Irish America

Irish America

Frank ShouldiceJune / July 2018

Review of Books:
A Parting Gift

Frank ShouldiceJune / July 2018

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William Trevor’s posthumous Last Stories. ℘℘℘ How strange to read a published work knowing it to be the author’s last. Such was the feeling on opening Last Stories, a collection of short stories made available two years after William Trevor’s death. The Cork-born author leaves us a treasure of quality work, fronted by an impressive canon of 14 novels – the last, Love and … [Read more...] about Review of Books:
A Parting Gift

Eunice and Eileen

By Tom Deignan, Columnist
June / July 2018

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Eunice Kennedy was an amazing woman who changed the way people with disabilities are treated and viewed. Who better to bring her story to light in a new biography than Eileen McNamara, another trailblazing Irish American. ℘℘℘ Eileen McNamara – the longtime Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe columnist who now directs the journalism program at Brandeis University – grew up … [Read more...] about Eunice and Eileen

Sláinte! Music: The Food of Love

By Edythe Preet, Columnist
June / July 2018

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With Father’s Day in mind, our columnist writes about her own dad, “a true Irish bard.” I live with a disc jockey. No, not like one you’d find in a dance club, not at all. My jock lives in my head. His repertoire is wide and deep, it ranges through all music genres, and I never know what tune he’s going to spin next. Some days his pick is my first waking thought. Other times … [Read more...] about Sláinte! Music: The Food of Love

Photo Album: Nanna’s First Fourth

Submitted by Lori Cassels
June / July 2018

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“Kate, be careful when you get to America, the streets are full of gangsters!” That is what my grandmother, we called her Nanna, heard before she boarded the ship to America in the 1920s. It was advice from her brother, Jim Connolly, who bonded her and paid for her third class (steerage) passage. As the story goes, Kate Connolly arrived in New York in the … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Nanna’s First Fourth

Book Notes:
Sebastian Barry Is Ireland’s New Fiction Laureate

By Dave Lewis, Editorial Assistant
June / July 2018

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Author Sebastian Barry, known for his representation of varying perspectives during Ireland’s revolutionary period in The Steward of Christendom and A Long Long Way, was announced as Ireland’s new Laureate for Irish Fiction by President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins in February. He will hold a term of three years, through 2021, and succeeds writer Anne Enright (The Portable … [Read more...] about Book Notes:
Sebastian Barry Is Ireland’s New Fiction Laureate