Irish America

Irish America

By Irish America Staff IA Newsletter, September 19 2026

The Lyric Theatre Celebrates 75 Years

By Irish America Staff

IA Newsletter, September 19 2026

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In 2026 the Lyric Theatre Belfast celebrated a landmark anniversary, 75 years as the principal producing theatre in Northern Ireland and a leading cultural institution in Belfast. From its modest beginnings in  Mary O’Malley’s  home in South Belfast to its landmark building on Ridgeway Street, the  Lyric Theatre  has stood at the heart of Irish theatre and cultural arts for 75 … [Read more...] about The Lyric Theatre Celebrates 75 Years

The British Broadcast Ban, The Media and the Conflict in Northern Ireland

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On October 19, 1988 the British Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, imposed unprecedented peace time restrictions on broadcasting. The banning of direct interviews with eleven Irish organizations, including Sinn Féin, a legal political party with elected councillors and an MP at Westminster, was widely condemned. This article documents the effect of the restrictions on British TV … [Read more...] about The British Broadcast Ban, The Media and the Conflict in Northern Ireland

The Irish in Country: Putting the Celtic Fringe on the Music Charts

By James Ring Adams

June 1991

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Just hours before winning a Grammy, country singer Kathy Mattea reminisced about her first meeting two years earlier with her current musical hero. "We went to the show and we were doing the whole bit about trying to get backstage. It was such a role reversal." she said. "I felt like a groupic." Ms. Mattea, one of the hottest names in Nashville, wasn't trying to crash the … [Read more...] about The Irish in Country: Putting the Celtic Fringe on the Music Charts

Video Review: James Joyce’s Ulysses

By Frank Shouldice

May 1991

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When you think of James Joyce, you think of the printed word. However, film adaptations were made of two of his works —Ulysses (1967) and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1977)—and both are now available from the innovative Mystic Fire Video Company of S. Burlington, Vermont. New York film director Joseph Strick was the driving force behind both projects. Now based in … [Read more...] about Video Review: James Joyce’s Ulysses

Looking Back at the Hunger Strike

By Patrick Farrelly

May 1991

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He has chosen death: Refusing to eat or drink, that he may bring Disgrace upon me; for there is a custom, An old and foolish custom, that it a man Be wronged, or think that he is wronged, and starve Upon another's threshold till he die, The Common People, for all time to come, Will raise a heavy cry against that threshold, Even though it be the King's. From The King's Threshold … [Read more...] about Looking Back at the Hunger Strike