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
Feature
Anjelica Huston’s Irish Homecoming
When I wrote the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award tribute to John Huston in 1983, I had the delightful opportunity to work with his daughter Anjelica. With warmth and enthusiasm, she hosted a segment of our CBS-TV special featuring testimonials by her father's colleagues. Then thirty-one years old, Anjelica seemed like a young gazelle, an exotically beautiful … [Read more...] about Anjelica Huston’s Irish Homecoming
Irish Americans Rock the Millenium
Irish America capped the century with a special Millenium Ball in honor of the magazine's Irish Americans of the Century. Joy mingled with a touch of nostalgia at our recent Millennium Ball, during which video clips of the late President John F. Kennedy and other deceased members of the Greatest Irish Americans of the Century were cheered alongside speeches by contemporary … [Read more...] about Irish Americans Rock the Millenium
Angela’s Ashes Loses Its Voice
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
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