Fifteen years is a mere flicker in the continuum of time, but for us here at Irish America it is a landmark and a measure of how far we have come.
Back at the beginning when we were ready to launch Irish America in November 1985, it was just an idea and a dream. Many harbor such dreams – indeed, last year alone over 18,000 new magazine titles were launched in the United … [Read more...] about Last Word:
15 Years a Growing
2000
Last Word:
The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
On a plane to San Francisco a young couple sit across from me with two boys. The younger one is kicking up a ruckus. As I reach for my ear-plugs I hear the wife say something to her husband, a trendy fellow with glasses and an earring. "Big Ian" she calls him. Belfast, I think to myself. The accent is that of my sister-in-law Elaine. That this family is from Northern Ireland … [Read more...] about The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
The First Word: Payback Time
The Ireland I grew up in was doubtful of its own identity. The school curriculum reflected a post-colonial lack of confidence and ignored Irish poets and prose writers in favor of English scribes. While I'm grateful for the grounding I was given in Shakespeare and the like, I mourn the fact that the words of Yeats will never come trippingly off the tongue like say, the poems … [Read more...] about The First Word: Payback Time
June / July 2000
Roots: Dunne and Duffy
By James G. Ryan
April / May 2000
he names Dunne and Duffy have nothing in common except that they are derived from colors, the Dunnes from donn, the Gaelic word for brown and Duffy from dubh, the Gaelic for black. This is relatively unusual since the vast majority of Gaelic names are based on relationships i.e. "Son of," or "Follower of." The Dunne family name is derived from the Gaelic O'Duinn or O'Doinn, … [Read more...] about Roots: Dunne and Duffy