Dublin

Dr. Michael Kevin Finegan, a retired Maryland General Hospital surgeon who also worked for the Social Security Administration, died of multiple myeloma Wednesday at the Brightwood Center in Lutherville. The Roland Park resident was 81. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he studied at boarding school, Newbridge College in Kildare, where he entertained thoughts of playing rugby professionally. He attended University College Dublin and received his medical education at the National University of Ireland, where he was a rugby team captain.

Mushrooms are great additions for hurry-up meals. A free leaflet offers several ideas for quick dishes -- including Penne With Tomato and Fresh Mushroom Sauce (pictured above). Send a stamped, self-addressed business envelope to: The Mushroom Council, Box 998, 11875 Dublin Blvd., Suite D262, Dublin, Calif. 94568.Baltimoreans fond of funky fareBaltimore foods get star treatment in the September/October issue of Saveur magazine. Check out recipes for Maryland Crab Soup, Smithfield Ham and Crab "Saute," Chesapeake Chicken and more in an article titled "Lady Baltimore Eats: Charm City's Food is Old-Time Funky Fun."

Samuel Beckett, 1906-1989;Born to a prosperous Protestant family in the Dublin suburb of Foxrock, Beckett attended Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied modern languages. He traveled widely in Europe in the 1930s before settling in Paris, where he became a close disciple of James Joyce.Beckett wrote many novels, including "Murphy," which Dylan Thomas called "Freudian blarney," and "Molloy," which explores a mysterious Jekyll and Hyde relationship between two men, Maron and Molloy.He considered himself to be primarily a novelist, but it was with his play "Waiting for Godot" in 1954 that Beckett gained celebrity status.

Meir Ariel, 57, a songwriter and singer whose works became classics of modern Israeli music, died yesterday of an infection in Jerusalem. He wrote the words to hundreds of songs, many of which entered the canon of pop and rock music in Hebrew, said Israeli Composers' Union chairman Yori ben-David."

MY BEST SHOTEnglish country charmsBy Anna R. Denbow, Bel AirMy sister, Janet, and I have just returned from a very enjoyable holiday in England, visiting the Cotswolds and Cornwall. We enjoyed the charming villages of Northleach, Burford, Stow-on-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water, to name a few. The scenery of Cornwall with the cliffs and the Atlantic Ocean was breathtaking. There was so much to see -- Windsor Castle, Winston Churchill's grave, cathedrals, castles. This was our second trip to the British Isles and we hope to return again.

BRITAIN TO EASE LIMITS ON PETSEuropean cats and dogs certified to be rabies-free can travel to and from Britain without worry of quarantine. Expected to be introduced by April, the program grants pets traveling from rabies-free countries exemption from quarantine (which now lasts six months) as long as they have the proper documents noting their vaccination as well as microchips inserted under their skin that contain identification and veterinary information.Cats and dogs must have blood tests one month after vaccination to check and see if the rabies shot worked.

If you depend on gift-book lists, there are dozens around elsewhere, but it seems to me that a glance at our best-seller lists does about as well as most elaborate compendiums. Better, go to a bookshop and wander around aimlessly with the recipient's mind in mind. You will stumble on something appropriate -- far more personally, affectionately than any blind list we could give you here.Perhaps none of the unread books mentioned in the provocations above on this page will produce immediate ideas for presents, but I hope they set you to thinking, as they have me.There was a time when I would have responded almost precisely as does Sandy Levy, esteemed chief of our esteemed library.

Jordan's king goes undercover to hear citizens' complaintsAMMAN, Jordan -- Jordan's King Abdullah, showing glimpses of the common touch that made his father, King Hussein, hugely popular, dressed up as an old man to investigate operations at a duty-free zone.The monarch, who assumed the throne in February, listened to complaints and harsh criticisms of a bloated bureaucracy. "How can an application take four days to process when there are 40 customs officials at 40 windows?" one investor was quoted as saying.

DUBLIN -- In yet another blow to a wobbly peace process, the police chief in Northern Ireland said yesterday that a loyalist paramilitary group that claims to be observing a cease-fire has killed at least three Roman Catholics in the past three weeks.Ronnie Flanagan, chief constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, confirmed what police sources have been saying since New Year's Eve, when masked gunmen raked a Catholic pub in North Belfast with gunfire, killing one man and wounding five others.

DUBLIN -- The Northern Ireland peace process moved last night from the conference room to the streets, as lawyers for Sinn Fein scoured the city looking for a judge who was willing to halt its expulsion from the talks.They didn't find one, but vowed to be back in the courts this morning.It was the latest turn in a process that has ground to a halt over the question of whether Sinn Fein should be temporarily expelled because of two killings allegedly carried out last week by the Irish Republican Army.

