Irish America

Irish America

March April 1998 Issue

Mrs. O’Leary Exonerated

Abdon Moriarty Pallasch
March/April 1998

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The truth would have made a great story: Catherine O'Leary, successful Irish immigrant businesswoman. She had five cows in her dairy and her husband Patrick was gainfully employed as a lathe-worker. As Catherine and Patrick slept on that dry October night in 1871, someone started a fire in their barn. The blaze grew into the Great Chicago Fire, killing 300 people, leaving … [Read more...] about Mrs. O’Leary Exonerated

Flannery O’Connor’s
Irish Roots

By Joe Zenter

Originally published in March / April 1998, republished with edits in 2015

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How Flannery O’Connor’s upbringing and her Irish Catholic heritage impacted her writing. O’Connor’s great-great-grandfather, Patrick Harty, came to Georgia in 1824 from County Tipperary, settling in Taliaferro County. His Irish-born daughter Johannah, who became Flannery O’Connor’s great-grandmother, married Hugh Donnelly Treanor in 1848. Hugh had also emigrated from … [Read more...] about Flannery O’Connor’s
Irish Roots

The United Irishmen and the 1798 Rebellion

By Colin Lacey

March / April 1998

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The Society of United Irishmen, founded in Belfast on October 26, 1791 by radical political thinkers, including Theobald Wolfe Tone, Hamilton Rowan, Samuel Nellson, Henry Joy McCracken and Thomas Russell, the organization's declared objective was "equal representation of all the people in parliament" and the establishment of a political system that would include all religious … [Read more...] about The United Irishmen and the 1798 Rebellion

McCourt’s Magic Touch

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After almost 18 months on the New York Times bestseller list, Angela's Ashes is still up there in the top five, dancing around form number one down to two or three, maybe hitting on four for a spot, but then working its way back up to the first or second spot. Across the Atlantic in Ireland, the hardcover and the paperback versions are both selling like hot cakes, consistently … [Read more...] about McCourt’s Magic Touch

The Brother

By Malachy McCourt

March / April 1998

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It's the Irish thing again. You're not allowed to go careering around God's globe boasting about your own or your family's great accomplishments and doughty doings. In a dead moment in a pub or saloon, indulgence might be extended to a short bit on what the mother said, or the da did, or what the sister was a terror for, but that would be the extent of it. And, as noted all … [Read more...] about The Brother