I remember the day I first learned of the Famine —walking home from school afterwards, through the miles of country roads bordered by the lush green fields of rich Tipperary farmland – looking at the grass and thinking of how many had died with green stains on their mouths from eating it in a last faint effort to survive. I still remember that day so clearly now all those … [Read more...] about First Word | The Irish in America
The Battle to Save the Burren
By Pat Musick September 1991
The Burren in northwest Clare, a wild region of bare limestone, vanishing lakes, and surprising wildflowers, is one of Europe's most remarkable habitats. Yet the most diverse and fragile part of it is under threat from the very government body charged with its protection. Controversy over the siting of a visitors' center has ranged from threats to a local resident's life to … [Read more...] about The Battle to Save the Burren
Sacred Mysteries | The Celtic Way of Sexuality and Love
By Irish America Staff July/August 1991
"Irishmen and Irishwomen regard set instinctively as they regard mud" — Arnold Usher Arnold Usher's comment is sadly all too apt. For many of us Irish, sex is merely an instrument for procreation; with proper tillage the soil can be made fertile. But once the job is done it's best to wash up and get back to serious matters. Business. Sport. Talk. And Drink. Things were not … [Read more...] about Sacred Mysteries | The Celtic Way of Sexuality and Love
Ireland House
By Mary Pat Kelly July/August 1991
Sometimes it all just works. Or as Shannery O'Connor wrote, quoting Teilhard de Chardin, "Everything that rises must converge." It did— rise and converge that is—at about 1:35 p.m. during the lunch held at New York University on May 20 to announce the establishment of Ireland House, the University's new center for Irish studies, made possible by a grant from Lewis L. Glucksman … [Read more...] about Ireland House
Book Review | Damage
By Frank Shouldice July/August 1991
One of the most auspicious debuts in published fiction this year is Josephine Hart's brisk novel, Damage. Critical plaudits and advance publicity have lifted the slim volume into various top-selling lists. Indeed, the almost indecent haste of its arrival has been pejoratively associated with the author's marriage to London public relations doyen Maurice Saatchi, to whom the … [Read more...] about Book Review | Damage