George W., The family will receive visitors in the family owned Tarring-Cargo Funeral Home, P.A., 333 South Parke Street, Aberdeen on Friday, August 21 from 1 to 3 P.M. and 6 to 8 P.M. A Trisagion service will be held Friday at 7:30 P.M. Mr. Scaljon will lie instate at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 2504 Cub Hill Road, Baltimore on Saturday, August 22 at 10 A.M. followed by a funeral service at 10:30 A.M. Interment will be in the adjoining cemetery....

Ruby G. Caulford, a homemaker who was active in her church, died of heart failure Saturday at a granddaughter's Bel Air home. She was 102. Ruby Halsey, the daughter of a railroader and a homemaker, was born in Independence, Va. She attended a one-room school in Bridle Creek, Va., until moving with her family to Nebraska in 1914. After returning to Independence briefly, she and her family settled in Dublin, Harford County, in 1921. After graduating from Dublin High School in 1926, she was married the next year to Byron Caulford.

On September 19, 2008, LINDA, beloved sister of Trenia Dublin. She is also survived by nephew, Brandon Dublin, a special friends, Henry Fayall, several other nieces, nephews and other relatives. Friends may visit JAMES A. MORTON & SONS FUNERAL HOME, INC., 311 Main Street, Turner Station, Tuesday 4 to 7 P.M. Funeral services will be held Wednesday at the Greater St. John Baptist Church, 209 Walnut Avenue, Turner Station, MD. The family will receive friends 10:30 to 11 A.M. Funeral services will follow immediately.

The Darlington Volunteer Fire Co. plans to build a new substation in Dublin to replace a 20-year-old facility where expansion is not physically possible. The company, which has about 100 active volunteers on its rolls, serves northern Harford County along the U.S. 1 corridor, as well as Cecil County and southern Pennsylvania. Members responded to more than 400 fires last year and made at least twice that number of emergency calls, its officials said. "We cover one of the largest areas in the county as far as geography goes," said Donald Thomas, the company's president and a member since 1971.

NUALA O'FAOLAIN, 68 Journalist and feminist Nuala O'Faolain, a journalist and feminist who gained international fame with her outspoken 1996 memoir Are You Somebody?, died of lung cancer Friday at a hospice in south Dublin, Ireland, her family said. Ms. O'Faolain, who was a University College Dublin lecturer in literature before becoming one of Ireland's best-known journalists, said in an April radio interview that the lung cancer had spread to her liver and that brain tumors had ruined her ability to concentrate.

I was happy to hear that Irish chefs are headed our way. Starting next Wednesday, a contingent of four Northern Ireland chefs will be cooking on the National Mall in Washington as part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. A makeshift pub will be set up to dispense food and drink. Until recently, this was not news that would excite me. I thought I knew Irish food. My grandmother was born in County Kerry and lived with us until I was a teenager. Every St. Patrick's Day, our house would fill with celebrants, many of them monsignors.

Dr. Michael Kevin Finegan, a retired Maryland General Hospital surgeon who also worked for the Social Security Administration, died of multiple myeloma Wednesday at the Brightwood Center in Lutherville. The Roland Park resident was 81. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he studied at boarding school, Newbridge College in Kildare, where he entertained thoughts of playing rugby professionally. He attended University College Dublin and received his medical education at the National University of Ireland, where he was a rugby team captain.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, making his first trip abroad since being elected in November, is scheduled to give the keynote address at a conference on Irish politics in Dublin tomorrow night. The governor was chosen to speak to the Boston College Irish Institute's conference and alumni reunion because of his pragmatic approach to problem-solving, said Thomas Hachey, executive director of the school's Center for Irish Programs. "Martin has always taken the view that there is no nationalist solution, there is no unionist solution, there's a human solution" to Ireland's problems, Hachey said, comparing it to the governor's oft-repeated assertion that there are "no Democratic or Republican potholes."

On December 11, 2006, MARYANNE C.; wife of Nathan Dublin; mother and mother-in-law of Steven and Marike Dublin and Scott Dublin; sister of Michael, Christopher and Daniel Darago, Denise Murphy and Albert Darago, Jr., also survived by numerous nieces and nephews. Prayer Services will be held at St. John Catholic Church, 43 Monroe Street, Westminster on Wednesday, at 11am. Interment will be private. The family will receive friends at the Pritts Funeral Home and Chapel, 412 Washington Road, Westminster on Tuesday from 7 to 9 pm. Flowers and mass Cards would be appreciated.

DUBLIN, IRELAND -- Irish authorities launched an inquiry yesterday into the sudden and violent illness of former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, whose aides say might have been the victim of poisoning. Gaidar's illness while attending a conference in Ireland on Nov. 24 appeared to deepen the mystery surrounding the poisoning death a day earlier of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London, although there was no immediate indication from investigators that the cases were linked.