Rabble-Rousers with a Social Conscience "Free Joe Now," the song by Black 47, the Irish American group spearheaded by Larry Kirwan and Chris Byrne in 1990, became the anthem for those seeking political asylum for Joe Doherty, the Belfastman fighting extradition to the UK. These were early days for Black 47, the gigs were mainly fundraisers for one Irish cause or another — … [Read more...] about Black ’47
Archive
Blazes Boylan
Compiled by Emer Mullins
September October 1993
In the last issue we reported on the 26-year-old Irish American woman from Long Island, Annie McCarrick, who had mysteriously disappeared from her Dublin home on March 26. Although her parents, John and Nancy, spent weeks in Ireland looking for clues, they were unable to find any trace of their daughter despite an enormous countrywide manhunt. Subsequent reports indicate that … [Read more...] about Blazes Boylan
Sláinte! Samhain: The Celtic New Year
By Edythe Preet
September October 1993
Halloween is a night of magic, mystery and merry making. Ghosts haunt the imagination and trick-or-treaters go begging from door to door. Though the evening's colors are black and orange, they could as easily be forty shades of green because the customs of All Hallows Eve are Irish as the shamrock. The ancient Celtic year was divided by the four seasons. Samhain (November I) … [Read more...] about Sláinte! Samhain: The Celtic New Year
A Mission Remembered
By Maureen Murphy
September October 1993
A sentimental nineteenth century novel of virtue rewarded tells the story of an Irish immigrant girl who came to New York in the 1870's. Subtitled "A Tale Founded on Fact," Annie Reilly or the Fortunes of an Irish Girl in New York describes Annie's arrival at Castle Garden: immigrants confused and exhausted, luggage broken or lost, possessions scattered, indifferent officials, … [Read more...] about A Mission Remembered
The Gift of Life
By Emer Mullins
September October 1993
Jeanne Marie Flanagan was pottering around her beautiful home in Walden, New York, just before Thanksgiving in 1989 when she started to cry. "I thought at the time it was my hormones because I was pregnant, but in my spirit I guess I knew something terrible had happened," she remembered. She was right. Her seven-year-old son, Mark, was in the East Coldenham Elementary School … [Read more...] about The Gift of Life