Cherishing Joanie Madden
“I’m literally overjoyed with the news,” Joanie Madden said of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)...
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In This Issue
Cherishing Joanie Madden
“I’m literally overjoyed with the news,” Joanie Madden said of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announcement on June 15, that she was the recipient of a National Heritage...
MoreA Darker Shade of Green
When Bill Clinton took the stage in Dundalk on his final presidential visit to Ireland last December, he could have had no idea how much of a welcome was waiting. In the late 1990s, the border...
MoreThe First Word: Afraid of the Dark
The Irish writer John B. Keane once said of my home town that “they should build a wall around it and let no man in and let no man out.” I don’t know why he said that about An...
MoreBack to Your Future
As the Irish economy continues to rise, the government is campaigning in the United States to fill thousands of job openings. On St. Patrick’s weekend they will hold a two-day recruitment...
MoreFuror Over RUC Recruitment Campaign
Belfast: Republicans and nationalists have attacked Royal Ulster Constabulary chief Sir Ronnie Flanagan for launching a new recruiting drive before outstanding police reforms are completed, Brendan...
MoreReid Takes Over as Northern Secretary
The departure of Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson in late January caused few tears in Ireland. Mandelson, whose tenure in the North was supposed to restart his political career, left...
MoreNew York Remembers Bobby Sands
Plans to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of hunger striker Bobby Sands on May 5 in New York, have Unionists hot under the collar. The Irish papers reported that Gerald Kelly, the...
MoreJacqueline: The White House Years
To mark the 40th anniversary of her emergence as America’s first lady, and explore her enduring global influence on style, Jacqueline Kennedy will be celebrated this September with an...
MoreBlack Wind / White Lands
Fifteen years to the day since the Chernobyl nuclear reactor went into meltdown, an exhibition showing the effects of the “world’s greatest environmental catastrophe” will be held...
MoreBacon Painting Sells for €3 Million
Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards, sold for over €3 million to a private collector at an auction in Christie’s in London, on February 8. Te oil canvas, a...
MoreThose We Lost: Al McGuire
On January 26 the sports and television world lost one of its true champions. Known as “the James Joyce of the airwaves,” sportscaster Al McGuire passed away in his Milwaukee home...
MoreThe Brigid Awards
On St. Brigid’s Feast Day, February 1, over 400 people gathered in Chicago’s Drake Hotel to honor women who have shown Brigid-like qualities of justice, compassion and generosity. The...
MoreThreat to Peace from Loyalist Bombers
Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) have carried out more than 50 sectarian attacks on Catholics. since the New Year. In early February an old girl lifted a pipe from her garden and carried it into her...
MoreAn Irish Laugh-In
Irish comedy has successfully crossed the pond, judging by the feedback from the New York Irish Comedy Festival. No less a celebrity than Moby turned up for the BBC America screening of Father...
MoreJordan to Film Ned Kelly
Irish director Neil Jordan, currently filming The Gambler with Nick Nolte, in France, recently beat off stiff competition for the film rights to Peter Carey’s best-seller The True Story of the...
MoreFriel Donates His Works
Brian Friel, the Irish playwright who has had a string of successes on Broadway, starting with Tony-winning Dancing at Lughasa (later made into a film starring Meryl Streep), has presented his...
MoreFacts and Figures
Under the direct provision system being operated under the auspices of the Department of Justice by the Directorate of Asylum Seekers Services (DASS), a total of £15m was paid out in providing...
MoreOne Woman’s Story
“There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one’s native land.” – Euripides, 431 B.C. ℘℘℘ Cathleen* 30, is a Christian woman from Nigeria. One day last...
MoreGrampa’s Story
My grandfather, Denis A. Lyons, was my best friend and playmate. He used to spend many hours with me trying to support and mold my forming personality. As is the tradition among the Irish, he used...
MoreChapter & Hearse
“For twelve long years I’ve suffered this damned cat…/ though more than once I’ve threatened violence/ the brick and burlap in the river recompense/ for mounds of furballs...
MoreTo Hell or Barbados
The ethnic cleansing of Ireland: Emmett O’Connell reviews Sean O’Callaghan’s book on the Irish whom Cromwell sent into slavery. ℘℘℘ “These Irish, anciently called...
MoreRoots: Duffy, Duhig, Dowey and Doohey
The surname Duffy, the anglicized form of O’Dubhthaigh, is a personal name derived from the Gaelic word dubh, meaning black or swarthy. While the name is widespread throughout Ireland in...
MoreFilm Forum: JFK vs. the Joint Chiefs in Thirteen Days
On the morning of Saturday, October 20, 1962, I was in a station wagon with my family en route to Milwaukee’s Billy Mitchell Field to hear President John F. Kennedy make a campaign speech for...
MoreBook Reviews
NON-FICTION Two new books could be grouped under the Lg “The Irish: Then and Now.” First there’s Irish America Coming into Clover: The Evolution of a Culture by Maureen...
MoreMusic: The Reel Thing
Modern Ireland can boast plenty of pop superstars whose recordings sell in the millions. But if U2, Van Morrison, Sinead O’Connor and Enya are undeniably Irish musicians, is what they play...
MoreTheatre: Stones in His Pockets
The West End hit comes to Broadway. Seth Linder talks to playwright Marie Jones. ℘℘℘ “It’s just amazing, never in a million years could I have imagined it.” Belfast...
MoreSláinte! The Ubiquitous Egg
In the 13th century when theologians were arguing how many angels could stand on the head of a pin, Thomas Aquinas, an inquisitive scholar of the Dominican Order of Friars, posed the famous...
MorePhoto Album: The Light of Literacy
The photograph published here shows the Scottish-American entrepreneur and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie laying the foundation stone of the new Waterford Free Library on 19 October 1903. Seen in...
MoreThe Fighting Fitzgeralds
Brian Dennehy stars in The Fighting Fitzgeralds, premiering this month on NBC. He plays a retired firefighter and widower with three grown sons who just wants to left alone to paint. Unfortunately,...
MoreCelebrating Beckett on Film
Dublin: From Feb. 1 through Feb. 8 the Irish Film Center’s two theaters were filled with fans eager to catch the premieres of cinematic versions of all 19 of Samuel Beckett’s stage...
MoreWindow on the Past
A step into the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in Manhattan is a step back in time. Housed at 97 Orchard Street, one of the first tenement buildings in New York City, the museum is the only one...
MoreHibernia
Those We Lost: Al McGuire
On January 26 the sports and television world lost one of its true champions. Known as “the...
An Irish Laugh-In
Irish comedy has successfully crossed the pond, judging by the feedback from the New York Irish...
The Fighting Fitzgeralds
Brian Dennehy stars in The Fighting Fitzgeralds, premiering this month on NBC. He plays a retired...
Celebrating Beckett on Film
Dublin: From Feb. 1 through Feb. 8 the Irish Film Center’s two theaters were filled with...
Black Wind / White Lands
Fifteen years to the day since the Chernobyl nuclear reactor went into meltdown, an exhibition...
Jacqueline: The White House Years
To mark the 40th anniversary of her emergence as America’s first lady, and explore her...
Bacon Painting Sells for €3 Million
Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards, sold for over €3 million to...
The Brigid Awards
On St. Brigid’s Feast Day, February 1, over 400 people gathered in Chicago’s Drake...
Jordan to Film Ned Kelly
Irish director Neil Jordan, currently filming The Gambler with Nick Nolte, in France, recently...