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March / April 2019

Hall of Fame: NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neill

NYPD Commissioner James P. O'Neill, taken by Mark Condren for his book, NYPD: Behind the Scenes with the Men and Women of the New York City Police Department.

“Jimmy’s not just a cop’s cop. He’s a New Yorker’s New Yorker.” When it comes to James O’Neill, New York City’s 43rd and current police commissioner, those words by Chirlane McCray,...

John Dearie pictured with Gerry Adams in 2018.

John Dearie may not remember the specific year, but he remembers a very small, very important detail about one New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade in the late 1980s. “I remember seeing all of...

Adrian Flannelly (right) broadcasting from his New York studio with former New York City mayor Ed Koch.

He’s been praised by the New York Daily News as the “Dean of Irish Radio in the United States,” by New York Newsday as “a promoter of incredible charm and energy,” by The Irish...

On the set of The Promise. Terry's son, Seamus (pictured left), is the assistant director.

There is a thread that links each of Terry George’s films, and it comes directly from his life. “I’m talking about ordinary people struggling against oppression,” he tells Irish America....

The year is 1980. A former movie actor, Ronald Reagan, whose great-grandfather was an emigrant from the village of Ballyporeen in County Tipperary, is the newly-elected, 40th president of the...

Arturo O'Farrill pictured in front of some Brooklyn street art.

At first the names Arturo and O’Farrill don’t seem to belong together. But, in the long, romantic history of the Hibernia-Hispania connection, they do: Bernardo O’Higgins liberated Chile; the...

It was the first time that I knew the full weight of Irish America. Coming from a small country with few people, it’s difficult for an immigrant to grasp that in a place as big as America, the...

Trinity College Dublin (TCD) celebrated the digitization of the Dublin Apocalypse manuscript, one of great medieval treasures of TCD’s library, on February 1. The 14th-century Latin manuscript of...

In Nora Connolly’s 1935 memoir of her father, James Connolly, she mentions a play of his entitled The Agitator’s Wife, which scholars have never been able to find. A short story of the same name...

Ireland, the first to ban smoking in public places and the first to charge for plastic bags in supermarkets, is now taking it one step further. The Irish government has prohibited the purchase of all...

Suad Al Darra, a master’s student studying computer science at NUI Galway’s College of Engineering and Informatics, was one of five winners at the recent Techfugees Global Challenge competition....

Irish Plant and Animal Life Endangered ℘℘℘ One third of the species of Irish plant and animal wildlife are in danger of extinction, according to the Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT). On the...

Ireland’s nurses went on strike on January 30 in a dispute over pay and staff shortages. There were three separate 24-hour stoppages and a planned three-day strike set for February 12, until the...

Arecently discovered 15th-century Irish vellum manuscript reveals a connection between Gaelic Ireland and the Islamic world, and illustrates that medical scholarship in medieval Gaelic Ireland was on...

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in The Irishman.

THE IRISHMAN FOR 2020? It’s time for Academy Award predictions – for 2020! It’s never too early to look ahead and see which films Hollywood honchos are positioning as Oscar bait, to lure...

Kevin Roche, the prominent Dublin-born, American architect who brought his modernist style to many significant buildings, passed away on Friday, March 1, at his home in Guilford, Connecticut, at the...

Some of the biggest and best parades celebrating Ireland’s patron saint actually take place in America. New York may have the largest parade in the country, but it’s followed closely by Savannah,...

The Ireland Funds Young Leaders in New York for a four-day meet-up.

Over 150 young business leaders from the U.S. and abroad gathered in New York City for The Ireland Funds’ 8th Annual Global Young Leaders Summit, hearing from many industry and government leaders....

Bob Crowe and Elizabeth Bagley (former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal) with Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Dan Mulhall and his wife Greta.

Both the Ireland-U.S. Council’s 27th Annual Winter Meeting and the Ireland Funds’ 29th Annual Emerald Isle Palm Beach Dinner Dance took place in Palm Beach, Florida, over Valentine’s Day. At...

Fionnula Flanagan with Mark Lambert, who play Aunt Maggie Faraway and Uncle Patrick Carney, respectively, in The Ferryman, and Eoin Cannon, who plays Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes: The Musical, which is destined for Broadway.

The crowd-pleasing rugby play Alone It Stands scored Best Production at the 2019 Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival’s closing night festivities at the Manhattan Club at Rosie O’Grady’s in...

L-R: Rob Donelson, Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations UCC; Prof. Patrick O'Shea, President of UCC; Prof. Kevin Kenny, Director of Glucksman Ireland House NYU; and Ciarán Madden, Ireland's Consul General to New York.

