Virtuoso New York fiddler Eileen Ivers is thrilling audiences everywhere with her wild Celtic rhythms in Riverdance, the sensational Irish dance revue which is taking the world by storm. ONE of the most electric moments in Riverdance occurs when the slight figure of virtuoso fiddler Eileen Ivers bounds into the spotlight and effortlessly teases up the tempo until the entire … [Read more...] about Bringing It All Back Home
May June 1996 Issue
Sons & Mothers
It's been 15 years since the Hunger Strikes in Ireland left ten men dead and changed the course of Northern Irish politics. Now a new movie gives voice to the suffering of the mothers whose sons died on hunger strike. Jim Dwyer talks to filmmaker Terry George about his latest work, Some Mother's Son. It's been 15 years since the Hunger Strikes in Ireland left ten men dead … [Read more...] about Sons & Mothers
Roots: The O’Sullivans Past & Present
The O'Sullivan Clan of Munster has produced fine military leaders, sporting heroes, politicians, movie stars, songwriters, and even a space walker, as the following history of one of the most popular Irish names illustrates. The O'Sullivans or Sullivans are one of the most populous of the Munster families. In Irish O'Sullivan is O'Súileabháin. And there is no doubt that … [Read more...] about Roots: The O’Sullivans Past & Present
Renewing the Spirit
The sound of bagpipes in the distance drifts in through the open window of the yellow cab as I head down Broadway to New York University. It's the first real spring day after a long winter and the bagpipes seem to herald the return of warmer weather, and the renewal of the spirit that spring brings. How does one express the effect that that ancient sound has when it reaches … [Read more...] about Renewing the Spirit
Seamus Heaney
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
Lightenings viii
The animlas say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise
Were all at prayers inside the oratory
a ship appeared above them in the air.
The anchor dragged along behind so deep
It hooked itself into the altar rails
An then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill.
A crewman shinned and grappled down a rope
And struggled to release it. But in vain.
'This man can't bear … [Read more...] about Seamus Heaney
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature