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October / November 2013

Keeping the Faith: Jim O’Donnell

Jim O'Donnell, Citi's global head of investor sales and relationship management. Photo by Kit DeFever

WALL STREET 50 KEYNOTE INTERVIEW With his strong foundation in family and faith, Citi’s Head of Investor Sales and Relationship Management inspires confidence and provides a different perspective...

The Irish Brigade at Antieam. Their battly cry was "Faugh a Ballagh."

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” – William Faulkner, from Requiem for a Nun (1950) Irish America’s impact on the history of America is well established, as the articles in...

Jason Phelan, who found the prehistoric remains, and Eamon Kelly, Keeper of Irish antiquities at the National Museum at the Bord Na Móna Cashel bog outside of Portlaoise. Photo: Alf Harvey.

The naturally mummified body of a young adult male found in the Cúl na Móna bog in Cashel, Co. Laois is officially the oldest fleshed human remains ever discovered in the world. It dates back...

Congressman John Larson (CT), Pete Sessions (TX), Cory Gardner (CO), Spenser Bachus (AL), Eric Paulsen (MN) Chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs Pat Breen T.D, Luis Gutlerrez (IL) , Patrick Meehan (PA) , Bill Shuster (PA), Steve Scalise (LA), John Larson (CT), Mike Kelly (PA) at Leinster House.

On the heels of the U.S. Senate’s passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill in June, 12 congressmen traveled to Ireland in early August to meet with Fine Gael TD Pat Breen about the...

Rosie Hackett and Delia Larkin (front, center) with workers on the steps of Liberty Hall

The nephew of trade unionist Rosie Hackett has said she would be “giggling quietly to herself” if she knew that Dublin’s newest bridge, which spans the Liffey over Marlborough Street, had been...

Texas Rose Haley O'Sullivan and presenter Daithi Ó Se

The winner of the 2013 Rose of Tralee International Festival is 25-year-old Dallas, Texas native Haley O’Sullivan. Teary-eyed and overjoyed, Haley, who beat 31 other contestants from around the...

Irish America’s sister publication IrishCentral.com and WorldIrish.com, the two largest Irish diaspora sites, announced a decision to merge on September 2. The new entity, which will operate as...

Michael McLoughlin CEO ConnectIreland, Mathew Gilfillan of Mafic, Bernadette Brannigan of Mafic, Hugh Morris who made the connection with Mafic that brought 70 jobs to Kells, Brian Dougan, managing director Mafic, and Terry Clune, founder of ConnectIreland.

Terry Clune is on a mission to turn the economy around by connecting the Irish on a global level. The Italian tourists seemed lost, stopped at the top of Dawson Street with a curious look in their...

Professor Al Gillespie in the Slate Yard – the site of Valentia Island’s “buried treasure.” Photo: Stephanie Buffum Field

Buried treasure on a remote Irish island, the descendants of a 13th-century Knight and a 19th century American entrepreneur – and the birth of the modern communications industry. It’s not the...

Irish-American identical twin astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly have volunteered for an observational study to determine the effects of space travel on human genetics. Scott, who has spent 180 days in...

Cusacks win over Twin Cities in the Junior B hurling. Photo: Wicked Shamrock Photography.

This past Labor Day weekend, one-hundred Gaelic sports teams and thousands more fans of Irish football, hurling and camogie came together for the North American County Board (NACB) Finals in...

A group from Clongeen and Savannah dedicate a plaque to Fr. Whelan.

Father Peter Whelan didn’t take sides. He was on God’s side. The Civil War priest was known, to Confederate and Union soldiers alike, as a good man who administered to their needs. Fr. Peter was...

The old Drumhome church and graveyard next to the archaeological dig. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The remains of an early Christian settlement, probably from around the seventh century, were recently discovered in Donegal. The medieval monastery enclosure is at Drumholm, near Ballintra, Co...

Mother Mary Joseph, the founder of the Maryknoll sisters, is one of nine women who will be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame this October. Last year, 2012, marked the 100th...

1. Interest in Irish American history – preferably with a violent twist – apparently remains so strong that TV and movie producers just can’t resist. Perhaps spurred by the success of BBC...

Jane Richard. Photo: The Richard Family.

