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To Live For Ireland

Mary Pat Kelly
IA Newsletter, August 18, 2020

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Mary Pat Kelly writes about her friendship with politician and peacemaker, John Hume “Mr. Hume says Northern Ireland is too complicated to reduce to a Yes/No proposition,” Ted Smyth said to me. Fall 1976. I’m an Associate Producer at Good Morning America and Ted’s the Press Secretary for the Irish Embassy. We didn’t realize how young we were – Ted wasn’t 30; I was 31 and John … [Read more...] about To Live For Ireland

Queen of the Klondike

By Gary Blackwood

July/August 1997

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After the discovery of gold in the Klondike, 100 years ago, some 100,000 people headed north in search of a quick fortune. Only a handful of them found it, and of that handful, only one was a woman. When Belinda Mulrooney died nearly penniless in a nursing home near Seattle in 1970, few of her neighbors suspected that, seventy years earlier, she was known as the Queen of Grand … [Read more...] about Queen of the Klondike

Yankee Doodle with a Brogue:
The Irish in the American Revolution

By Thomas Fleming

May / June 1998

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In Virginia's Shenandoah Valley there is a gravestone that reads: Here lies the remains of John Lewis, who slew the Irish lord, settled in Augusta County, located the town of Staunton and furnished five sons to fight the battles of the American Revolution. Those words are an apt summary of the Irish role in the Revolution. They responded en masse to the call for resistance to … [Read more...] about Yankee Doodle with a Brogue:
The Irish in the American Revolution

Smiling Mickey Welch:

 Hall-of-Fame Pitcher • Occasional Poet • Lifelong Fan of the Game

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By Ray Cavanaugh It was surprising that Mickey Welch had such a successful pitching career: He didn't have much size (the Society for American Baseball Research describes him as “generously listed” at 5-feet-8 and 160 pounds); his fastball was nothing special; and he also had control issues (at times leading the National League in walks surrendered). However, he … [Read more...] about Smiling Mickey Welch:

 Hall-of-Fame Pitcher • Occasional Poet • Lifelong Fan of the Game

Bobby Kennedy Has Been Turned into an Impossibly Perfect Hero

By Brian Dooley

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He deserves a better judgment As Bobby Kennedy lay dying on a hotel kitchen floor, we’re told his last words were of concern for those around him who had also been shot. “Is everybody okay?” Kennedy asked. These noble, altruistic last conscious thoughts chime with how many people see him – a champion of the poor, “a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, … [Read more...] about Bobby Kennedy Has Been Turned into an Impossibly Perfect Hero