In the vast collection of traditional Irish music, there exists a tune called the Ballinasloe Fair which celebrates what was in its heyday one of the most famous horse fairs in Western Europe and which is still regarded as the biggest and most popular fair in modern Ireland. The week-long fair opens on October 3 each year and follows an old recognized pattern of Irish country … [Read more...] about The Fair of Ballinasloe
Archive
Investing in Ireland: The Pros & Cons of a Single Europe
"The United States of America is very much alive to the threat from the European Community" declares Jim Dewhurst in his book Your Business 1992. The EC is the largest trading partner for the U.S., taking around 25 percent of total U.S. exports and providing just under 20 percent of U.S. imports. Politicians in all 12 member states have been busy extolling the merits of … [Read more...] about Investing in Ireland: The Pros & Cons of a Single Europe
A Mother’s Heartbreak
Danny Treanor looks and acts like all the other Treanors now. But once he was the best boy soprano in Ireland. You would not think it to look at him now. But once an angel lived in his throat, for such a short time, the lifespan of a lark maybe, and then the angel went away and the following evening Danny's mother went away too, in the winter darkness, taking the brown leather … [Read more...] about A Mother’s Heartbreak
The Geese Who Flew South
Though it is often overlooked, Louisiana played an early and important role in the story of the Irish in America. Michael P. Cahill reviews the Irish ~ as well as the Anglo-Irish, Scotch-Irish, Franco-Irish and Spanish-Irish ~ influences in the Mississippi Delta. It is no secret that the Irish have played a major part in the history of the United States. It is, however, often … [Read more...] about The Geese Who Flew South
Happy Birthday John F. Kennedy
The Day I Saw JFK One of my earliest and most vivid memories is of the summer day in 1963 when I saw the President. He was arriving at Idlewild Aiprort, which would shortly be renamed in memory of himself, and his route into Manhattan would take him within a short distance from the house where I grew up. My father walked with me and five of my brothers the two blocks from … [Read more...] about Happy Birthday John F. Kennedy





