Few things are sadder than a missed opportunity. The story of the San Patricios, the Irish emigrants and their comrades of other ethnic groups who fought for Mexico during the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846-48, is rich and underexplored dramatic material. Complex and stirring issues of loyalty and heroism resound throughout the saga of the Saint Patrick's Battalion, which consisted … [Read more...] about Film Forum: A Late Encounter with the Enemy
‘Tis Frank
Frank McCourt is on an exhaustive book tour and won't get a break until the middle of December when he gets back to New York for the premiere of the movie Angela's Ashes. Towards the end of October, Irish America Editor-in-Chief Patricia Harty caught up with Frank on the phone from Palo Alto, California. How are you? Running, running, running from place to place, signing … [Read more...] about ‘Tis Frank
A Musical, Magical, Mystical Tour of Ireland
By Nancy Lyon
Mick Moloney, the folklorist, tenor banjo player, songster, wit, and raconteur offers a tour of Ireland to end all tours. On both sides of the Atlantic, Mick Moloney is known for his expressive traditional singing and tenor banjo playing dexterity, and he performs widely with Derry fiddler Eugene O'Donnell and set dancing champion Regan Wick, and with the touring ensemble The … [Read more...] about A Musical, Magical, Mystical Tour of Ireland
The Origin of “The Fighting Irish” Nickname
By Murray Sperber
This exchange in a novel about college sports in the 1920s catches the prejudices that many Americans of the time held toward citizens of Irish-Catholic descent. However, unlike other immigrant groups who tried to submerge their ethnicity into the American melting pot and considered such terms as "Polack" and "Bohunk" insults, Irish Catholics gloried in many of their nicknames, … [Read more...] about The Origin of “The Fighting Irish” Nickname
Plunging Into Irish Studies
By Peter Monaghan
Seamus Deane, a renowned literary scholar, fills a void at Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame, the home of the Fighting Irish, is the sentimental alma mater of many more actual and would-be Irish-Americans than ever have studied here. Yet until now, the most identifiably Catholic institution in the country--one where 14 of 16 presidents have been priests of Irish birth … [Read more...] about Plunging Into Irish Studies