A year-long celebration is underway to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Swinford, a County Mayo town as proud of its heritage as its time-honored strength of community. ℘℘℘The words were painted high on a whitewashed brick wall, just above a red and green Mayo flag flapping in the wind. MELLETT’S DRINKING EMPORIUM ESTB 1797“Is it true?” I ask my … [Read more...] about In East Mayo: A Community Where Past Is Prologue
Archive
Window on the Past: Stampede of a New York Cowboy
Calgary, nicknamed “Cowtown,” is home to the largest rodeo in the world, the Calgary Stampede, which annually draws millions of visitors. The first Calgary rodeo in 1912 was organized by a New Yorker with Irish roots, as Ray Cavanaugh explains.Cowboys seem like a self-assured lot. But Guy Weadick was more than self-assured; he was a bold visionary, and the … [Read more...] about Window on the Past: Stampede of a New York Cowboy
McSorley’s Old Ale House
Sawdust on the floor, two kinds of beer – light or dark – what’s not to love about this timeless New York landmark pub?℘℘℘It might not be New York’s oldest bar – the Ear Inn and Queen’s Neir’s claim to be older – but no bar in New York can match the historic ambiance of McSorley’s Old Ale House on Seventh Street in the East Village. A wall sign in the bar states what is … [Read more...] about McSorley’s Old Ale House
What Are You Like? Tom O’Neill
It took 20 years of intensive research, hundreds of interviews, missed deadlines, and publishers demanding their money back, but Tom O’Neill’s CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties is worth the wait. It’s a chilling page-turner documenting the writer’s quest to find the truth behind the Manson Family murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others … [Read more...] about What Are You Like? Tom O’Neill
Dark Ireland: Images of a Lost World
The following is an extract from the foreword to Richard Fitzgerald’s stunning book of photographs taken in Ireland over the past 45 years.For more than forty years I have travelled the length and breadth of the land recording the beauty of Ireland and its people. I love the ever-changing light and the shadows creeping across the fern-covered hills; the shafts of sunlight … [Read more...] about Dark Ireland: Images of a Lost World