Irish America
Irish America
Unlike most of the families covered in this column, the origin of the Kavanaghs or Cavanaghs can be traced back to one specific person. This was Donal, the son of Dermot McMorrough, a twelfth-century king of Leinster. This Dermot has an infamous place in Irish history since it was through his invitation that the Normans first came to Ireland, in 1169 AD. Dermot's son, Donal, … [Read more...] about Roots: The Kavanaghs
It's safe to say that Oscar Wilde would have loved the attention. After all, this is the man who once memorably wrote: "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." The current surge in popularity of all things Wildean -- be it books, movies or stage plays -- is two years ahead of the centenary of his death, but then … [Read more...] about Wild About Oscar
Two years ago, Garry Hynes took a chance on a young, unknown playwright called Martin McDonagh, staging his play The Beauty Queen of Leenane at Galway's Druid Theater, which she had co-founded over 20 years earlier. This June, her gamble on Beauty Queen paid off handsomely when she became the first woman director to win a Tony Award -- Broadway's answer to the Oscars. For the … [Read more...] about Garry Glitters on Broadway
As a young boy growing up in Dublin, Paul Costelloe, Ireland's most famous and successful fashion designer, was hungry. But not for food, "I was hungry for excitement," says Costelloe. "I painted. It was a way of getting my fantasies out." His fantasies, not surprisingly, were the antithesis of the romantic traditional images his clothes evoke today. "I painted crucifixes and … [Read more...] about Man of the Cloth
The Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote of how strange it was to see trams running and everyday life proceeding normally although the Bolsheviks had taken over the government and begun a fundamental transformation of society. The Northern Ireland referendum on the Belfast Agreement had that "Mayakovsky vibe" too. We were in the King's Hall, on the fringe of Belfast, which … [Read more...] about Ulster Says Yes
