How Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness is adjusting to his new role as Northern Ireland's Minister for Education.℘℘℘Unusually for a politician, Martin McGuinness is early. He arrives at the Irish-speaking primary school in Newry, the Bunscoil an luir, as part of his duties as Minister for Education in the Northern Ireland Executive. The Executive, and McGuinness, are back to work … [Read more...] about Educating Martin
December January 2001 Issue
Get Your Irish Up! At Galway’s Oyster Festival
It's early evening and a vast room at Galway's Corrib Southern Hotel is lined with long rows of tables, laid for a banquet for over 600 people. Men in dinner jackets and bow ties make small talk with women in elegant ball gowns as their starters are served with military precision by a team of waitresses. Suddenly, a brass band marches into the room, strikes up a tune, and, in a … [Read more...] about Get Your Irish Up! At Galway’s Oyster Festival
Dreaming of Freedom
A new exhibit in Boston traces the city's history as a gateway to the United States and freedom. A state-of-the-art multimedia exhibition honoring Boston's diverse mix of immigrants has opened to the public at the city's new $3 million Dreams of Freedom Center. Located at One Milk Street, the birth site of Benjamin Franklin Dreams of Freedom invites visitors to take a virtual … [Read more...] about Dreaming of Freedom
Margaret Mitchell’s Lasting Gift
Madam, I greet you on the beginning of a great new career." With these words John Mitchell presented his wife, Margaret, with a second-hand Remington typewriter. Ten years later Margaret Mitchell presented to the world her masterpiece, Gone With the Wind. On November 8, 2000, 100 years after her birth we remember her extraordinary gift. By the age of 25 Margaret Mitchell had … [Read more...] about Margaret Mitchell’s Lasting Gift
The Beckett of Paint
"I live, you might say, in gilded squalor," Dublin-born painter Francis Bacon once remarked, explaining his attachment to 7 Reece Mews, the spartan twelve-by-eight-foot London flat that was both his home and studio for the last 30 years of his life. For Bacon, the drab, confining space, accessed by a ship's ladder, was more than just a place to hang his hat. With its … [Read more...] about The Beckett of Paint