Alumni of University College Cork got together at NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House, for a reception hosted by the president of UCC, Professor Patrick O’Shea. Graduates were updated on the...

Liam Neeson, May Blood, and John Fitzpatrick.

Baroness May Blood, recently retired from the U.K.’s House of Lords after a long and very distinguished career, was celebrated in New York City in January at an Ireland Funds reception held in...

The American Brexit Committee convened in NYC in January.

The troubles of Brexit do not stop at the E.U. border. The American Brexit Committee convened in New York City on January 24 to assess how Great Britain’s exit from the European Union will affect...

Tánaiste Simon Coveney meeting with former congressman Peter King (R-NY) and Congressman Richie Neal (D-MA) in Washington, D.C.

Simon Coveney, the Tánaiste (Ireland’s deputy prime minister) was in New York in February to support Ireland’s campaign for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, the election for...

Photographer Mark Condren (left) and Sgt. Conor McDonald at the launch of Condren’s book of New York’s finest in action.

Mark Condren pitched the idea of an NYPD-centric coffee table book to Commissioner James O’Neill in 2016 after finishing a similar project about Ireland’s police force, the Garda. O’Neill was...

Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Alice McDermott, Marie Heaney, and Jim Rooney at the GIH gala.

The awarding-winning writer Alice McDermott and Pittsburgh business leader Jim Rooney were honored at the annual Glucksman Ireland House NYU Gala on February 28. Some 300 gathered to toast the...

Bob Downey talks to Glenn Kenny about his work after a showing of Putney Swope at Waterside Plaza NYC.

Nowadays people think of Bob Downey as actor Robert Downey, Jr.’s father, but back in the ’60s and ’70s he was celebrated for his avant-garde movies – most notably, his 1969 satire Putney...

The artist Louise Peabody and singer Judy Collins pose in front of Peabody’s portrait of Collins at the Century Club.

Singer and author Judy Collins, just off an 18-month tour with Stephen Stills, and with hit song “Dreamers” on the Billboard charts, was back in New York City, her home since the ’70s, on...

Sean Flatley, President of the Irish American Business Chamber & Network; Col. Tom Manion, Chairman Emeritus, and Ryan Manion, Preisdent, of the Travis Manion Foundation; Daniel & Sarah Keating; Liam Kelly, CEO of Teleflex; Kevin Kent, Chairman of the Irish American Business Chamber & Network.

Irish Ambassador to the United States Daniel Mulhall presented the Irish American Business Chamber & Network Awards at a luncheon on Friday, March 1, at the Union League of Philadelphia. Over 600...

Singer Mary Deady and author Mary Pat Kelly in performance at the Irish Repertory Theatre.

Author Mary Pat Kelly launched her latest his torical fiction novel, Irish Above All, with a gathering at the Irish Rep. on February 11. It was a lovely celebration of Irish America, as Kelly...

Recent passings in the Irish and Irish American communities. ℘℘℘ Eileen Battersby. Eileen Battersby (1958 – 2018) Former literary critic and correspondent for the Irish Times Eileen Battersby...

The Transatlantic Connection That Inspired a Tribal Anthem: An encounter in Galway 20 years ago led Steve Earle to write one of his most beloved songs. Today, the connection between this small Irish...

Isadora with her dancers, The Isadorables.

An American pioneer of dance and an important figure in both the arts and history, Isadora Duncan was known as the “Mother of Modern Dance.” ℘℘℘ “Sans Limites” Oh, body swayed...

Irish America looks back at the legacy of St. Patrick’s Battalion, an honor-bound group of Irishmen that championed the cause of the smaller Mexican force against the might of the American army...

The Buffalo Bisons, 1882. Daily is circled.

A one-armed Irishman with a bat… It just sounds problematic. And baseball player Hugh “One Arm” Daily was indeed a problematic guy. His predicament made it impossible for him to succeed as...

“Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.” – Anonymous ℘℘℘ When people who live elsewhere than Los Angeles phone me and ask “How’s the...

Recently published books by Irish and Irish-American authors. ℘℘℘ In the Galway Silence by Ken Bruen The Galway Tourist Office must just brace itself every time there’s a new book out by...

Members of the O’Neill Clan (anglicized from Ui Néill, “Néill” meaning “champion”) can trace their origins back to Niall Noígíallach “of the Nine Hostages” (c. 361-452). Niall...

Patrick Killen with his daughter, Margaret, and son, Joseph Patrick, 1934.

My grandfather, Patrick Joseph Killen, (“Pop”), was born in Downpatrick, County Down, in 1897. He sailed with his sister Margaret for America in 1911, and arrived in New York on his 14th...

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March / April 2019

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