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November / December 2018

The Pacemaker

Mahoney with members of the Boston Scientific team

The fifth annual Healthcare & Life Sciences 50 keynote speaker, chairman and CEO of Boston Scientific Mike Mahoney, on forging ahead with new solutions. Read to the end for details on how to be...

“As long as you have your health, you have everything,” my mother, Norrie, used to say. She said a lot of things that annoyed me when I was younger, but as the years go by I realize that...

Boats along Haven Coast in Kinsale, County Cork. (Photos: Tourism Ireland)

Take a walk (or a drive) on the wild side. West Cork offers an abundance of wildlife, nature, and scenery. ℘℘℘ Is there a more intriguing place in Ireland than West Cork? On a recent trip, I...

The highs, lows, benefits, and downfalls of legalizing marijuana. ℘℘℘ The archeologists who discovered the bones of a man in China’s Gobi Desert determined his age at over 2700 years and...

Photograph of Dr. James Barry in approximately the late 1840s.

The famous British Army surgeon was actually an Irish woman. ℘℘℘ Dr. James Barry was born in County Cork as Margaret Anne Bulkley, the daughter of Jeremiah and Mary-Ann (neé Barry). Accounts...

Karen Duffy writes about living with chronic pain. ℘℘℘ There is pain that hurts you and pain that changes you. Pain is a survival mechanism; it’s a signal that you need to pay attention to...

The death of a Sister of Charity on the battlefield.

“The Irish-American Florence Nightingale” of the Civil War – Sister Mary Anthony. ℘℘℘ The name of this Civil War medical pioneer has unjustly slipped between history’s...

A bronze sculpture commemorating the Flight of the Earls in Rathmullan, County Donegal. It was from here that Rory O'Donnell (known as Red Hugh), the Earl of Tyrconnell (with his brother Cathbharr), and Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone (with his son Hugh, the baron of Dungannon), and some 90 of their followers set sail for mainland Europe on September 4, 1607.

Why it’s time to reclaim the last days and figureheads of the old Gaelic world. ℘℘℘ Stories matter, so here’s a good one. Four hundred and ten years ago this November the last two...

The surname Mahoney originally designated the descendants of Mathghamhain, an Irishman of the early 11th century who was killed in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. He was the son of Cian mac...

The Chicago Patriots and Austin Celtic Cowboys struggle for the ball during the Intermediate Football Final. (Photographs by David Morgan, Stylish Images)

The passion, competition, and camaraderie of supporters and players of Gaelic games were on display at the USGAA Finals in Philadelphia over Labor Day Weekend. ℘℘℘ September is traditionally...

Cover of the Van Morrison album Astral Weeks. The copyright is believed to belong to the label, Warner Bros., or the graphic artist(s).

The birth, re-birth, and enduring legacy of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. ℘℘℘ In 1968, Van Morrison was on the lam from the mob and hiding in Boston. Author Ryan Walsh takes Van’s...

Oliver St. John Gogarty, pictured driving one of his many cars.

Caricatured as “Buck Mulligan” in Joyce’s masterpiece, Oliver St. John Gogarty was more than just a swashbuckling figure – he was a poet, a playwright, a politician, and a renowned surgeon...

In his second budget as Minister of Finance Pascal Donohue in the Dail on October 9, spending plans totaling €66.5bn for the coming year. €59.3bn of that will be on current expenditure and...

Redbreast Aged 12 year Cask Strength, Jim Murray's 2019 Irish Whisky of the Year.

The best Irish whiskeys of 2019 have been revealed in news that’s sure to make essential reading for dram drinkers everywhere. Scotch may go down well with some, but over in Ireland, it’s got to...

Members of the Garda Siochana, the police force of Ireland.

A number of firearms, namely three GLOCK handguns, have been intercepted and seized in postal packages destined for Ireland from the United States. The Special Crime Operations (SCO) branch of An...

Newly crowned Redhead King and Queen, Alan Reidy and Grainne Keena, pose with a crowd full of red heads at the Irish Redhead Convention, which celebrates everything to do with red hair held in the village of Crosshaven on August 22, 2015 in Cork.

Redheads are significantly less likely to age badly. That’s according to a study conducted by Erasmus University in Rotterdam who discovered the gene that keeps people looking young is the same as...

Members of the UCC's University Sanctuary Working Group with UCC President, Professor Patrick O'Shea (second from left), and Professor Caroline Fennell, Senior VP at UCC.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN A Radical Approach in Diabetes Research An international collaboration jointly led by University College Dublin (UCD) and Monash University in Melbourne has found that...

In November, Liam Neeson and Colin Farrell will team up with Irish American writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) in a crime thriller loaded with talent. Entitled Widows, the film features Neeson as one...

Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury was a giant of the British music scene. But his birth name was actually Farrokh Bulsara, and he was born in what, at the time, was British-ruled India. And with a...

One of HBO’s more surreal, yet entertaining, recent projects was My Dinner with Hervé, about the life and times of 1970s diminutive Fantasy Island star Hervé Villechaize. The film featured Game...

With Martin Scorsese’s Netflix epic The Irishman–about the hitman who supposedly whacked Jimmy Hoffa–slated for release next year, now comes word that Oscar-nominated tough guy Tom Hardy (Dark...

Former 007 Pierce Brosnan is re-teaming with Goldeneye director Martin Campbell for a very different kind of movie. The duo are looking to bring Ernest Hemingway’s war novel Across the River and...

