Company that brought medical relief to Ireland, Mushatt's to serve the rest of the world

Mushatt's isn’t yet a household name in America, but Michael Foley is determined to change that. Foley has been the president of Mushatts LLC, since 2010 and since then has worked hard to introduce his company to other parts of the world.  

Mushatt's has a rich history in Ireland where it helped thousands of poor families overcome ailments that beset them during the tenement days of poverty.

Harry Mushatt set up his “chemist” shop in Dublin’s poorest tenement district, known as the Liberties in the 1920’s. An excerpt from “Dublin Tenement Life” helps explain what the times were like back then:

“You never saw doctors.  You could go to a chemist and even if your throat was cut, he’d give you a cure for it.  He’d put a dressing on it.  Mr. Mushatt was in Francis Street-he was the masterpiece, for a bad chest, bad back…..from north, south, east and west, people’d  come for them.  People trusted him as he concocted his own old fashioned medicines in the rear compounding room.  His lotions, potions, and tablets were thought to be the purest medicines.  People really believed in them, swore by them.”

No one was more famous than Harry Mushatt and his brother who served the people of the “Liberties” for nearly half a century from their tiny shop on Francis Street.

Harry Mushatt tells it like it is back then in “Dublin Tenement Life:”

“We made our own medicines in the shop. My brother and I made up forty-four different preparations, from skin ointments, psoriasis ointments, foot pastes, stomach bottles, skin crèmes, tablets for kidneys, headaches, neuralgia….all different things. Oh, there was a bond of trust and they’d come into the shop and it would be packed out.  Tenement people, if one wasn’t feeling well, or met with an accident, Go to Mushatts!, they’d say....They came from all over Dublin”

The chemists and apothecaries of that by-gone era have now been replaced by impersonal chain store pharmacies, it is hard to find that personal touch and relationship that Harry Mushatt gave to his community.

Yet after all of these years, Mushatt's is still carrying on the family tradition of helping folks with their unique brand of remedies. 

Although Harry Mushatt and his brother are long gone, their carefully guarded secret notebook with the formula for every one of their potions and compounds has been handed down to a new generation of pharmacist.  Sean Foley  has made available Mushatt's medicines at his Foley Pharmacy on Thomas Street in Dublin and far beyond.

Mushatt's No. 9 skin therapy products have been making inroads throughout the US and Europe under the careful guidance of Michael Foley, an Irishman, with an extensive background in running successful international business operations.

Foley was longtime CEO of Heineken USA and later served as CEO of Aer Lingus, besides other roles in his extensive background in business.

The successful use of the Mushatt's secret notebook, with relief from so many of mankind’s maladies, has translated into comfort  for the millions of people who purchase Mushatt's products in Ireland, the US and Europe.

Listen to their therapeutic uses here

Mushatt’s No. 9 range of medicated ointments and creams are made to the original 1922 formulation and contain unique ingredients to treat psoriasis, eczema and other skin conditions and are body specific to treat the scalp, skin or face. Clinical tests have shown Mushatt’s No. 9 products to be hypoallergenic and a non-irritant.

Mushatts is available from most major on line pharmacies, including Drugstore.com, Walgreens.com, CVS .com, Amazon.com, as well as a growing number of good retail pharmacy stores throughout the USA.

Sean Hannity says Yasir Arafat is the father of modern terror, but Arafat learned from Ireland’s Michael Collins.

President Obama's trip to the Middle East saw him making speeches and conferring with Israeli, as well as Palestinian leaders.

While Obama was in Ramallah with Palestinian President Abbas, they held a joint press conference.  Unfortunately for President Obama, the optics didn’t look good as he addressed the assembled journalists under a Yasir Arafat banner.

Arafat probably one of the worlds most renowned terrorists before Osama Bin laden came on the scene, is responsible for thousands of deaths to innocent civilians. For a President of the United States to be caught under a poster of this man, is an extremely bad gaffe. The photos will be used as propaganda by many groups around the world to recruit terrorists.

