Senators Edward Kennedy and Christopher Dodd added their voices to the growing Irish-American demand that Britain implement the recommendations in the Patten Report on Policing in Northern Ireland. Both senators signed a letter to President Clinton asking him to press the issue in a July meeting with Tony Blair.
Senator Kennedy also drafted a Senate resolution calling on the … [Read more...] about Hibernia: Kennedy
and Dodd Push Patten
2000
Hibernia: Kennedy
Gerry Adams
The Road to Peace
In 1991, Irish America magazine published one of the first interviews with Gerry Adams. (As far as we can tell, Playboy magazine was the only other American magazine to interview Adams before that. (In the Republic of Ireland, N. Ireland and the UK, broadcasting bans were in place that prevented media outlets from airing interviews with Sinn Féin members). In March, of that … [Read more...] about Gerry Adams The Road to Peace
Two Grandfathers
William Kennedy on his unsung origins. My grandfathers, George Kennedy and Peter McDonald, died before I was born. I came to know something of them through talks with my parents and other relatives, a few artifacts, death certificates and obituaries, and two photographs that defined them for me forever. Both photos are working-class portraits. The portrait of George … [Read more...] about Two Grandfathers
Puddle Jumping
The English Catholic martyr, St. Edmund Campion, lived in Dublin for a while in 1569 and here is what he wrote about the Irish: "The people are thus inclined: religious, franke, amorous, irefull, sufferable of paines infinite, very glorious, many sorcerers, excellent horsemen, delighted with warres, great almes-givers, passing in hospitalitie: the lewder sort both clarkes and … [Read more...] about Puddle Jumping
The Blue Ribbon
When I was 13 years old, my mother took my siblings and me to Rockaway Beach in New York City for the day. After we romped in the ocean and were sufficiently sunburned, we ended up at a rather run-down Irish tavern that was hosting a singing contest. Since I can carry a tune, my mother made me enter. All the entrants, adults and kids alike, sang well-known Irish songs. I … [Read more...] about The Blue Ribbon