It has been 150 years now since Louisa May Alcott wrote her beloved novel Little Women–and filmmakers can’t stop returning to this classic. Just as one updated version was being released this...

You can catch a creepy Irish horror story called The Lodgers on Netflix right now. Directed by Brian O’Malley, The Lodgers is set in 1920s Carlow, where a brother and sister live a mysterious...

The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) held its annual dinner on Thursday October 4, at Capitala, 130 Bowery, New York City. The gala event featured awards, Q&A with all-star Gaelic players, and a...

The Ireland Funds 2018 NJ Golf Classic Committee with Honoree Bob Garrett. L – R: Kyle Clifford, Anthony Callaghan, Eddie Dowling, Michael Higgins, Bob Garrett, John Fitzpatrick, Martin Kehoe, Angus Miller, Pat Leahy, Matthew McBride, George Stall, Michael Hurly, and Pat Tully.

On Monday, October 1st, supporters of The Ireland Funds gathered at Bayonne Golf Club for the 16th annual NJ Golf Classic. This year’s honoree was Bob Garrett, New York Office Managing Partner,...

Laura Hickey Deputy Consul General, British Consulate, Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Norman Houston, Director Northern Ireland Bureau, Baroness May Blood. (Photo: Amanda Ghanooni)

An international seminar celebrated and reflected on the progress made in improving wellbeing in Northern Ireland. In the year of the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, it is an...

Jim Quinn, President of Flax Trust America with honorees Ed and Brigid Kenney and Sr. Mary Turley, Director of Flax Trust.

The 28th annual Flax Trust New York banquet took place in the 21 Club on October 10, 2018, honoring Ed and Brigid Kenney and Tom O’Brien, Director and Audit Chair of Prudential Financial Annuity...

Allison Doody and Aiden Connolly, who were honored by UCD Smurfit School.

On Wednesday October 17th, the 16th annual New York UCD Smurfit School Benefit Dinner took place at the Metropolitan Club, New York City. This year’s honorees were Aidan Connolly, Chief innovation...

The Irish Consulate in New York hosted a reception on Wednesday, September 26, on the occasion of the visit to New York for UN Week by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney,...

On the Dunbrody: Irish actors Ronan Barry, Stephen Byrne and Eugene McLoughlin, who featured in a production of the Glencairn one-act plays on board the ship.

The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Festival in New Ross, called “One Festival, Two Countries,” was a big success. The first half of the festival, the 19th Annual Eugene O’Neill Festival in...

Pictured below: Sean Reidy, co-founder with Patricia Harty of the Irish America Hall of Fame; Sean Connick, CEO of the Dunbrody Famine Ship Experience, in New Ross, Co. Wexford, where the Irish America Hall of Fame is housed; and Kevin M. White.

Kevin M. White, Duke University’s vice president and director of athletics, who was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame in 2017, paid a visit to the Hall of Fame in New Ross, Co. Wexford,...

17th annual Imagine Arts Festival set to open with Art Exhibitions, trails and a Tremendous Trad Weekend ℘℘℘ The 17th annual Imagine Arts Festival opened in Waterford on October 18th for 10...

New York University’s Glucksman Ireland House opened a quarter-century ago, and since then has led and witnessed tremendous changes in both nations’ cultures. Being New York, Being Irish gathers...

Judy Collins and Stephen Stills, two American singer-songwriters celebrated the golden anniversary of their formative time together in the 1970s, when Stills penned “Judy Blue Eyes” and other...

Showcasing the best in contemporary Irish arts and literature ℘℘℘ he Irish Arts & Writers’ Festival brought together Irish writers and audiences in the historic and intimate town...

Author Anna Burns. Anna Burns Wins Man Booker Prize Novelist Anna Burns won the 2018 Man Booker Prize for her third book, Milkman. Burns is the first writer from Northern Ireland to ever win the...

Sally Rooney's Normal People, Dolly Carlson's The Red Coat: A Novel of Boston, and Lynn Ruane's People Like Me.

Recently-published books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ FICTION Normal People by Sally Rooney. Normal People By: Sally Rooney There is something quietly knowing in the title of Sally...

Dulse / Dillisk - Organic Irish Seaweed from AlgAran Seaweed Products, County Donegal, Ireland.

The therapeutic benefits of seawater and seaweed baths, as well as seaweed as an important food source, is explored by Edythe Preet. ℘℘℘ I’ve got this thing about immersing myself in water....

The extraordinarily gifted John Benjamin Murphy, who turned surgery into performance art. ℘℘℘ Like other influential doctors, John Benjamin Murphy saved and improved lives with his medical...

Robert Kennedy and Bill Barry hit it off they met in the FBI office in New York.

Recent passings in the Irish and Irish American communities. ℘℘℘ William “Bill” Barry 1927 – 2018 Bill Barry. Bill Barry, who grabbed Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin’s gun and prevented...

Back row, left. Evelyn (born 1914), Anne (1913), Bridie (1908), Michael (1911), Mary (1905) Marguerite (1909), John (1916). Front row, left: Frank (1918), Michael O’Donnell (father), Leila (1925), Patrick (1924), Genevieve (1923), Margaret (Doogan) O’Donnell (mother), Philip (1920).

When we were children, my brother and I spent our summers in southwest Donegal in the village of Kilcar, with my mother’s people. Our parents sent us there so they could build their business in...

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November / December 2018

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