Jack Donohue, the high school coach of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and for years the face of Canadian basketball, died in late April. He was 70. A New Yorker, Donohue moved to Canada in the 1970s and served as head coach of the Canadian men's basketball team for 17 years, leading the team to the Olympics four times. Donohue coached Abdul-Jabbar, then Lew Alcindor, at Power Memorial … [Read more...] about Passings
110th Birthday
The oldest living Irish person just turned 110. "Maybe I've been around a little too long now." said Catherine Furey, who lives at St. James Plaza nursing home in Long Island, New York. Born in Co. Roscommon on April 7, 1893 Catherine left Ireland for New York in 1913. She met her husband Simon Furey in 1923 and the couple had two children, Joan, now aged 74, and Paul, 69. Her … [Read more...] about 110th Birthday
Graduated at 94
John Kelly, 94, a retired postal worker, finally graduated from college 26 years after first enrolling in classes. Kelly, a widower, who earned his bachelor's degree from the StateUniversity of New York at Brockport, joked, "I started a long time ago, about the dawn of history. I took it one course at a time. I wasn't thinking at all about getting a degree, until the degree … [Read more...] about Graduated at 94
Something Sexy Is in
the Ringaskiddy Air
Madonna is developing a movie about an Irish town where locals become sex-crazed after smelling fumes from a Pfizer factory producing Viagra. The script, tentatively titled "Something in the Air," is based on Ringaskiddy, County Cork, where Pfizer created the blue anti-impotence pill, and is written by David McGrath and John O'Driscoll, both of whom live in London.
The actors … [Read more...] about Something Sexy Is in
the Ringaskiddy Air
Short Film from
Ireland Places First
Irish writer/producer Steven Benedict shared first place at the Beverly Hills Film Festival for his short film The Last. The movie stars David Kelly, famous for his role in Waking Ned Divine, as a shoemaker facing eviction as he finishes his last pair of shoes. Shot in Wicklow, the film also won Best Irish Short Film at the 15th Foyle International Film Festival in Northern … [Read more...] about Short Film from
Ireland Places First