Joe Duffy Made Me Famous, Dingle Saved Me
When Mary Tolan’s backpack – containing her wallet, passport and six months of writing – was stolen in Ireland, she...
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In This Issue
The Year of Michael – An Interview With Michael Fassbender
An interview with Michael Fassbender. Michael Fassbender looks tanned and relaxed as he strolls into the bar at Claridge’s Hotel in London to join me for a drink. Sporting a bushy red beard, he is...
MoreThe First Word:
Hunger and Silence
“People think [the Irish] are such great talkers, but there is so much silence in Ireland about certain issues.” – Fionnula Flanagan The image of Michael Fassbender on our cover is very...
MoreMartin McGuinness Meets the British Queen
In a seemingly simple gesture that would have been unthinkable not too long ago, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness and Queen Elizabeth II shook hands for the first time, on...
MoreBloody Sunday Investigation Launched
Police in Northern Ireland are launching a murder investigation into the infamous Bloody Sunday shootings, which occurred on January 30, 1972, in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, and left...
MoreKeep ‘er Lit: The Olympic Torch in Ireland
The Olympic torch relay, a throwback to ancient Greece, became a contemporary Olympic tradition at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin. The 2012 summer games will open on July 27, in London, after the...
MoreIrish and Irish-American Olympians to Watch
As the Olympic Games get in gear, Irish Americans with loyalties on both sides of the Atlantic will find themselves with an abundance of stellar athletes to root for. With 525 athletes, Team U.S.A....
MoreA Bridge for Ireland’s Nobel Physicist
A number of Irishmen have been recognized as Nobel Prize winners: Yeats, Shaw, Beckett and Heaney for Literature, Sean MacBride and John Hume for Peace. But only one Irishman has ever received the...
MoreIn Dublin’s Little Jerusalem, Museum Begins Expansion
The names of the most prominent figures of Jewish-Irish history are well known. James Joyce’s Ulysses follows the Dublin meanderings of its Jewish protagonist, Leopold Bloom. Robert Briscoe, the...
MoreDruidMurphy Comes to New York
In July, Galway’s Tony-winning Druid Theatre Company presented a mini-retrospective of Irish playwright Tom Murphy. Held in New York City, the festival, DruidMurphy, featured three productions –...
MoreCharlotte Brontë:
One of Our Own
“I wanted to claim Charlotte Brontë as one of our own because she is,” said Irish actress Maxine Linehan, who portrays Brontë, the author of Jane Eyre, in the one-woman show Brontë: A...
MoreGalway Celebrates Photograph’s Irish Connection
It’s an iconic image of the building of America: Eleven construction workers on a break for lunch, happily chatting away on a girder balanced some 800 feet above New York City. The photograph,...
MoreAn American Hero Buried in Ireland
William Tally Mallon, an American soldier who fought and died in WWI, was laid to rest in a small cemetery in Galbally, Co. Tyrone in 1922. He was the only U.S. solder of The Great War to be buried...
MorePhilanthropist Chuck Feeney Winds Down ‘Giving While Living’
Chuck Feeney, the Irish-American billionaire known for both his generosity and distaste for the limelight, has announced that he will bring his extraordinary charitable giving to a close by the end...
MoreHonorary Degrees from Galway and Ulster
A number of very deserving Irish and Irish-Americans were selected by the National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Ulster in the North to receive honorary degrees this summer. At...
MoreQuote Unquote: Commencement Addresses
A selection of quotes – some poignant, some hilarious – from commencement addresses by Irish and Irish-American speakers throughout the States. “We better understand that we are just part of a...
MoreThose We Lost
Recent passings in the Irish and Irish-American communities. Katie Beckett 1978 – 2012 In 1981, Katie Beckett, at the age of 3, helped bring about major healthcare reform. On Friday May 18, at the...
MoreIrish Eye on Hollywood
The latest in Irish and Irish-American film and television. 1. A husband-and-wife political team in which the man is a womanizing former president and the woman is currently serving as Secretary of...
MoreJoe Duffy Made Me Famous, Dingle Saved Me
When Mary Tolan’s backpack – containing her wallet, passport and six months of writing – was stolen in Ireland, she thought all was lost. Over the course of five weeks on the Dingle Peninsula,...
