Colin Lacey interviews Bernard MacLaverty (photo right) the Belfast writer who penned Cal and Lamb and who has just published a book of short stories. "Some journalists in the North of Ireland are fond of asking me what I'll write about after the Troubles are over. But although peace is absolutely necessary -- and I wish them all success -- pain and suffering and human … [Read more...] about MacLaverty Returns
Feature
Derry: The Town I Love So Well
Mary Pat Kelly talks to Phil Coulter, one of Derry's most famous sons. Often during the years of the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland, when the"end of the day" brought political conversation, someone would sing PhilCoulter's "The Town I Loved So Well." And if the singer was from Derry they knew, too, "the gas yard wall" where soldiers had replaced school boys playing ball. … [Read more...] about Derry: The Town I Love So Well
The Brontës of Drumballyroney
The legacy of Patrick, Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell Brontë, perhaps the most extraordinary family in the history of English literature, lives on in a quiet corner of County Down in Northern Ireland, where Carol Brontë has become curator of the Brontë Homeland Interpretive Centre at the former Drumballyroney Church and School House in Drumballyroney. Carol's husband is … [Read more...] about The Brontës of Drumballyroney
McGuinness v. Maginnis
He has been named the second most powerful man in Britain after Rupert Murdoch by Esquire magazine. He has been named Britain's number one terrorist. And a U.S. report identified him as a leader of the Provisional IRA. It doesn't bother him at all. Martin McGuinness, urbane, charismatic, self-assured, has the unadorned adulation of most of the Republican community in the … [Read more...] about McGuinness v. Maginnis
American Relief Efforts and the Irish Famine
Most Irish and Irish-Americans are aware of the private generosity of Americans during the Famine years in Ireland. The role of the American government is another story. "Indeed, no imagination can conceive, no tongue express, no brush paint the horror of the scenes which are daily exhibited in Ireland," observed senator Henry Clay in 1847. Calling upon the support of his … [Read more...] about American Relief Efforts and the Irish Famine




