Irish America
Irish America
CONSERVATIVE ATTITUDES AND DEAD FRIENDS Edel and Pamela sit smoking in the kitchen talking freely about their friends and Pamela's two brothers who have all died of AIDS. Name after name is recited with anecdotal remarks interspersed about "his poor mother" or "didn't he used to live on St. Mary's Row." Then a young boy, as sweet as a jar of cookies and angelically polite, … [Read more...] about When Death Comes Calling
On her recent visit to the United States President Mary Robinson (49) became for Irish Americans the embodiment of a new Ireland, an Ireland in which the Irish diaspora – those 70 million worldwide who can trace their roots to the Emerald Isle – were once again welcome. Perhaps it happened as she gave her magnificent speech at Ellis Island, commemorating the first immigrant to … [Read more...] about The Vision of Mary Robinson
June 6, 1993. The faces in the crowd reflect the divides that Robert F. Kennedy managed to cross in his short life, as black and white, rich and poor, government officials and civil rights leaders stand together to pay homage and join together in a "Mass for Courage and Reconciliation," on this the 25th anniversary of his death. There are many Irish faces, of course, among the … [Read more...] about A Time for Courage and Reconciliation
I'm driving through Recess out in Connemara at the weekend. The whole lands under the peaks of The Twelve Pins cleanly washed by a summer shower, the birds singing. Again I am troubled by the whole concept of Dying for Ireland. Its a difficult one. I've always been selective in my patriotism. There are areas of this land, in short, that I would not willingly die for. Anyone … [Read more...] about To Die for Ireland
With the implementation of the Single European Market at the end of 1992 that "opened up all European frontiers to free movement and trade" no one in the border counties of Fermanagh and Leitrim registered more than a cynical shrug of their shoulders. For years the border, imposed under threat of war in 1922, had not only cut through their homes and fields but every aspect of … [Read more...] about The Roads to Nowhere
