℘℘℘ In commemorating the wonderful life of Mary Higgins Clark, who passed away on January 31, 2020, we honor her life with a piece from our archives written by herself about her mother Nora. In 1967 when she was eighty, I tossed a birthday party for Mother. There were over seventy people present: my generationRead more..
On July 21, Irish Ambassador Dan Mulhall and the mayor of the City of Berkeley, Jesse Arreguin, family members, and representatives of the Irish community unveiled a memorial plaque honoring the six students who perished when an apartment balcony collapsed underneath them in June 2015. The students, five of whom were from Dublin, Olivia Burke,Read more..
Jerry Cox spent a lifetime ministering to California’s Mexican immigrants, and found similarities between Irish and Mexican cultures. ℘℘℘ Shortly after Jerry Cox was ordained a priest in San Francisco in 1950, the Irish American visited his relatives in Skibbereen, County Cork. That’s when great aunt Elizabeth Casey told him: “Welcome home, Father Jerry!” Noticing he was puzzled, sheRead more..
Settled in 1848 by brothers John and Daniel Murphy from County Wexford, Murphys, California, once a mining town, is today a major tourist destination. ℘℘℘ Hidden in the Sierra foothills of California, in the vast and quiet Calaveras County, northwest of Yosemite, lies Murphys, a small town with a big personality. Made up of aboutRead more..
A new initiative set forth by Cork native and California resident John F. O’Riordan hopes to introduce study of the Irish Famine (1845-52) into the curriculum of California public schools. O’Riordan is a parishioner at St. Dominic’s Parish in San Francisco as well as a member of the California Democratic Party’s Irish American caucus. CaliforniaRead more..
For over a month, John Quigley has been living the life of an ecowarrior, turning his back on the comforts of modern life to fight for the environment. He has been living up a tree in Santa Clarita, California in an effort to prevent its planned destruction. The tree in question is a 70-foot tall,Read more..
February 2, 2002 marked the centenary of John Steinbeck’s birth. Jim Dwyer writes about the great American writer’s Irish Roots. ℘℘℘ All the great novels and stories of John Steinbeck slice into the American experience, clear to the bone. They are set in California, or along Route 66, where the Joads trekked across the SouthwestRead more..
Nestled in the foothills of Santa Cruz just south of San Jose in downtown Los Gatos is an Irish treasure trove. Four Green Fields, just opened this spring, a fine lrish home and gift store, is reminiscent of the shops on Grafton Street and sells such elegant Irish wares as Belleeck Parian China, Tipperary Crystal,Read more..