Finnegan is an Irish surname coming from the Gaelic Ó Fionnagáin, meaning “son of fair-haired.”James Joyce immortalized the name for all time in his 1939 novel Finnegans Wake. But literary giants aside, Finnegan is one of the most recognizable Irish surnames of our times. The Finnegan clan’s ties to America have only bound more tightly since the election of Joe Biden as … [Read more...] about The Finnegan Clan
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Pat Conroy: The Prince of Tales
By Patricia Harty Editor-In-ChiefIn the fall of 1995, Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, was back on the best-seller list with Beach Music. He talked to Patricia Harty about his work, his family, and his desire to find his Irish relatives.Pat Conroy was born on October 26, 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia, to a young career military officer from Chicago … [Read more...] about Pat Conroy: The Prince of Tales
The Right Stuff
Eileen Collins, the first female to command a space mission, is a determined down-to-earth woman who never let anything stand in the way of her dream.August 1999: NASA, Texas: Eileen Collins looks a little tired and it's no wonder. America's first female space commander has been caught in a whirlwind of publicity since she returned to earth some three weeks before, having … [Read more...] about The Right Stuff
Archie’s Irish “Family” –
50 Years Later
TV legend Norman Lear had heard it before."That face screams Irish!”Lear was on the set of a new TV sitcom he was writing and producing, about a working-class family in Queens, New York.
The star of the show – with the working title "All in the Family" – was a New York City-born Irish American actor named John Carroll O'Connor, who played a narrow-minded union guy named Archie … [Read more...] about Archie’s Irish “Family” –
50 Years Later
Biden Country
Mayo on the west coast and Louth on the east, boast some of the most historic sites in Ireland, and now locals living in the area of the Cooley Peninsula and Ballina can expect many the curious traveler on the trail of President Joe Biden’s Irish ancestors. (All images: Tourism Ireland).Wee Louth and Mighty Mayo – what do they have in common? Well, certainly not their … [Read more...] about Biden Country