“TransAtlantic,” by
Colum McCann
An excerpt adapted from Colum McCann’s novel, TransAtlantic. ℘℘℘ Colum McCann won the National Book Award in...
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In This Issue
Joey From Scranton:
VP Biden’s Irish Roots
It’s well known that Vice President Joe Biden spent his early years in the very Irish city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. But what about his ancestors? Genealogist Megan Smolenyak, who also traced...
MoreThe First Word: The Emigrants’ Flame
The First Word, by Patricia Harty. “Cuimhnígí ar na daoine ar tháinig sibh.” (Remember the people from whom you came.) – Irish America Hall of Fame motto It’s that time of year when...
MoreVice President Joe Biden: Statesman & Everyman
Vice President Joe Biden is suddenly the most popular politician in Washington. On the fiscal cliff he galloped to the rescue and cut the deal with Senator Mitch McConnell, and now on gun control he...
MoreBrian P. Burns: Art Collector & Benefactor
Brian P. Burns, grandson of an Irish immigrant, is a nationally regarded business executive, attorney and philanthropist. He is the chairman of BF Enterprises, Inc., a publicly owned real estate...
MoreRobert M. Devlin: Businessman & Philanthropist
For Bob Devlin, the combination of natural business acumen, strong family ties and Irish roots has proven unbeatable. Today, at 72, he is chairman of Curragh Capital Partners, a New York-based...
MoreJohn Fitzpatrick: Hotelier & Humanitarian
John Fitzpatrick is one of the most down to earth people you could meet. When he walks into a room he instantly puts you at your ease. Perhaps it’s a talent that he has developed over the years...
MoreBruce Morrison: Immigration Reformer & Peacekeeper
A lawyer, lobbyist and former U.S. congressman, Bruce Morrison is not an unlikely hero. Since his days as a student organizer at the University of Illinois, where he founded and chaired the Graduate...
MoreIrish State Apology for the Magdalenes
On behalf of the Irish State, on February 19 Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave a long-awaited and forthright apology to the victims of Ireland’s Magdalene laundries, the Church-run institutions where...
MoreThe Most Globalized Nation of the Western World
Ireland has been ranked as the most globalized nation in the West and the world’s third most globalized economy in terms of GDP according to the annual globalization index published by accounting...
MoreNew Chinese Translation of Joyce Becomes Best-seller
The new translation of James Joyce’s epically complex Finnegans Wake into Chinese has become an unexpected success. The first print run of 8,000 copies sold out in just under five weeks and a...
MoreCanadian Tweets in Irish From the International Space Station
A galactic photograph of Dublin released via Twitter in February by Canadian Space Agency astronaut Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space, was accompanied by another small first:...
MoreFighting Irish Coach Honored by Kelly Gang
Brian Kelly, Notre Dame’s famed football coach, was honored by the Kelly Gang at Michael’s Restaurant in New York City on March 13. Earlier that day he visited Breezy Point, where he witnessed...
MoreIrish Eye on Hollywood
1. The Irish Goodfellas are getting back together! Back in 1990, Robert DeNiro wowed audiences playing Irish-American hood Jimmy Conway in the electric Martin Scorsese gangster flick Goodfellas. Ray...
MoreFighting Irishmen Exhibition Opens in Phoenix
After traveling from New York to Boston and then to Ireland, the Fighting Irishmen boxing exhibition, which details nearly 200 years of Irish fighters, is now open for viewing in Phoenix, Arizona, in...
MoreNew Edward M. Kennedy Prize Celebrates American Drama
Columbia University and Jean Kennedy Smith have inaugurated a new award, the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, or the EMK Prize. This year’s prize is actually shared...
More200 Years of People v. Philips and Religious Freedom
1813 brought the first test of the right of free religious practice and expression in the United States. The famous case, People v. Philips, which eventually solidified the priest-penitent...
MoreSt. Brigid’s Catholic Church in the East Village Reopens
After more than a decade of closed doors and legal battles, St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church in New York’s Alphabet City is restored and open again for worship. Built between 1848 and 1849, St....
MoreThe Fight to Save Chicago’s St. James Parish
Parishioners and friends of historic St. James Parish, founded in 1855 on Chicago’s South Side by Irish immigrants who’d escaped the Great Starvation, spent Easter in a prayer vigil in front of...
MoreStopping the Famine Trigger – Phytophthora infestans
A pathogen called Phytophthora infestans has long been recognized as the cause of the Irish Potato Famine, which led to over one million deaths. But until recently, scientists were unsure of exactly...
MoreUSS Monitor Sailors Laid to Rest
What will likely be the last burial of the U.S. Civil War took place at Arlington National Cemetery on March 8. Two sailors whose skeletons were found in 2002, when the gun turret of the sunken USS...
MoreThose We Lost
Recent passings in the Irish and Irish-American communities. Inez McCormack 1946 – 2013 Northern Irish civil rights and labor activist Inez McCormack died late January. She was 66. McCormack, who...
MoreA Sacred Place: Skellig Michael
Photographer and writer Chris Ryan visited the larger of the two Skellig Islands off the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, where an early-medieval monastery survives at the edge of the material...
MoreI’ll Be Back In the Springtime – JFK in Ireland
Sean Reidy, CEO of the JFK Trust, looks back on President Kennedy’s visit to New Ross in 1963, and forward to celebrations on the 50th anniversary of that visit. “I’ll be back in the...
