A gravestone honoring Irish Patriot Thomas Meagher, a Fighting 69th Brigade commander and former acting governor of Montana Territory, was unveiled at the Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York on April 19, 2008. The Green-Wood Historic Fund erected the gravestone to Meagher, whose body was never found after he went missing on the Missouri River in 1867, and placed it next … [Read more...] about Meagher of the Sword Honored in Brooklyn
I Heard They Went to New York
By the 1930s, an influx of Irish immigrants from Monaghan to New York had brought with them a great deal of the cultural and social traditions of their homeland. In the Monaghan County Museum, Ireland, a photographic exhibit opened on April 17, 2008, which tells the tales of many of these families and their lives in New York. The exhibit, which runs through July, represents … [Read more...] about I Heard They Went to New York
A Thousand Welcomes?: Asylum in Ireland
“I lost three of my four children. My son is the only thing I have left,” says a mother, her voice choking with emotion. “In Nigeria, it was all gangs, armed robbers, hired assassins. You were either in or out,” remembers a young man who escaped the violence. “There was no peace in the Congo. You never knew what would happen. You’d hear bullets – grr, grr – during the … [Read more...] about A Thousand Welcomes?: Asylum in Ireland
A Declaration of Intent
By Frank Shouldice, Contributor
June / July 2008
June / July 2008
Six flags fly at Kosovo’s Camp Viele – Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia and Ireland – but the camp commander comes from Rosses Point, Co. Sligo. Significantly, it’s the first time an Irish senior officer leads the multinational peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Lunch will be a brief affair. It’s Tuesday so the troops from Finland are in charge of the kitchen at … [Read more...] about A Declaration of Intent
Finding Home
September, 1930. Age 16, my mother, Kathleen Sloyan, the second of eight children, leaves her home in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo. She will marry, raise three children, and die in Brooklyn, New York, at age 53, without ever returning home. We have no photos of her as a child. With my first wage as a paper boy, I bought her a 78rpm record that had “Mayo” in the title. Her hug was … [Read more...] about Finding Home