In rural Virginia, where poverty is a constant and medical care is a rarity, a team of nurses has provided mobile healthcare for 35 years. Today, the Health Wagon provides more than $1 million worth of medical care to more than 11,000 uninsured or underinsured patients who would otherwise have no access to the services they need. Through rolling hills, a red 1968 Volkswagen … [Read more...] about The Healing Touch
Feature
Gregory Peck: A Class Act
In June 1997, Peck, who rarely gave interviews in his last years, sat down with Irish America Editor Patricia Harty. An edited version of that interview follows. "Will you pour?" The gentleman sitting across from me cracked a smile as I nodded and lifted the teapot, wondering if I would be able to complete the task without making a fool of myself. I felt as if I was in a … [Read more...] about Gregory Peck: A Class Act
Puddle Jumping
By Frank McCourt
The English Catholic martyr, St. Edmund Campion, lived in Dublin for a while in 1569 and here is what he wrote about the Irish: "The people are thus inclined: religious, franke, amorous, irefull, sufferable of paines infinite, very glorious, many sorcerers, excellent horsemen, delighted with warres, great almes-givers, passing in hospitalitie: the lewder sort both clarkes and … [Read more...] about Puddle Jumping
The Acting President
Martin Sheen, the star of The West Wing, is a complicated, ebullient tangle of philosophy, Catholicism, politics, altruism, and homespun wisdom. It's a disconcerting sight: The leader of the free world is, uh, combing his eyelashes with a small mascara applicator... Okay, so it's the make-believe leader of the free world. And it's not such a far-fetched notion that … [Read more...] about The Acting President
Two Grandfathers
William Kennedy on his unsung origins. My grandfathers, George Kennedy and Peter McDonald, died before I was born. I came to know something of them through talks with my parents and other relatives, a few artifacts, death certificates and obituaries, and two photographs that defined them for me forever. Both photos are working-class portraits. The portrait of George … [Read more...] about Two Grandfathers