MoreTrue Grit – Sandy Fails to Derail the Xavier Knights’ Run for Glory
All they wanted was a chance for ten more days of football. Just before the end of the season, a quarter of the players and one of the coaches on the Xavier High School Knights had been forced from...
MoreThe Friendly Sons of St. Patrick
The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, or The Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick for the Relief of Emigrants from Ireland, was founded in Philadelphia on March 17, 1771 and continues on as a...
MoreJames Kelly: A Sculptor of American History
James E. Kelly, sculptor and illustrator, specialized in depicting people and events surrounding the American Civil War. Historian and author William B. Styple discovered Kelly’s journals, which...
More“TransAtlantic,” by
Colum McCann
An excerpt adapted from Colum McCann’s novel, TransAtlantic. ℘℘℘ Colum McCann won the National Book Award in 2012 for Let the Great World Spin, which through an extraordinary feat of...
MoreIrish in the Heartland:
St. Patrick, Missouri
Irish Place Names: St. Patrick, MO In the northeast corner of Missouri, 150 miles north of St. Louis and three miles west of the intersection of Highway 61 and State Route Z, an oak grove marks the...
MoreWhat Are You Like? Mary Robinson
Ireland’s first female president answers questions about her life and work. Mary Robinson made history as Ireland’s first female president, in office from 1990 – 1997. She has since devoted...
MoreHarrington: Taking Classical Music out of the Concert Hall
Greg Harrington doesn’t look like your average classical violinist. When we met at a pub in Manhattan’s Upper West Side on a recent snowy evening, he was wearing a gray hoodie and peppered his...
MoreBean an Tí – Celebrating Loretta & 20 Years of Glucksman Ireland House
Glucksman Ireland House, NYU’s center for Irish Studies celebrated 20 years and its founders, Loretta Brennan Glucksman and her late husband Lewis Glucksman. Seamus Heaney read “Lauds for...
MoreMolloy College Celebrates St. Brigid’s Day
On February 2, Molloy College’s Irish Studies Institute held its first St. Brigid’s Day Celebration – a fun afternoon of songs and stories that held the promise of exciting things to come for...
MoreIrish Folk Furniture – An Interview With Tony Donoghue
At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, one Irish short made big waves. Filmmaker Tony Donoghue spoke with Sheila Langan about his utterly charming stop-motion animated film Irish Folk...
MoreSláinte! Mother Earth
Edythe Preet writes of the many reasons why Ireland is called the Motherland. Civilization began when hunter-gatherers learned to cultivate grain and evolved into permanent agricultural communities....
MoreCountry Girl – Edna O’Brien’s New Memoir
Edna O’Brien has published the memoir she swore she’d never write. Readers will be very glad she did. “You can write and I will never forgive you,” said Ernest Gébler, Edna O’Brien’s...
MoreNuala – A New Documentary
Nuala O’Faolain shook Ireland and captivated the world with her forthright memoir Are You Somebody? A new documentary seeks to present a full picture of the woman behind the writing. For the...
MoreReview of Books
Fiction Fever With her 2010 literary debut, The Walking People, Mary Beth Keane, the daughter of Irish immigrants, established herself as a writer who is especially sensitive to the experience of...
MoreMusic Reviews
The latest from Luka Bloom, Lúnasa, and Enter the Haggis. Luka Bloom This New Morning It is no secret that Ireland boasts some of the most potent singer-songwriters of modern music. Joining the...
MoreFamily Photo Album: Neither a Nun Nor Married
Aunt Peggy Last year my mother began to hang old photographs and framed documents on what she calls the “family wall” in her living room. No need for a coat of arms or Céad Míle Fáilte sign...
MoreHibernia
New Chinese Translation of Joyce Becomes Best-seller
The new translation of James Joyce’s epically complex Finnegans Wake into Chinese has become an...
The Fight to Save Chicago’s St. James Parish
Parishioners and friends of historic St. James Parish, founded in 1855 on Chicago’s South Side by...
Irish State Apology for the Magdalenes
On behalf of the Irish State, on February 19 Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave a long-awaited and...
Irish Eye on Hollywood
1. The Irish Goodfellas are getting back together! Back in 1990, Robert DeNiro wowed audiences...
USS Monitor Sailors Laid to Rest
What will likely be the last burial of the U.S. Civil War took place at Arlington National Cemetery...
New Edward M. Kennedy Prize Celebrates American Drama
Columbia University and Jean Kennedy Smith have inaugurated a new award, the Edward M. Kennedy...
Stopping the Famine Trigger – Phytophthora infestans
A pathogen called Phytophthora infestans has long been recognized as the cause of the Irish Potato...
St. Brigid’s Catholic Church in the East Village Reopens
After more than a decade of closed doors and legal battles, St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church in...
Canadian Tweets in Irish From the International Space Station
A galactic photograph of Dublin released via Twitter in February by Canadian Space Agency astronaut...
200 Years of People v. Philips and Religious Freedom
1813 brought the first test of the right of free religious practice and expression in the United...
Fighting Irish Coach Honored by Kelly Gang
Brian Kelly, Notre Dame’s famed football coach, was honored by the Kelly Gang at Michael’s...