Irish America

Irish America

By Darina MolloyDecember / January 2008

The Unbearable Lightness of Kevin Bruen

By Darina Molloy
December / January 2008

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It’s no exaggeration to say that Ken Bruen could have stepped from the pages of one of his own novels. In fact if he didn’t already exist, he would have had to make himself up. Not that Bruen, a long-established crime writer, needs any help with the plots of his darkly gripping novels. But his life story is a page-turner in its own right. “You couldn’t make it up,” he notes … [Read more...] about The Unbearable Lightness of Kevin Bruen

Roots: The Proud History of the Reidy Clan

By Maeve Molly, Contributor
December / January 2008

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The Reidy family surname  (also Reedy, Riedy, Reid, and O’Reidy) is an Anglicized version of the Gaelic name Ó Riada. The family was part of the Dalcassian sept and in early Gaelic times lived in the southwest of Ireland, in the Munster counties of Clare and Kerry. The Ó Riadas can claim lineage to the legendary King Oiloill Olum, who was Monarch of Munster in the third … [Read more...] about Roots: The Proud History of the Reidy Clan

Photo Album: The Legacy of Grandma Bell

December / January 2008

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In this photograph taken in 1925, my mother Kathleen (far left) and her ten siblings pose with their parents, Sam and Ellen Bell, as they leave their home in Crossgar, County Down, Northern Ireland.  The family immigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago where, after only four years, my grandfather died, leaving Grandma Bell to raise a family of eleven children. In … [Read more...] about Photo Album: The Legacy of Grandma Bell

Sive and the Ghosts of Ireland’s Past

By Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief
December / January 2008

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It was Frank McCourt who first brought Sive to New York. A friend at the Irish Players, a 1950s New York theater group, now defunct, that showcased Irish classics, requested that he carry her over. And so the playwright John B. Keane traveled up to Limerick from Listowel to hand Sive over to Frank, who dutifully carried her across the water. The National players decided not … [Read more...] about Sive and the Ghosts of Ireland’s Past

The American Optimist

By Niall O’Dowd
Heritage Series 2008

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First we must move past the many pretenders who have rushed in to claim how much they did for the peace process in Northern Ireland. Then you will find that Bill Flynn and a precious few others stand alone as dedicated Irish Americans in that effort. For Flynn it meant he put his reputation on the line in order to help the country of his parents achieve the impossible. It was … [Read more...] about The American Optimist