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
April / May 2000
The Future of Irish America
Peter Quinn looks at the position of
Irish Americans as we embrace the new millennium.
Irish Americans as we embrace the new millennium.
“Whatever the future may hold, wherever it may take us, we can bring along only what we possess, and if we don’t possess our past, if instead of a true history and a significant literature, we bring along only trivia, empty myths and a handful of stories, or-worst of all -- the latest intellectually fashionable versions of ourselves, we will offer those to come after nothing of … [Read more...] about The Future of Irish AmericaPeter Quinn looks at the position of
Irish Americans as we embrace the new millennium.
The First Word: Shall We Ever Overcome?
My English brother-in-law once asked me if I had anything happy to write about. To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, the world has enough happiness in it without our having to read about it in magazines, but I know what he means. I wish I could devote this space to waxing lyrical about our Top 100: How their success contrasts with the snuggles of earlier generations. And how some of … [Read more...] about The First Word: Shall We Ever Overcome?
The Greatest Irish Rock Albums of the Last Millennium!!!
Gotcha. There was a craze afoot at the end of the last century -- gosh, doesn't that sound strange, especially since it was a mere couple of months ago -- to list things. It seemed like everything -- books, films, plays, albums, inventions, historical events -- got categorized, ranked, compared, collated, crunched, and spat out... The very notion of a "greatest Irish rock … [Read more...] about The Greatest Irish Rock Albums of the Last Millennium!!!
Roots: Dunne and Duffy
he names Dunne and Duffy have nothing in common except that they are derived from colors, the Dunnes from donn, the Gaelic word for brown and Duffy from dubh, the Gaelic for black. This is relatively unusual since the vast majority of Gaelic names are based on relationships i.e. "Son of," or "Follower of." The Dunne family name is derived from the Gaelic O'Duinn or O'Doinn, … [Read more...] about Roots: Dunne and Duffy