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June / July 2016

Gillian Murphy: On Her Toes

After 20 years with American Ballet Theatre, principal dancer Gillian Murphy still loves the challenge of making the difficult look effortless. ℘℘℘ Gillian Murphy celebrated her 20th...

The women featured on this list perform some of the most pioneering work currently done in their manifold industries, from literature, media, and fashion to technology, business, finance, and...

“We are adventuring into a new world.” – Astronaut Eileen Collins. ℘℘℘ The idea of an issue devoted to women has been brewing for some time but it really took hold these past months with...

An opposition government at Stormont is beginning to take shape after the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) decided to opt for opposition...

Palestinian poet and activist Rafeef Ziadah led the annual 10.5 mile Afri famine walk in Louisburgh, Co. Mayo, in May. The walk, which has been around since 1988, traces the footsteps of hundreds of...

After learning about the Easter Rising and subsequent Troubles, Reese Kilbride, a 12-year-old Irish student from Portmar- nock, Co. Dublin, wrote a letter to the Queen of England in February asking...

In April, Ireland was elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women for the first time during its U.N. membership. Charles Flanagan, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade said at the...

An exciting artifact that changes what is currently known about human history in Ireland has been found in a cardboard box. A bear bone, which was discovered in a cave in Co. Clare in 1903 and lay...

Ashford Castle, a massive hotel located at the shores of Lough Corrib on 350 acres of verdant Co. Mayo land, has been prestigiously ranked as the best hotel in the world by Virtuoso, a luxury travel...

Co. Donegal man Ivan Scott (below left) has recently beaten the Guinness World Record for the fastest time in shearing a single adult sheep. Scott, 33, hails from Kilmacrennan and broke the record...

Irish novelists Anne Enright and Lisa McInerney have been shortlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, a £30,000 prize awarded for any original novel written in English and published...

The National Library of Ireland has announced the receipt of the medal awarded to W.B. Yeats for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. The medal, valued at approximately $1.7 million, and the...

As is all too often the case, the story of the role played by women in major historical events is often overlooked, downplayed, or altogether covered up. But the story of the women arrested following...

The Affleck family just can’t seem to get enough of Irish American novelist Dennis Lehane. Hollywood’s latest Batman, Ben Affleck, is going to get back in touch with his more gritty side (The...

Speaking of Brendan Gleeson, the busy thespian is also teaming up with fellow Irish actor Michael Fassbender in not one but two upcoming movies. The dynamic duo will team up for Assassin’s Creed,...

Jonathan Rhys Meyers had a major role in the updated version of Roots, the epic mini-series about slavery which made a big splash on several cable channels back in May. The Dublin actor played Tom...

In another film about breaking racial barriers, Ruth Negga is among the cast of Loving, which was featured at the Cannes Film Festival back in May. Negga was born to an Irish mother and Ethiopian...

Irish star of stage and screen Sinéad Cusack (V for Vendetta, Eastern Promises) will star in a new British crime TV show that will soon be available to American audiences via Netflix. Entitled...

In other TV news, for better or worse, ABC has renewed the sitcom The Real O’Neals. The show looks at what some have called a typical Irish Catholic family – whose son has just come out as...

Irish actors Cillian Murphy and Jack Reynor will also be teaming up to play a couple of Irish crooks. In the film Free Fire – also starring Armie Hammer and Brie Larson – a couple of criminals...

Finally, Dublin actor Aidan Gillen also appeared in Sing Street, and over the years has become a regular in high-quality TV dramas such as The Wire and Game of Thrones. This year he was in the cast...

Taoiseach Enda Kenny confirmed that Vice President Joe Biden will make his first official visit to Ireland in late June. The announcement was made at the opening night of Ireland 100, a three-week...

The special Olympics announced the appointment of Mary Davis (below left) as their new chief executive officer, where she will lead the world’s largest global movement for the empowerment of people...

Dannel P. Malloy, Governor of Connecticut, has been awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his advocacy on behalf of Syrian refugees, even welcoming one family into his own home....

The stories of the extraordinary Irish women behind the design of the textiles at the Honan Chapel in Cork city and their contribution to Ireland’s arts and crafts movement have been largely...

The Mary Robinson Centre in Ballina, Co. Mayo is hosting an international symposium in July in partnership with the National University of Ireland Galway’s Centre for Global Women’s Studies. The...

LÉ Róisín, a first-of-class offshore patrol vessel set sail from Cork on Sunday May 1, on a three month rescue and recovery mission in the Mediterranean Sea. The mission’s objective is to rescue...

