With a film version of Colm Tóibín’s 2009 novel Brooklyn, coming to American theaters later this year, Tom Deignan looks at the borough that was home to so many mid-century Irish immigrants. Back in January, a new generation of Brooklyn high school students were exposed to the beautiful prose of one of Irish America’s most gifted writers, Pete Hamill. “Bridge of Dreams,” an … [Read more...] about Forty Shades of Brooklyn
What Are You Like? Anne Thompson
As a television correspondent, Anne Thompson has covered events as far ranging as Tonya Harding in Portland, Oregon to Ground Zero on 9/11. It’s a job some might find enviable, even glamorous for its range, travel, and publicity. “I was in Rome for 38 straight days covering the resignation of Pope Benedict and election of Pope Francis,” she said in an interview with Bill … [Read more...] about What Are You Like? Anne Thompson
Made in (18th Century) Ireland
The new exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690 – 1840, is a legacy tribute to the last Knight of Glin. Popularly known as the “long 18th century,” beginning with the ascendancy of William and Mary over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1689 and culminating at the brink of Ireland’s Great Hunger in the … [Read more...] about Made in (18th Century) Ireland
Cherishing Joanie
As the Cherish the Ladies 30th Anniversary Tour begins, Kristin Cotter McGowan talks to founding member, the award-winning whistle and flute player Joanie Madden. Irish music was the soundtrack to life for Joanie Madden and other Irish American kids growing up in Woodlawn, a heavily Irish section of the Bronx, NY, back in the 1970s. “I was lucky – even if you didn’t want to … [Read more...] about Cherishing Joanie
Of Irish Blood
(Excerpt)
The early 20th century finds Nora Kelly fleeing her native Chicago from a love affair gone wrong. Landing in Paris, she meets up with Irish revolutionaries – Peter, the librarian at the College des Irlandais who instructs her in ancient Irish history, and Fr. Kevin who introduces her to Maud Gonne. Meanwhile, through her job sketching designs for dressmaker Madame Simone, she … [Read more...] about Of Irish Blood
(Excerpt)