Dolmen, 20" x 40", oil on canvas, 2010. Photo courtesy of Andy Weeks.

Painting the Burren

Andy Weeks, a New York-based artist, finds inspiration in Clare’s rocky landscape. Two years ago, my wife and I decided to visit Ireland.  We were in the process of buying a house outside of New York and we knew that the cost of it all would keep us from traveling for a while. The trip would be our last extravagance before we focused our attention and our money on the little house we now live...

More
The Dunbrody Famine Ship.

The Dunbrody: The Ark of New Ross

Celebrating the Dunbrody Famine Ship, the Irish Emigration History Centre, the Irish America Hall of Fame, and the upcoming inaugural Irish America Day, hosted by the town of New Ross, Co. Wexford. “Build it and they will come” may be a modified version of a line from baseball movie Field of Dreams, but it is also reminiscent of Noah and the Ark. In New Ross, Co. Wexford, an unemployment...

More
A rainbow appears after a storm in Ireland.

My Travel Story
Ireland, Land of Enchantment

Heidi Boyd on her recent trip to Ireland. “Do you have Irish ancestors?” This is normally the first thing people ask me upon finding out I went on holiday in Ireland. In most cases, the person asking has Irish roots and is happy to meet a fellow Irishman.  And maybe they’ve found one in me. Maybe. Prior to my vacation in Ireland, I had no connection to Ireland, or any other...

More
Gort locals welcome returning emigrants. From left: Ted Glynn from New Zealand; Sr de Lourdes Fahy; Vin Glynn, Robest and Shirley Macklin-Murphy from Minnesota; Ed and Margaret O'Connor from Minnesota and Pat Monoghan.

Bring Them All Back Home

‘Ireland Reaching Out’ is a pilot project that aims to reconnect all 70 million Irish people worldwide with their ancestral homeland. The Ireland Reaching Out project is the brainchild of Mike Feerick, a Galway businessman who has his own personal experience of emigration.  Feerick, who now lives near Loughrea, was born in New York and lived for many years in America. “I know what...

More
A section of the Old Head Links in Kinsale, Co. Cork.

The Most Spectacular Golf Course on the Planet

The Old Head Golf Links in Kinsale, County Cork has been ranked by Links magazine as the most spectacular golf course on the planet (Spring 2011 edition). Truly one of the most unique golf courses ever conceived in the history of golf, it is built on a diamond of land jutting out over two miles into the Atlantic Ocean. The links and practice area occupy 180 acres and the remaining 40 acres are of...

More