Irish America
Irish America
A novel by Edna O'Brien One warm summer evening last year, I picked up a first edition of The Country Girl from the bookshelf in a house where I was staying and I did not leave my place by the window until I had read it from start to finish. To read the story of Kate and Baba after 30 years was like drinking clear spring water from the wells that abound in Miss O'Brien's … [Read more...] about Time and Tide
History has largely forgotten Patrick Ronayne Cleburne. Perhaps this is not surprising. Like many Irishmen throughout history, he fought on the losing side of a foreign war and, as we know, history is written by the victors. However, since Americans are presently given to Civil War retrospectives, it is fitting that we remember one of the Confederacy's greatest military … [Read more...] about Patrick Ronayne Cleburne: The Stonewall Jackson of the West
The Reynolds At Home: A behind the scenes look at the private lives of the Taoiseach and his family. The stained pine garden shed under a mature tree on the lawn is actually a security hut, but the officer on duty seems to notice you almost as little as you do him until you get right up on the terrace outside the unlocked back door. Then he puts down his cup of tea … [Read more...] about Albert and Kathleen
Rape, Ireland's New Legacy The closing half of the twentieth century has been an awkward time for Ireland. A nation still only 70 years old, it has had more than its share of growing pains as it stumbles into maturity. Eamon de Valera's age of innocence in the 1930's, 40's and 50's has erupted in recent years, as a country formerly under the firm hand of the Catholic Church … [Read more...] about Blazes Boylan
The Irishman That Designed the White House If Irish visitors strolling along Washington, D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue sometimes imagine that there is a familiar look about the White House, small wonder. It was modeled on Leinster House in Dublin by the Irish-born architect, James Hoban. When it was decided that a special official residence for the President of the United States … [Read more...] about Hibernia