MoreRunning Rings Around the Empire: The 1908 Olympics
As Britain hosts the Summer Olympic Games in London, we look back on the first great modern Olympic confrontation between the United States – most of whose top athletes were Irish – and Britain,...
MoreAn Irishman’s Civil War Diary
Michael Dougherty, a young Irish soldier in the American Civil War, kept a diary of his experiences, including the horrendous conditions endured in Confederate prison camps. Michael Dougherty, born...
MoreDancing Through Life: Terry McLaughlin
Ninety-one years old and still as vivacious as ever, Irish American Teresa McLaughlin shares her life story and her secrets to living well. The second installment in a new series on inspiring...
MoreThe First Lady of Irish Crime: Tana French
Tana French’s bestselling crime novels keep readers in suspense and mark this actress-turned-author as an astute observer of Irish life. She has been dubbed “the First Lady of Irish Crime,”...
MoreThe Silent Master: Rex Ingram
Rex Ingram: The clergyman’s son who became one of the biggest directors in Hollywood and discovered Rudolph Valentino. There would have been no shortage of Irishmen who came ashore in New York that...
MoreThe World Peace Jubilee & International Music Festival
For 18 days in the summer of 1872, Patrick S. Gilmore, an Irish-born impresario, led the largest concert in history. Some 20,000 singers and 2,000 musicians from around the world descended on Boston...
MoreThe Luthier: George Lowden
Irish guitar makers are rare, and George Lowden, the man behind Lowden Guitars, is the best of them. Here, he tells Tara Dougherty about the beginnings of his craft and the future for Lowden...
MoreWhat Are You Like? Fionnula Flanagan
A star of both the screen and the stage, Fionnula Flanagan was born in Dublin in 1941. She was raised speaking both English and Irish, and studied acting at the renowned Abbey Theatre. In 1968 she...
MoreRoots: The Fantastic Flanagans
The surname Flanagan and its variants, which include O’Flanagan, Flanigan, Flannigan, and the less common Flenigen, number among the most popular in Ireland. All derive from the surname’s...
MoreSláinte! Land of a Thousand Welcomes
How the tradition of hospitality to strangers has its roots in an ancient law. ℘℘℘ For more than a thousand years Ireland was regulated by the Brehon Laws. Here are a few of my favorite...
MoreMusic Reviews
CONTEMPORARY: Glen Hansard • Rhythm and Repose It is almost hard to believe that, with decades of successful records, an Oscar and a Tony, it was only this year that Glen Hansard (of Once fame)...
MoreReview of Books
Recently published books of Irish and Irish-American interest. Recommended: Summer Mysteries The Lost Years Mary Higgins Clark’s latest novel, The Lost Years, is a mystery-suspense exploring the...
MoreThe Last Word: A Handshake on the Road to Reconciliation
The day after his groundbreaking handshake with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness delivered the following speech (which has been condensed for...
MoreFamily Album:
Denny-Fitz and Hanna
Our grandfather Dennis O’Connor was born in 1864 near the town of Abbeyfeale, in County Limerick. He and his 10 siblings were raised in a four-room cottage on a small farm bordering the River...
MoreHibernia
In Dublin’s Little Jerusalem, Museum Begins Expansion
The names of the most prominent figures of Jewish-Irish history are well known. James Joyce’s...
DruidMurphy Comes to New York
In July, Galway’s Tony-winning Druid Theatre Company presented a mini-retrospective of Irish...
Philanthropist Chuck Feeney Winds Down ‘Giving While Living’
Chuck Feeney, the Irish-American billionaire known for both his generosity and distaste for the...
Irish and Irish-American Olympians to Watch
As the Olympic Games get in gear, Irish Americans with loyalties on both sides of the Atlantic will...
Keep ‘er Lit: The Olympic Torch in Ireland
The Olympic torch relay, a throwback to ancient Greece, became a contemporary Olympic tradition at...
Charlotte Brontë:
One of Our Own
“I wanted to claim Charlotte Brontë as one of our own because she is,” said Irish actress...
A Bridge for Ireland’s Nobel Physicist
A number of Irishmen have been recognized as Nobel Prize winners: Yeats, Shaw, Beckett and Heaney...
Galway Celebrates Photograph’s Irish Connection
It’s an iconic image of the building of America: Eleven construction workers on a break for...
An American Hero Buried in Ireland
William Tally Mallon, an American soldier who fought and died in WWI, was laid to rest in a small...