Jane Richard is dancing again. Jane Richard, the tiny Irish step dancer from Dorchester, who lost her left leg in the Boston Marathon bombing in April, endured 12 operations on her leg last Spring,...

Seamus, his wife Marie, and their children, circa late 70s. Photo: Hanvey

Remembering Seamus Heaney. Lightenings viii The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise Were all at prayers inside the oratory / A ship appeared above them in the air. The anchor dragged along...

Eileen Brennan 1932–2013 Eileen Brennan, whose low, coarse timbre was a fixture of the stage and screen (silver and small) for over half a century, passed away in her Burbank, CA home on July 28....

Joe Weatherby repurposes old ships, such as the USS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a decommissioned World War II troop carrier, and turns them into eco-friendly sunken reefs that support sea life, attract...

For sixteen years, Irish America has sought out and recognized the best and the brightest Irish-American and Irish-born leaders in finance. The fifty honorees of 2013 are an inspiring and diverse...

John Morrisey and the Saratoga Springs Race Course in the early 1900s. Photos: Library of Congress.

As Saratoga Springs celebrates 150 years of thoroughbred racing, Liz O’Connell tells the tale of John Morrissey, an Irish immigrant who organized, operated and had the vision to develop what is now...

Ellin Mackay and Irving Berlin. Photo: Library of Congress

Irving Berlin and Ellin Mackay put aside their differences in culture, background, and age to form one of the best-known, enduring and loving relationships in New York social history. At the same...

As America reflects upon the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and its deciding turn at Gettysburg, thousands of Americans are donning the uniforms of yore as they re-enact the long war’s battles....

Timothy O’Sullivan’s “Pennsylvania Light Artillery, Battery B, Petersburg, Virginia,” which is one of the few “action” shots of the Civil War.

An exhibition on the Civil War, featuring photographs by Mathew Brady, Timothy O’Sullivan and others, and a new biography of Brady, are reviewed by Tom Deignan. One of the most chilling portraits...

The Frederick Douglass statue on 110th Street in Manhattan. Photo: Sheila Langan.

Christine Kinealy writes about the American abolitionist Frederick Douglass who visited Ireland and came to be known as the “Black O’Connell.” In 1845, Frederick Douglass traveled to...

The 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, famous for introducing the character of vampire Count Dracula, is reborn as a new series on NBC. Patricia Danaher visits the set in...

The Merry Men and guest performers at the Indoor Garden Party in New York, October 2012. L-R: Moley O’Suilleabhain, Alan Doyle, Roberta Duchak, Samantha Barks, Russell Crowe, Kevin Durand, Scott Grimes, Owen O’Suilleabhain.

After his turn as Inspector Javert in Les Miserables, Russell Crowe’s passion for music is no longer a secret. In fact, he has been playing for years with a number of close friends and musical...

Roma Downey on location in Morocco for the filming of The Bible.

Actress Roma Downey on fancy sheets, missing her mother, and being exhilarated over The Bible. Roma Downey, actress, author and producer, is enjoying a runaway hit with The Bible: Epic Mini-Series,...

Lyndsay Faye and her latest book Seven for a Secret.

Lyndsay Faye’s Gods of Gotham series, about the earliest days of the New York City Police Department, has taken the literary world by storm. With a second book, Seven for a Secret, just released,...

Dark Lies the Island, by Kevin Barry; The Fall of Ireland, by Dermot Bolger; The Gamal, by Ciarán Collins.

Dark Lies the Island In Dark Lies the Island, Kevin Barry returns to the form that marked his literary debut (American readers who enjoyed his novel, City of Bohane, take note – his first short...

They came from Donegal. Legend says they are descended from the 5th-century Ulsterman Niall of the Nine Hostages, whose son Conall was baptized by St. Patrick. It is from Domhnaill (d.901), a...

The Banshee is one of the most feared creatures in Irish lore.

When it comes to goblins, ghosts, and ghoulies, most folk – without a fluttering heartbeat’s hesitation – will name Transylvania as the epicenter for scary creatures of the night. There’s...

Jim Burke on refinery site with his felloe workers. He is the one on the right wearing the derby – the hard hat of his day.

My son Jim has been after me to write down some of the remembrances of my father Jim Burke that I’ve shared with him over the years. Before it’s too late, I’m sure he’s thinking. He keeps...

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October / November 2013

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