An interview with Touched by an Angel star Roma Downey It's a little after seven on a chilly evening last fall and a few hundred people are assembled at Gallagher's, the famous Theater District restaurant in Manhattan, for a fund-raiser organized by the Omagh Relief Fund. Sharply dressed men and women are listening to various speakers from the Irish community, one of whom is … [Read more...] about Winging Her Way to Stardom
Man of Peace
John Hume, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize, is interviewed by Kelly Candaele. John Hume is the rarest of political figures. For over thirty years he has doggedly pursued peace in Northern Ireland, initially as a civil rights activist in Derry, his hometown, and later as leader of the largest nominally Catholic political party in Northern Ireland, the Social Democratic and … [Read more...] about Man of Peace
Irish Friends on Capitol Hill
The Impact of the Election Results on Irish Issues With one or two notable exceptions, the November 1998 elections saw those politicians most influential on Irish affairs safely re-elected to their posts and preparing for action on Irish issues in the new Congress. Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Representatives Peter King and James Walsh of New York, Richard Neal of … [Read more...] about Irish Friends on Capitol Hill
Mike’s Back in Town
Bronx boy, bard and beef baron J.P. Donleavy converses with John Froude. James Patrick Donleavy, known to his friends as Mike, is standing in the lobby of the New York Athletic Club. He observes. He notes with approval the liveried attendant silently holding up a placard before a new barbarian. On which is written PORTABLE PHONES ARE NOT PERMITTED. Mike is dapper, be-tweeded … [Read more...] about Mike’s Back in Town
My Guiltiest Pleasure
The Bells of St. Mary's: a tribute to a classic that humanizes Catholicism Anyone who has survived Catholic schooling -- in my case, eight years of torture by Dominican nuns, then four years of more refined sadism at the hands of Jesuit priests -- cannot help watching Leo McCarey's "The Bells of St. Mary's" with deeply mixed emotions. One of Hollywood's most popular religious … [Read more...] about My Guiltiest Pleasure