According to the group known as the “Committee for Accuracy in Mideast Reporting in America,” Arafat is the father of modern day terrorism.  Perhaps that is why Sean Hannity echoed that opinion today on his radio show, as he railed against the President getting caught under the Arafat poster. See list of Arafats terror strikes here.

But modern day terror tactics were not an invention of Yasir Arafat, they were in fact invented by Ireland's military leader and brilliant tactician, Michael Collins. Many consider him to be the father of modern day terror tactics as well as the father of the Irish Republic.

In 1916 Collins invented those tactics as he sat in a Welsh prison…put their by the British. Those tactics as employed by his Irish Republican Army, forced the British to the bargaining table after centuries of effort by Ireland’s citizens failed to do it.

According to terrorism expert James Biesterfield in a very informative article published in IrishCentral, September, 2011:

From a purely analytic viewpoint, Michael Collins was absolutely critical in the advancement of modern terrorist & insurgency organizations. In following the timeline through the 20th Century terrorist groups, it appears that virtually ALL groups have and are following, the IRA Model.

The PLO and Yasser Arafat used and improved upon this model in the 1960’s/ 70’s. This led to a vast number of terrorist fighters from all over the world attending training at PLO camps located in Libya during this period. Following this, we began to see cooperative efforts on the part of terrorist groups (i.e. Lod Airport, Rome Airport, Mogadishu, etc).

For good or bad, credit should be given where due.  One mans freedom fighter can be another mans terrorist.

Father Malachi Martin: Vatican envoy and exorcist

Recently Lionsgate Home Entertainment sent a copy of a newly released DVD called “The Possession." 

I popped it into the machine and for the next hour and a half watched a story based loosely on a real event; A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that it is actually a Dybbuk Box.  According to Jewish folklore the box was used to house ancient demons. Soon she begins exhibiting Linda Blair’s "Exorcist" symptoms.

I yelled at the TV screen several times, trying to warn the young woman NOT to open the box…But she didn’t hear me and predictably, the demon was released to set up shop in her body.

Of course the story has a Yiddish twist. Instead of the heroic Priest entering armed with a crucifix, holy water and a holy book.....this one features a Rabbi with a Torah and the Star of David.

The story had a happy ending for the girl and her family…. however the Rabbi, who gave his all, met a horrible fate and the demon lived on to inhabit another hapless victim.

But the premise of the movie reminded me of a Priest who I used to communicate with years ago.

The first time I heard him was when I would awake at 0 dark thirty a few times a week to drive to my job in the city.  On the way, I would turn on the radio for company.  One morning the first voice to greet me was the melodious accent of an Irishman.  Of course, I tuned in to hear what he was speaking about.

That voice was Father Malchi Martin, a Kerry Ireland native, learned scholar, author and traveling envoy for the Vatican.  At the time, he was a guest of the largest syndicated radio show in the world…so he was speaking to millions of listeners.

The drive took me an hour as I listened to how how he described his brushes with evil.  How every person has crossroads, how the seductive power of evil draws you down a path, even a seemingly insignificant one and puts you at risk.

As he went on, he described how he sometimes went to the extreme and ended up performing exorcisms on people who had become possessed.

 Father Martin was a firm believer in the power of evil and  battled it throughout his career as a Catholic Priest.

What he was talking about reminded me of Dr. Scott Peck, an author who was selling tons of books at the time. .A brilliant psychiatrist and author, his books combined medical science along with his personal experiences. I had just read his “Road Less Travelled” and now had picked up his other book “People of the Lie” See video

 People of the Lie, was Pecks scientific study of evil.  He took documented cases of patients treated over his career and painstakingly investigated the genesis of evil.  It was chilling to read of the cruelty that leaped out of that book. In fact he prefaced “People of the Lie” with the warning that “it was a dangerous book.”

That day I wrote Fr. Martin a message. I let him know I had heard his interview on the radio and was appreciative of his points.  I also informed him there was a prominent figure in the scientific/media world who would be a great person for him to contact and compare notes with, Dr. Scott Peck.

Later that night Fr. Martin sent his blessings via email.  He thanked me for my input and suggestion, but that he was already very aware of Scott Peck and knew him personally.

