Irish America
Irish America
"The Commitments" is a story of the formation and journey of northside Dublin soul band. It is contemporary urban Ireland as you have never seen it before – raw, energetic, joyous, earthy and poverty stricken. Here, Patrick Farrelly, himself a northsider, sings its praises. The scene is Spike Lee out of Frederico Fellini. The manager of "The Commitments," Jimmy Rabbitte is … [Read more...] about Bringing Soul to Dublin
The Connolly family are an ancient sept of Ireland's western province of Connacht. The Gaelic form of the name is O'Conghaile. The original sept dispersed and in time three separate families developed based in Cork, Meath and Monaghan. However, the name is mainly found in Monaghan and in its native Connaught where it is sometimes spelled Connelly. There is also an unrelated … [Read more...] about Roots: The Connolly Family
A Celtic Calendar The Celtic year runs from November 1, to October 31 and the American branch of the Celtic League produces a wonderful historical and mythological calendar which pinpoints Celtic holidays such as the Celtic New Year (Samhain – November 1) and significant dates in history. The following is a sampling of some of the important dates in Mean Fhomhair … [Read more...] about Hibernia
Listen to this. It's true. Only the surname has been changed. It has been changed to McGonagle. In all his life, and I have observed public flashes of most of it, the most decent carpenter in the province of Connacht. It may be that he is a boring man, a paragon of all the negative virtues, but decent he has always been. Until last month he could honestly look his Lord straight … [Read more...] about The Other Side | He Never Touched a Drop
Green Cards for Northern Irish In a landmark decision, the U.S. Senate passed a bill on August 1, which said that citizens from the six counties of Northern Ireland will be eligible to apply for the 48,000 visas set aside for people from the Republic of Ireland in the new Morrison visa program. The bill is a huge break for those from the North, many of whom had felt … [Read more...] about Blazes Boylan
