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Jimmy Fallon Family Tree

By Megan Smolenyak, Contributor
February / March 2014

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Megan Smolenyak, the roots detective, takes a look at Jimmy Fallon’s Irish side. Not yet forty, Jimmy Fallon already has an impressive history to look back on.  Between “Saturday Night Live” and hosting “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” he’s logged more than a decade on air, and is now primed for his take over of “The Tonight Show.” Not bad for a Brooklyn-born, Saugerties-raised … [Read more...] about Jimmy Fallon Family Tree

Portals to the Past

By Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief
February / March 2014

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I love to drive around Ireland, especially if I have the luxury of time. I aim my car in the direction that I hope to end up, and then take the by roads, leaving the highway behind. Many of the old “main” roads are still in use and, though narrow by today’s standards, they are still wide enough for another car passing in the opposite direction. It is down these backroads, with … [Read more...] about Portals to the Past

The Fifth Province

By Dr. Miriam Nyham, Contributor
February / March 2014

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There is a well-known Irish saying: ar scáth a chéile a mhaireas na daoine that can be loosely translated as “it is in the shelter of each other that the people live.” Particularly during acts of migration, this adage becomes a critical component of immigrant success. In New York and other parts of the United States, as Irish immigrants attempted to recreate a sense of home in … [Read more...] about The Fifth Province

Toy Trains

February / March 2014

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An excerpt from the memoir “Tipperary to Tibet,” a collection of Irish stories by Joseph M. Cahalan. It had all the earmarks of a classic sibling rivalry. My sister, Pat – or Patsy as she was called until adolescence – was born four years earlier than me and had our parents all to herself for those early formative years. When I came along, things changed dramatically in all … [Read more...] about Toy Trains

What Are You Like? Thomas Cahill

By Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief
February / March 2014

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Thomas Cahill is a bestselling author and scholar whose landmark book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, marked its 18th anniversary in 2013. The book, which spent two years on The New York Times bestseller list, tells the story of fifth-century Irish monks who copied, and thereby preserved, almost all of what has survived of  Western classical poetry, history, oratory, … [Read more...] about What Are You Like? Thomas Cahill