As I read the rest of Peck’s “People of the Lie,”  I reached chapter 5,  Peck wrote of his experiences with exorcism and how he had worked with Fr.Martin in two of them.  He described the exorcisms in detail from a scientific, case study point of view.

From time to time after that, I kept in touch with Fr. Martin. I always appreciated his intelligence and controversial points of view on the Church, as well as society in general.

Fr. Malachi Martin was an accomplished best selling author who possessed not only superb writing skills but also displayed tremendously keen insights into the Vatican, its operations and problems.

His excellent contacts in Rome gave him first hand knowledge. However, he made enemies by his criticisms of those in positions of power and prominence, especially when he came out with his novel “Windswept House." A Vatican novel.

Fr. Martin was asked if he feared for his life since writing "Windswept House". He just said that he was, but was too old to change his ways.

But Father Martin soon met his death, many think it was under very suspicious circumstances. He was found unconscious and bleeding in his home with wood fragments imbedded in his skull.  Some say he regained consciousness just briefly enough to declare that it was a murder attempt, but that he did not get a chance to see who did it. Fr. Martin fell into a coma and died on July 27, 1999. He was 78 at the time of his death.

A documentary titled ‘Malachi Martin: The Pope’s Exorcist’ is in Pre-Production at Irish Causeway Pictures.  Belfast producers Chris Patterson and Paddy McCarney plan on featuring the life and times of one of religions most famous figures.

Would US foreign aid be better spent in Ireland, rather than Egypt where it supports a new Islamist dictator?

Riots in Tahir Square

 Egypt’s new President (for life?), Mohammed Morsi, riding the afterglow of  huge praise from President Obama and Hillary Clinton for his role in ending 8 days of hostility in Gaza, leveraged that glow to seize dictatorial powers over his countrymen.

Morsi a leader of the  Muslim Brotherhood, which is tied closely to the United States mortal enemy, Al Quaeda, has been aggressively seizing power since he gained office by winning a democratic election 52-48.

On Thursday he issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight & extended that same immunity to a committee drafting a new constitution for the country that many say has been hijacked by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood allies.  Morsis’s critics say he is trying to push through an Islamist state that will marginalize women and minority Christians, infringing on personal liberties.

"Morsi today usurped all state powers & appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh," pro-reform leader Mohamed El Baradei wrote. "This is a major blow to the revolution that could have dire consequences."

The last time Hillary Clinton visited Egypt, her motorcade was pelted with tomatoes by Egyptians who felt they have been sold out by the Obama administration.  These Egyptian citizens feel the Obama administration let Egypt fall into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, an arch enemy of democracy and the western worlds way of life.

But since the pelting of Hillary’s motorcade several months ago, the Obama administration has showered millions of dollars on the Morisis government in spite of his dictatorial moves and his aggressive disregard of previous peace agreements with neighboring country, Israel.

Many Americans think “foreign aid” should be based on the carrot and the stick approach.  Regardless of the fact that America is broke, it still borrows money and prints it in order to dole out foreign aid. So lets help our friends, so they can help us.

This foreign aid money should have strings attached…It seems we have exchanged a previous dictator, who was friendly towards us, for a new dictator who is not friendly towards us or our close ally Israel. What kind of madness is this?

We are showering Egypt with billions of dollars; in fact Hillary just authorized giving the Morsi government 450 million in emergency funds on the heels of the just completed cease of hostilities in Gaza. Despite the fact Egypt has total control over weapons smuggled into Gaza and Hamas.

Dublin Ireland

We should take the billions we are now sending to a country hostile to our civilization and spread it to a country that is a friend.   A true democracy; giving foreign aid to Ireland on the scale we are giving it to Egypt would be like pouring Miracle Grow on a flower garden.

Blessed with a highly educated and motivated population, funds could be used to set up manufacturing facilities, hi-tech development, spur energy independence and create an economic powerhouse/ strong ally in line with western values.

The foreign aid could have strings attached.  Perhaps one of those strings could be to give the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland the chance to vote for a united republic. 26+6=32. 

Even the late British American Christopher Hitchens was in favor of a United Ireland and surprised many when he publicly voiced that opinion.