John Joseph Moakley Irish America lost a skilled and big-hearted leader with the death on May 28 of Massachusetts Congressman John Joseph Moakley, the South Boston Representative raised in a housing project who became one of the most influential leaders in Congress during his 15 terms there from 1973 to 2001. In January of this year he was diagnosed with incurable … [Read more...] about Passings
Film Forum: Land of the Second Chance
Once the most popular form of American filmmaking, the Western has not fully recovered from the commercial and critical debacle of Michael Cimino's 1980 epic Heaven's Gate. Although a far better film than conventional wisdom would indicate, Heaven's Gate provoked widespread derision because Cimino dared to use the disreputable Western form for a serious purpose, to question the … [Read more...] about Film Forum: Land of the Second Chance
Northern Roots Southern Branches
By James W. Flannery, Contributor
Photos Courtesy of U.S. Library of Congress
August / September 2001
Photos Courtesy of U.S. Library of Congress
August / September 2001
Will a re-examining of the Ulster Scots advance the idea of a "pluralist society" or lead to further separation? Southerners like to say they are not like other Americans, and often base that claim on their characteristic ways of talking, storytelling, preaching, dancing and, above all, playing country music. But few of them realize that those very qualities can be … [Read more...] about Northern Roots Southern Branches
Photo Album: Gracie’s Crossing
Grace Boner was born December 10, 1904 in Altmore near Burtonport in the Rosses, County Donegal, Ireland. She married John Conaghan from nearby Crickamore. John went to America looking for work, leaving Gracie with two children, John and Celia, and a child on the way. Gracie, left to raise her family in a small one-room freestone house, thought she would never see her … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Gracie’s Crossing
July 10, 2001
A first edition draft of a chapter from James Joyce's "Ulysses" is sold for close to £900,000 at an auction on this date in 2001. The scribble-filled manuscript of the chapter, titled Eumaeus, was sold by Sotheby's. It was expected to sell for more than £1m. … [Read more...] about July 10, 2001