The Irish in Canada have won a major victory over the Canadian Government on how the national historic site at Grosse Ile should be developed. The small island in the St. Lawrence River, 48 kilometers downstream from Quebec City, once served as a quarantine station, and is the burial site of thousands of Irish immigrants who died of cholera in 1832, and of typhus, ship fever, … [Read more...] about Canada Recognizes Irish Famine Memorial
Feature
Angel of the Camps
In 1867, the two young Cashman sisters sailed from Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, to America and took the newly completed transcontinental railroad to San Francisco. With the shortage of women on the frontier, these two beautiful Irish girls were expected to be the center of masculine attention, and that marriage and family would soon follow. One of the sisters soon fell in … [Read more...] about Angel of the Camps
Patrick Ronayne Cleburne: Stonewall Jackson of he West
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: Stonewall Jackson of he West
Sons & Mothers
It's been 15 years since the Hunger Strikes in Ireland left ten men dead and changed the course of Northern Irish politics. Now a new movie gives voice to the suffering of the mothers whose sons died on hunger strike. Jim Dwyer talks to filmmaker Terry George about his latest work, Some Mother's Son. It's been 15 years since the Hunger Strikes in Ireland left ten men dead and … [Read more...] about Sons & Mothers
Dorothea Lange’s Ireland
When photographer Dorothea Lange, best known for her haunting series of images from the Depression era, chose Ireland as her subject in the 1950s, she was not very happy with the way the finished product was presented in Life magazine. She was, however, deeply pleased with the way her photographic series portrayed the people and the land of Ireland. Lange had put pressure on … [Read more...] about Dorothea Lange’s Ireland