Irish America
Irish America
The Ghost of Muckross Haunts California You don't expect to find an Irish manor house, complete with 17 acres of formal gardens, tucked away only 25 miles from San Francisco. The home, "Filoli," an impressive Irish country-style estate, was designed by Willis Polk for William Bourn in 1916 near the town of Woodside, California. Bourn had strong ties with Ireland (he once … [Read more...] about Hibernia
A woman at marriage passed into her husband's fine and was accorded half his worth in honor-price, but she also had status in her own right. Some historians believe that the high status of women in ancient Ireland was part of the pre-Celtic culture that was absorbed by the invading Celts. One thesis is based on the fact that invaders of all countries were accustomed to taking … [Read more...] about A Little Irish Romance | Marriage in the Good Old Days
That Easter Monday, 1916, seventy-five years ago this month, was a sleepy one in Dublin. Most of the sporting set, high society and many common folk had gone to the Fairyhouse races, where the Irish Grand National was the star attraction. My own grandfather, from County Sligo, had taken the train to the races, the biggest meeting of the year. Years later he would relate how it … [Read more...] about First Word: Birth of a Nation
It’s not unusual to find Irish Americans who can recite, verbatim, scenes from The Quiet Man, the John Ford classic that has come to epitomize romantic Ireland for a generation of Irish Americans. Every year at St. Patrick's time, the movie is trotted out again on dozens of channels across the U.S. Like wine it seems to improve with age, and the image of Maureen O'Hara, the … [Read more...] about Hall of Fame | America’s Colleen
Lapsing into a hushed brogue, Michael John Roarty told of the telephone call he received one day from the president of Stonehill College, a small Catholic school south of Boston."He had a very thick brogue,and he was asking that I help out the school with its fundraiser," said Roarty, who is a magical story teller. "I was flabbergasted. I had to tell him, 'Father, I don't know … [Read more...] about Top of the Irish: Michael J. Roarty