Through an 18th century document up for auction in Whyte’s Auctioneers Eclectic Collector sale, new light has been shone on the Irish ancestry of Elvis Presley and his family’s origins in Ireland...

New York City celebrated the centenary of the Easter Rising on April 24, 100 years to the day after Pádraig Pearse read the Proclamation on Sackville Street in Dublin. More than 2,000 people...

In April, the Washington D.C. statue of Robert Emmet, the first of its kind and the model for several identical copies by Irish sculptor Jerome Connor, was rededicated in a national park currently...

The Irish Repertory Theatre has come home to its dramatically redesigned original space on Manhattan’s west side this month with an exciting new production of Conor McPherson’s 2006 play Shining...

One of the advantages of the Irish Rep’s makeover is the addition of a reception room that doubles as an exhibition space. Geraldine O’Sullivan’s “16 Letters,” a series of lifescape...

Ireland celebrates the centenary of the Easter Rising in America with a three-week cultural festival in Washington, D.C. ℘℘℘ One of the most notable features of the John F. Kennedy...

Anne Anderson, Ireland’s Ambassador to the United States, reflects on her career, her role in the United States, and Ireland’s centenary. ℘℘℘ It’s hard to be an Irish American living in...

Two years ago, Maureen Mitchell, who currently serves as the president of GE Asset Management’s Global Sales and Marketing organization, moved back into an apartment in her hometown – Manhattan....

The actress, producer and humanitarian, Roma Downey. ℘℘℘ Roma Downey received the first ever Irish Diaspora Award from the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) and the government of...

The first new album in 10 years from fiddle virtuoso Eileen Ivers traces traditional Irish music to Canada’s Nova Scotia, and through the Scots/Irish root of Bluegrass and Old-Time music of...

On March 30 astronaut Eileen Collins, the first of two women Navy test pilots, the first woman to pilot a space shuttle, and the first woman to command a mission, was inducted into the Irish America...

“She was a mother to the motherless; she was a friend to those who had no friends; she had wisdom greater than schools can teach; we will not let her memory go.” – Sara Cone Bryant, from...

Whether it’s stomping the boards on Broadway or on Hollywood’s silver screen, these girls all share a love of performance. Perhaps it’s in the DNA? ℘℘℘ Thinking about writing an article...

A sampling of quotes from men interviewed in Irish America over the past 35 years on the impact that their Irish mothers had on their lives. President Joe Biden Joe Biden with his mother...

Mary Robinson made history as Ireland’s first female president, in office from 1990 – 1997. She has since devoted her life to human rights on a global scale, serving as United Nations High...

A conversation with Annie Ryan about her brilliant adaptation of Eimear McBride’s novel, A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing, and Aoife Duffin, the young actress who gave life to the words on...

A new Off-Broadway musical seeks to tell the story of the passionate, tumultuous, and prolific relationship between James Joyce and Nora Barnacle through Nora’s perspective of their nearly 40-year...

An Interview with Long Day’s Journey Into Night’s Colby Minifie. ℘℘℘ On the evening of November 7, 1956, after the final curtain dropped on the New York premiere of Eugene O’Neill’s...

On March 29, against the elegant backdrop of books and crystal, sat the elegant Edna O’Brien. Irish America’s editor and co-founder, Patricia Harty, co-hosts Ellen McCourt, Joe & Mary Lou...

Anne Enright delivered the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction lecture on writer Maeve Brennan at the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House at New York University. Enright’s lecture will serve as...

Books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ LITERATURE Spill Simmer Falter Wither By Sara Baume Before she began her creative writing Master’s degree at Trinity, Sara Baume studied fine...

“I was elected by the women of Ireland who, instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system.” – Mary Robinson, President of Ireland, 1990 – 1997 ℘℘℘ When the 2016 presidential...

Recent passings in Ireland and Irish America. ℘℘℘ Daniel Joseph Berrigan, S.J. 1921 – 2016 Daniel Berrigan, activist Jesuit priest and intellectual, author, and pacifist agitator who served...

To receive a personal letter and gift from the President is one of the lovely Irish ways of honoring centenarians. We were indeed proud on May 19, 2016, to read to our mother, Molly Long, a message...

A laudable feature of this year’s Easter Rising commemorations is the conscientious effort to recognize the role women played in the insurrection for independence. Books, articles, and...

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June / July 2016

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