In this issue we celebrate the realization of the American dream by so many of our people, reminding us once again of the good fit this country has proved to be for the Irish. Not that it happened overnight. In the words of Robert Kennedy: "As the first of the racial minorities our forefathers were subject to every discrimination found wherever discrimination is known." The … [Read more...] about The First Word: Our Evolving Heritage
Stage Irish
By Retta Blaney
March/April 1997
From East to West Coast, Irish theater companies are booming as never before. The creation of the Thomas Davis Irish Players conjures an image of monks in monasteries, copying manuscripts with quills. The year was 1933 and seven young Irishmen, some of whom had been actors in Ireland, were studying for their high school equivalency tests in New York City. Missing their … [Read more...] about Stage Irish
Fionnoula Flanagan: Up Close and Personal
Actress Fionnula Flanagan is a beautiful woman who is not afraid to ditch the glamour if the role demands it Audiences who remember her as the green-eyed, sultry redhead in the TV series Rich Man Poor Man for which she won an Emmy, and How the West Was Won, might have a hard time recognizing her in Some Mother's Son. Flanagan's opening shot shows her wearing no makeup, her hair … [Read more...] about Fionnoula Flanagan: Up Close and Personal
Of Women and War
Terry George's latest movie, Some Mother's Son, is a universal story which will haunt long after the final credits run, writes Laoise MacReamoinn.There's a savage irony in the opening sequence of Some Mother's Son. In newsreel footage from 1979, Margaret Thatcher, British prime minister-elect, greets the press, and with a sweet, thin smile claims to see herself as continuing … [Read more...] about Of Women and War
Tales from the Deep
By Laoise MacReamoinn
January/February 1997
Colum McCann, one of the hottest new Irish writers on the literary scene, talks about his career with Laoise MacReamoinn.Colum McCann, the New York-based Dublin-born writer who burst on to the American literary scene last year with his first novel, Songdogs, which the New York Times called "powerful, strong and sure," and whose first collection of short stories, Fishing the … [Read more...] about Tales from the Deep