Irish America

Irish America

By Jill Fergus

The Life and Death
of Seneca Village

By Jill Fergus

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An exhibition tells the story of an interracial community destroyed to make way for New York's Central Park.Dog walkers and joggers nonchalantly stepping over the barely visible cobblestones embedded in a grassy patch in New York's Central Park have no idea that those stones were church foundations of a once prosperous enclave called Seneca Village. Begun in 1825 by … [Read more...] about The Life and Death
of Seneca Village

Photo Album My Great-Grandmother Discovered

December/ January 2021
Submitted by Robert F. Lyons from Kennebunk, Maine

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It was the accidental discovery of a vintage photograph, which enabled me to meet my first Irish-American relative, my great grandmother, Ellen Whelan Lyons of Co Waterford, Ireland.  At a family reunion in South Dakota, my cousin, John Maloney, had tossed out on the table a bushel basketful of old photos. My wife Nona retrieved from the pile a photo of an … [Read more...] about Photo Album My Great-Grandmother Discovered

Pennsylvania’s Irish and the
Founding of the State

By Tom Deignan

December/ January 2021

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Joe Biden's nail-biting Pennsylvania win was just the latest episode in Pennsylvania's rich Irish American history.You can take the boy out of Scranton.  But Scranton still helped put its most famous Irish Catholic boy – Joe Biden – into the White House.The 2020 presidential election famously came down to a handful of states – including Pennsylvania. That’s where Joseph … [Read more...] about Pennsylvania’s Irish and the
Founding of the State

The Catalpa Rescue

By Donald J. Magilligan

December/ January 2021

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In 1876, a daring escape from an Australian prison colony by six Fenian prisoners was masterminded by the revolutionary and journalist John Boyle O’Reilly.The sailing triumph of the Catalpa and the daring escape of six prisoners from an Australian prison dates back to 10 years earlier, 1866, to the failure of the Fenian rising in Ireland, when they were among those arrested and … [Read more...] about The Catalpa Rescue

Recently Published Books
of Irish Interest

By Darina Molloy

December/ January 2021

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Big Girl Small Townby Michelle GallenWriter Sinead Moriarty has probably gifted Big Girl Small Town with the best synopsis ever – “Milkman meets Derry Girls. A cracking read’ – which is proudly emblazoned on the Irish version of the cover. Majella is one of those outliers – ignored by most people, and reasonably content to potter on with her life. She lives with her alcoholic … [Read more...] about Recently Published Books
of Irish Interest