The Ireland I grew up in was doubtful of its own identity. The school curriculum reflected a post-colonial lack of confidence and ignored Irish poets and prose writers in favor of English scribes. While I'm grateful for the grounding I was given in Shakespeare and the like, I mourn the fact that the words of Yeats will never come trippingly off the tongue like say, the poems … [Read more...] about The First Word: Payback Time
First Word
The First Word: Celebrate With Concern
"Every human being has an obligation to help those less fortunate." – George Mitchell ℘℘℘ Father Finucane has a warm and friendly face, and a welcoming Irish smile. And he's not at all the type of person to guilt you. But every time I see him, I get a stab of conscience. It isn't anything that he says; indeed he's a most … [Read more...] about The First Word: Celebrate With Concern
The First Word: In the Beginning . . .
From the time of St. Brendan, the Irish were drawn to America. Maybe it came from gazing out on the vast Atlantic Ocean and wondering what was on the other side. Brendan made his legendary trip in an ox-hide currach. Later the Irish reached "Inishfail" -- that "island of destiny" envisioned by the poets -- as migratory fishermen making their way to Newfoundland in the holds of … [Read more...] about The First Word: In the Beginning . . .
The First Word: The Heritage of Hate
"I'm Serbian," the waiter answers a little self-consciously. It's the height of the bombing -- maybe it's not such a good thing to say. He's young, no more than a kid really, with short-cropped hair. My guests for lunch are visiting from Northern Ireland -- a couple -- he born and bred in Armagh, she born in London of Irish parents. They met in San Francisco where her English … [Read more...] about The First Word: The Heritage of Hate
The First Word: The Best and The Brightest 1999
This, the last 'Top 100' for this millennium, shows that at the turn of the century the Irish in America have reached heights of success surely unimagined by those impoverished immigrants who crossed the Atlantic to seek a new life in the last century Was it even conceivable that a group of people who were told they `need not apply' would today be the ones doing the hiring? … [Read more...] about The First Word: The Best and The Brightest 1999