June / July 2004

The Lessons of Division

This past March I traveled through Northern Ireland as part of a group of 19 students and administrators from New York University’s Gallatin School. We had come to Northern Ireland to gain a...

Roots: The Hogans,
Logans and Cogans

Although these surnames sound alike, the similarities end there. The Hogans are a Dalcassian family. Hogan comes from the Irish word óg meaning young. In Irish mythology, the land of eternal youth...

Maureen O’Hara: “The Greatest Guy”

This interview with silver screen legend Maureen O’Hara was the cover story for the June/July 2004 issue of Irish America (above left). O’Hara was inducted into the Irish America Hall...

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First Word: Mother Courage

As we look at the stories in this issue, we see that the strength of our nation comes from different places. In Lynn Tierney’s “Mothers United,” a tale of quiet courage and hope, we...

Sinn Féin and PUP
Angry Over New Report

On April 20, 2004, Paul Murphy, Secretary of State of Northern Ireland, announced that the International Monitoring Commission (IMC) had recommended monetary sanctions upon Sinn Féin for the alleged...

Tara’s Future in Jeopardy

The construction of a motorway in County Meath has historians, archaeologists, politicians and others up in arms. The proposed M3 toll road will run through the Tara Skryne Valley, which the...

O’Cealleagh Wins
Deportation Case

Sean O’Cealleagh (also spelled Kelly), a U.S. Greencard holder since 2001, has won his deportation case following a Los Angeles immigration trial that revisited a murder he was convicted of in...

Cory Report Released

The British Government published edited versions of the reports by retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory declaring that there was British and Loyalist collusion in the murder cases in Northern Ireland of...

U.S./U.K. Extradition Treaty

The Extradition Treaty between the United States and Great Britain made its introduction into the United States Senate on April 19. 2004. The Committee on Foreign Relations received it by unanimous...

Smoking Ban in Full Force

On March 29, 2004 Ireland became the first country in the European Union to ban smoking in workplaces, including all restaurants and pubs. Although some smokers and the Irish Vintners Federation, a...

Colombia Three Are Acquitted

Following on the heels of the very successful run of Tom Murphy’s Bailegangaire, Irish Repertory of Chicago’s 2004 season resumes in June with the world premiere staging of A Dublin...

Chicago in Bloom

Following on the heels of the very successful run of Tom Murphy’s Bailegangaire, Irish Repertory of Chicago’s 2004 season resumes in June with the world premiere staging of A Dublin...

Ghosts Beneath the Rails

William Watson never believed in ghosts. But the legend of 57 Irish railroad workers buried in a common grave has haunted the Springfield, Pennsylvania resident and history professor since the day he...

Irish Eye on Hollywood

Though the last James Bond film Die Another Day was a smash hit, some feel Navan-born star Pierce Brosnan is getting a bit old to play the dashing agent. At this point, it’s unclear who will...

The First Irish American Olympic Champion

Born in South Boston October 28, 1868 James Brendan Connolly was the sixth son of childhood sweethearts John Connolly and Ann O’Donnell from the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. But...

Ireland: Culture and Heritage

When summer comes, Ireland’s in her glory. Lazy sunsets linger for hours in a softly glowing night sky. Every nook and cranny of the land turns lush and green. Roses ramble wildly up cottage...

Mothers United

Tara Stackpole read Football for Dummies from cover to cover. She needed to know the difference between a fullback and a halfback. Her husband, Timmy, had been a football player on the FDNY team, a...

The Old Irish Neighborhood

It is the fall of 1961. I am with my father. He has returned to his homeland for the first time after thirty-five years in America. The two of us stand silently under a sullen Irish sky in the high,...

Flying Boats

Hundreds of misty-eyed villagers gathered at Foynes’ harbor on October 22, 1945, to watch Capt. Charlie Blair make American Overseas Airlines’ final scheduled flying boat departure from...

The Irish Character

A year before the American Revolution, Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote a letter to the bishop of Killaloe in which he remarked, “The Irish are a fair people; They never speak well of one...

Talking Tremane

Five phrases are all you’ll need to get along in this part of Ireland. If you learn to use them fluently you can hold your own in almost any conversation. Not only will they help to keep the...

The Rebirth of Moya Brennan

If you don’t immediately recognize the name Moya Brennan, it’s only because she recently changed the spelling of her name. As the lead singer of Clannad, and now a successful solo artist...

Meet Eve Bunting

It was only natural that the young Eve Bolton would grow up to be a writer, and a very prolific one who would produce more than 200 books for children. From her earliest years in Maghera, a small...

Review of Books

RECOMMENDED Early in his new memoir Pull Me Up, New York Times columnist Dan Barry writes: “Noreen Barry, née Minogue, originally of Shanaglish parish, County Galway, and lately and...

Slainte: The Queen of Flowers

One Sunny June afternoon several years ago, I stood on a Wicklow cliff overlooking the Irish Sea. All around me, mounds of wild roses covered the ground. No genetically crafted sterile blooms were...

Photo Album:
Going to the Chapel

This is a photo of my parents, Anne Connolly and David Carroll, right after they were married in Ireland. They met at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin where my father worked as a doctor and my...