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The Friar and The Saint:
How St. Valentine Came to Dublin

By David Murphy
IA Newsletter, February 8, 2025

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A Carmelite priest was gifted the relics of Saint Valentine, now enshrined in Our Lady of Mount St.Carmel, Whitefriar Street Church, Dublin. He will be forever linked with St. Valentine, but John Francis Spratt would be remembered as a beloved philanthropist, famous for his work among the poor and destitute in the Liberties of Dublin. He was one of the first to join Fr. … [Read more...] about

The Friar and The Saint:
How St. Valentine Came to Dublin

Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic

By Sarah Buscher
June / July 2000

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She says she's jetlagged, that her head feels as if an arrow is piercing both temples, but Fiona Shaw is the picture of vitality. She strides into the lobby of the Lombardy Hotel in New York City, her long brown coat swinging behind her. The hair that often appears close cropped in publicity photos is a little longer now, sweeping back from her face in soft brown waves. She's … [Read more...] about Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic

Angela’s Ashes Loses Its Voice

By Joseph McBride, Contributor
February / March 2000

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Anyone who has read Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes -- and by now that probably takes in about half the planet -- knows that what makes McCourt's memoir of an impoverished Irish childhood so magical is the unique "voice" the author uses to tell the story. McCourt struggled for many years until he "started writing in the voice of a child, immediate, urgent and without hindsight … [Read more...] about Angela’s Ashes Loses Its Voice

The Boy from Southie

By Lauren Byrne
February / March 2000

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Michael Patrick MacDonald was in the third grade when the anti-busing riots broke out in South Boston in 1974. In his first book, All Souls, he harks back to that chaotic time. He talks to Lauren Byrne about growing up poor in Southie, that most Irish of enclaves. There's a certain grim thrill in meeting a writer around whom reports are swirling that he is having to lie low … [Read more...] about The Boy from Southie