British Columbia’s oldest working farm, founded by Irishman Henry Ruckle in 1872, has turned into something of a fairy land.
Between a visionary immigrant farmer and an unknown planter of “fairy doors,” Salt Spring Island has liberal lashings of Irish magic, and that’s not counting a coastline that would put you in mind of Ireland’s rugged west.
Henry Ruckle, who left Ireland … [Read more...] about Salt Spring Island:
The Land of Fairies
Salt Spring Island:
John Ford: A True Film Pioneer
Film director Martin Scorsese was honored with the John Ford Award at the annual Irish Film and Television Awards presentation in Dublin on February 25, 2017. Scorsese was a huge fan of Ford as he explains in the following excerpt from a lecture given to the American Irish Historical Society. John Ford was a true film pioneer. He began directing in his mid-teens. … [Read more...] about John Ford: A True Film Pioneer
What Are You Like?
Sebastian Barry
Novelist Sebastian Barry takes our questionnaire.
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Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955 and has become one of Ireland’s most celebrated authors, writing plays as well as novels that chart the course of Irish and Irish American history through a single, extended family.
Barry’s latest novel, Days Without End, has already earned worldwide praise and in January won the … [Read more...] about What Are You Like?
Sebastian Barry
Review of Books
Recently published books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ Ireland’s Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth By Mark Williams In the midst of the Celtic Revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, W.B. Yeats implored his Irish literary compatriots to “go where Homer went.” It was an audacious urging, to formalize a relationship between Ireland’s … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Sláinte! The Irish and their Horses
Irish horses are much more than the stuff of legend It is spring. The foals are being born. In their gawky, long-legged honor, I give you the saga of the Irish and their horses. It is a history that stretches across centuries. It is a tale of friendships and working partners. It is a romance born of the land, nurtured by necessity, and fastened by ancient bonds. It is one of … [Read more...] about Sláinte! The Irish and their Horses