Some thoughts on being Irish-American. As a proud Irish-American, I begin with a simple assumption: there is no way to precisely define that elusive, complex human category called the Irish-American. The tools of sociology are as inadequate to the task as the forms of the Census Bureau, and the jeweler's art of the lexicographer can't come close to an answer. This should … [Read more...] about The Bearing of the Green
Tip O’Neill
Master of the House
Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1953 to 1987. His 10-year tenure as Speaker of the House was the longest consecutive run in U.S. history. Here he recalls growing up in Boston with his widower father, his relationship with President Reagan, and how the pendulum swings in American politics and will swing back.
October, 1986: Weaned on … [Read more...] about Tip O’Neill Master of the House
William Brennan
Champion of Justice
During his 34 years with the Supreme Court, Justice William Brennan, Jr. (1906 - 1998) was widely recognized as one of the primary architects of public policy in the country.
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On his childhood in Newark, N.J.: I had every kind of job in the world. Across the street from us was a dairy farm, and my brother Charlie, at five in the morning, would milk the cows, and by the … [Read more...] about William Brennan Champion of Justice
Nora, an Excerpt
Even now, here 30 years since, when I turn to the southwest in Ennis from Shannon, and head out on the peninsula that ends at Loop Head, and somewhere on that road get my first wind of turfsmoke, I remember the first time and the sense that I had then of coming home. "The name's good," the man in the customs hall had said, letting my bags pass without a look. I had a hundred … [Read more...] about Nora, an Excerpt
Irish Memories
Thomas Fleming writes of the struggles and triumphs of an Irish-American family. ℘℘℘ My County Mayo-born grandfather, David Fleming, could not read or write. He had a brogue so thick I couldn't understand a word he said. But I knew one thing. He was Irish and proud of it. He had a favorite poem that he made me memorize and recite when I was six. It was called "Why I Named … [Read more...] about Irish Memories