Irish America
Irish America
America, or to be more precise the United States, needs logo imagery for its memories to be flashed on the screen of the mind. The name Nixon prompts a flash to an awkward man doing the victory sign; Kennedy...grace, charm and the quip; La Guardia...pudgy little man reading the "funnies" on radio. Tammany? Oh yeah, a bunch of cigar-chomping, beerswilling Micks on the take, … [Read more...] about Plunkitt of Tammany Hall
One of the most recognizable football coaches in America became an anonymous tourist last summer when he took a golf vacation in the land of his ancestors. But things might be different the next time Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan returns to Ireland. When his team won its second-straight Super Bowl on January 31, the coach's face was seen by an estimated 800 million … [Read more...] about Super Bowl Shanahan
You could be forgiven for thinking they had never left. But it was not the world-famous, stately edifice that stands on Fifth Avenue between East 50th and 51 st Streets that was the center of attention. No, it was the far more humble Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, located far downtown at the very unfashionable intersection of Mulberry and Prince Sts., right where what is left of … [Read more...] about Time Stands Still at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral
From Bull Run to Appomattox, the 6th Louisiana's Irish Confederates fought proudly On April 28, 1861, two weeks after Confederate guns had fired the first shots of the Civil War against Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, a notice appeared in the columns of The Daily Picayune, one of New Orleans' leading papers. It was a call to arms aimed at the thousands of Irish immigrants … [Read more...] about Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers
The Queenstown Story Their names were Peter, Jack, Nora, Maggie, Minnie and Kate, and one by one, the Sullivan children left Bounard, County Kerry, for Boston. They eventually made their way to Newburyport, where my grandmother, Minnie, married a Cork lad named James Barry. In my eyes, the most fascinating souvenir of the journey was my grandmother's trunk, mostly black, but … [Read more...] about Footsteps of the Past
