Recently-published books of Irish-American interest. NON-FICTION Poets and the Peacock Dinner By Lucy McDiarmid Virginia Woolf wrote, “one cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well,” a message that permeates Lucy McDiarmid’s sumptuous new book Poets and the Peacock Dinner. McDiarmid, a professor of English at Montclair State University in New … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Sláinte! Flower Power
The long days of summer are upon us, and gardens everywhere are in bloom. Admiring the pretty flowers will satisfy some, but Sláinte columnist, Edythe Preet, likes to eat her plants. Freshly picked salads from one’s own garden, even if only from a few container plantings, are one of the great gourmet pleasures. And nothing pretties a bowl of mixed greens like a confetti of … [Read more...] about Sláinte! Flower Power
Those We Lost
Cardinal Edward M. Egan 1932 – 2015 Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the former archbishop of New York, died in March of cardiac arrest at the age of 82. He led the Archdiocese of New York from 2000 to 2009, years marked by sexual abuse scandals and economic distress. Born in a Chicago suburb in 1932, he showed an early vocation for the priesthood and, despite his battle with polio, … [Read more...] about Those We Lost
Last Word:
Great Hunger in the North
A Window on the Past: Historian Christine Kinealy debunks the myth that Ulster was untouched by the Great Hunger.
The myth of Ulster exceptionalism and affluence has roots in the Great Hunger itself. As early as 1849, Protestant loyalists were laying the foundation for a binary, two-nation view of the Famine. Objecting to a new tax that was to be levied on all parts of … [Read more...] about Last Word:
Great Hunger in the North
Photo Album:
The Road to the Bright City
My grandfather John Bernard “Barney” Hynes and his brother Thomas J. Hynes emigrated from Loughrea, Galway, Ireland to Boston, Massachusetts in 1875. They were in their early teens.
Barney got a job with the Elevated Railroad Company, where he worked for 40 years and moonlighted at night singing, mostly at Irish wakes.
Tom went to Harvard where he spent countless hours on the … [Read more...] about Photo Album:
The Road to the Bright City