Fire Chaplain Mychal Judge arrived just as bodies were falling like missiles from the sky. Few in those last precious moments thought the Twin Towers would actually collapse, which is why so many rescue workers were sent running up stairs to their deaths, and why the greatest danger to people on the ground involved office workers escaping the upper floors' thousand-degree heat. … [Read more...] about Father Mychal Judge
In The Line of Duty
The New York Fire Department suffered harrowing losses on September 11. Pete Hamill writes on the men, women and the history of this fine institution. We would see them on summer afternoons, big and brawny or wiry and tough, standing outside the fire-houses all over the city. Their denim shirts were often stained with sweat. They had the ease of men who did not need to brag … [Read more...] about In The Line of Duty
The Story of the Irish Diaspora Wherever Green Is Worn
The Irish Diaspora is the outworking of two forms of colonialism, those of Mother England and Mother Church. I have been interested since boyhood in what was then known not as the Diaspora, but as emigration. Like nearly every other Irish person of my generation, some of my closest relatives were forced into unwilling emigration. I have always lived near Dun Laoghaire, where … [Read more...] about The Story of the Irish Diaspora Wherever Green Is Worn
Croke Park Today
Brian Rohan visits Croke Park and finds it utterly changed, except for the heartbreak. ℘℘℘ Twenty years ago, it seemed only politicians and priests had plastic molded seats. Twenty years ago, under-12s were thrown over the turnstiles, no tickets necessary. And 20 years ago the concession stands definitely did not sell "Chicken Tikka on Pita Bread." From my seat behind the … [Read more...] about Croke Park Today
Straight to the Heart
The Grand Dame of the Big Band era is still moving hearts. The houselights in the expensive supper club on New York's East Side slowly began to dim one evening last spring and conversation, which had given the room a friendly buzz, also began to fade. Through a door at the end of the room came a smiling, heavy-set woman, blonde, dressed in a blue caftan-style gown. Slowly she … [Read more...] about Straight to the Heart