The Billionaire Who Wasn’t by Conor O’Clery tells the story of Chuck Feeney, a young Irish-American who became rich beyond his dreams, only to give it all away through his fund Atlantic Philanthropies. The following excerpt opens just after Feeney graduated from Cornell College in 1965 with a degree in hotel administration. By mid-summer of 1956, Chuck Feeney still had no idea … [Read more...] about Chuck Feeney: The Billionaire Who Wasn’t
Archives for October 2007
Review of Books
Fiction A few years back, Irish novelist Joseph O’Connor wrote Star of the Sea, an ambitious, multi-layered novel set mainly during the voyage of an Irish famine coffin ship. The book was a best-seller, despite the fact that it was a demanding read. Using flashbacks, jumbled chronology and other trickery, O’Connor took readers all over the British Isles, and his narrative … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Cathie Ryan: Home is Where the Music Is
By Ian Worpole
October / November 2007
October / November 2007
My mum had a phrase that fascinated me – whenever something like the vacuum cleaner showed signs of failure, she would say, “Oh, it’s going home.” I’ve always had a vision of what a strange and wonderful place that particular Home may be, filled with weary appliances. It’s a powerful phrase, and as I grew older and maybe wiser, I realized it is more usually indicative of the … [Read more...] about Cathie Ryan: Home is Where the Music Is
Remembering Tommy Makem
By Terry Golway
October / November 2007
October / November 2007
When Tommy Makem died on August 1,the worldlost not only a great musician and storyteller but an original thinker, who was passionate about Ireland, and unfailingly gracious. We'll not see the likes of him again. It was a coincidence, of course, that legendary folk singer Tommy Makem and hotel mogul Leona Helmsley departed this world within two weeks of each other last … [Read more...] about Remembering Tommy Makem
Sláinte!: Ballinasloe’s Great October Fair
An Irish adage advises: Go East for a woman; go West for a horse. When I was a girl I had a bicycle. I wanted a horse. That was not in the cards for this city child, so I named my bike Lightening and careened about the neighborhood, crouched racing-low over the handlebars, doing daring (so I thought) one-legged pedal stands, hair flying, pulse pounding, and imagining I was … [Read more...] about Sláinte!: Ballinasloe’s Great October Fair