering Irish Family Last Name Banquets, We ddings, Histories & Coats of Arms Clamba kes or Irish Gifts and Fine Jewelry Your Special E v ent Claddagh, Celtic Warrior, To ny Ahe rn Anam Cara & more! 440-933-7500 Made in Ireland. Fax : 440-933-7507 imagine your image www.irishcollection.com [email protected] ww w.Ahe rnCaterin g.com 216-671-4673 Tel: (219) 663-1756 726 Avon Belden Rd., Avon Lake, OH 44012 [email protected] August 2011 • irish american news www.ianohio.com ianOHIO 3 Music on my Mind Clutch) in Cleveland July 28th at contains two Oates By Pete Roche Jacob’s Pavilion (Nautica) and in originals—the Delta the material on Speed of Darkness.