Irish America

Irish America

Archives for January 1994

Sláinte! Brigid: Goddess and Saint

By Edythe Preet

January / February 1994

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For over a thousand years, February 1 has been celebrated as St. Brigid's Day. Legend holds it was then that the saint placed her foot in a spring outside the village of Liscannor by the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. Waters warmed; weather improved. Cows filled with milk; butter production expanded. To this day, pilgrims gather at Liscannor's well on Brigid's feast to … [Read more...] about Sláinte! Brigid: Goddess and Saint

Roddy Doyle Has The Last Laugh

By Frank Shouldice

January / February 1994

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Irish writer Roddy Doyle's book, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha [Viking Press] won the prestigious Booker Prize last month, and the next day 28,000 copies were sold in England alone. Frank Shouldice profiles the Dublin author, whose movie The Snapper, directed by Stephen Frears, is currently being distributed in the U.S.  by Miramax films. Just seven years ago he worked as a primary … [Read more...] about Roddy Doyle Has The Last Laugh

An American in Ireland: From Madison Avenue to Bruckless, Donegal 

By Kathleen Tierney O'Connell

January / February 1994

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Kathleen Tierney O'Connell, a third-generation Irish American and former editor at Vogue magazine, left the bright lights of Madison Avenue to be with the love of her life, Packie McFadden, a farmer in County Donegal. As a third generation American with Irish forebears on both sides of the family tree, I was always curious about Ireland and even flirted briefly with the idea … [Read more...] about An American in Ireland: From Madison Avenue to Bruckless, Donegal 

Irish Roots: Barry, Berry and Beirn 

By James G. Ryan

January / February 1994

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The Barry name is mainly of Norman origin and is very closely associated with County Cork. There is also a less common Gaelic origin from the Irish family O'Beargha, which was Anglicized as O'Barry or Barry. This family was also of Munster origin. Even today around 50 percent of the Barrys in Ireland are in Cork or other parts of Munster. A current prominent member of the … [Read more...] about Irish Roots: Barry, Berry and Beirn 

Denis & The Kids

Story and photographs by Oistin MacBride

January / February 1995

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It's long, long way from St. Patrick's School on the edge of Belfast's New Lodge Road to the sky scrapers of New York, never mind the plains of the Midwest and the fantasy of Disneyland, but that is precisely the journey made by some 900 children from the North of Ireland on a six week trip of a lifetime under the auspices of Project Children. In the playground of St. … [Read more...] about Denis & The Kids