Irish America

Irish America

By Ray Cavanaugh IA Newsletter, Month Day 2026

Larry O’Brien: A Perennial NBA Champion  

By Ray Cavanaugh

IA Newsletter, Month Day 2026

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When someone mentions the NBA Finals, you might think of Jordan or Kobe slashing their way to the rim. Or, more recently, the video game-like exploits of three-point assassin Steph Curry. You're less likely to think of a sub-6-foot, visually-impaired, cigarette-smoking Irish-American political operative. And yet these supreme athletes were indeed pouring their sweat and souls … [Read more...] about Larry O’Brien: A Perennial NBA Champion  

Sláinte! Samhain: The Celtic New Year

By Edythe Preet

September October 1993

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Halloween is a night of magic, mystery and merry making. Ghosts haunt the imagination and trick-or-treaters go begging from door to door. Though the evening's colors are black and orange, they could as easily be forty shades of green because the customs of All Hallows Eve are Irish as the shamrock. The ancient Celtic year was divided by the four seasons. Samhain (November I) … [Read more...] about Sláinte! Samhain: The Celtic New Year

A Mission Remembered

By Maureen Murphy

September October 1993

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A sentimental nineteenth century novel of virtue rewarded tells the story of an Irish immigrant girl who came to New York in the 1870's. Subtitled "A Tale Founded on Fact," Annie Reilly or the Fortunes of an Irish Girl in New York describes Annie's arrival at Castle Garden: immigrants confused and exhausted, luggage broken or lost, possessions scattered, indifferent officials, … [Read more...] about A Mission Remembered

The Gift of Life

By Emer Mullins

September October 1993

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Jeanne Marie Flanagan was pottering around her beautiful home in Walden, New York, just before Thanksgiving in 1989 when she started to cry. "I thought at the time it was my hormones because I was pregnant, but in my spirit I guess I knew something terrible had happened," she remembered. She was right. Her seven-year-old son, Mark, was in the East Coldenham Elementary School … [Read more...] about The Gift of Life

America’s Birth Certificate’s Irish Connection

By Seamus McKee

June 18, 2026

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John Dunlap: The Irish-born Printer of the Declaration of Independence At the age of ten John Dunlap was sent to Philadelphia to help his immigrant uncle who was a printer there. He took over his uncle’s business and became the official printer to the provisional government of the 13 states which rebelled against British rule. On the night of July 4, 1776, Dunlap printed … [Read more...] about America’s Birth Certificate’s Irish Connection