Kate Rusby Underneath the Stars Underneath the Stars is Kate Rusby's first studio album in three years, and even if it had taken her ten, it would have been worth the wait. From the opening song, "The Goodman," Rusby will have you under the spell of her beautiful and powerful voice. It's rare to hear anyone sing as well as this, with effortless range, a charming lilt and … [Read more...] about Kate Rusby and Josh Kelley Out Now
February March 2004 Issue
The Night of the Big Portion
In Ireland, the last night of the year was called Oiche na Cada Moire, The Night of the Big Portion. It was common practice to have a big supper that night to ensure a full cupboard and plenty to eat in the twelve months to come. Of course, the custom dated back to a time when crop success meant the difference between feast and famine. Spells and incantations were invoked to … [Read more...] about The Night of the Big Portion
In Canada,
the Irish Disappeared
I took a pilgrim's trip in September to the Irish mass graves at Grosse Íle, the quarantine station in the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City. I stood by a sunken green field where 5,424 were buried in 1847 in wooden coffins, three deep. Nearby, a small rust-colored metal sculpture garden symbolized the passage from the Ireland of shamrocks to the black shale of death. I … [Read more...] about In Canada,
the Irish Disappeared
The Irish Shawl
This is a photograph taken of my mother, Elizabeth Schultz Daily, at the age of 16 wearing the shawl that her great-grandmother Jane McDonald McCarthy brought over from Ireland when she and my great-great-grandfather John immigrated to America. Jane was born in Dublin in 1814 and John in Blackwater, County Wexford, in 1807. My mother Elizabeth married Elmer Daily in Boswell, … [Read more...] about The Irish Shawl
Immigrant Ghosts
on the Street of Ships
There's a row of lead laundry sinks on the third floor of an old building on the Lower Manhattan waterfront where Irish women worked in the 19th century. And beyond the laundry drying racks, Gaelic graffiti appear in ghostly but bold script on the old brick walls. "Erin Go Bragh" is writ large. So is "Faugh a ballagh" (clear the way), a famous battle cry, perhaps recorded by a … [Read more...] about Immigrant Ghosts
on the Street of Ships