A year before the American Revolution, Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote a letter to the bishop of Killaloe in which he remarked, "The Irish are a fair people; They never speak well of one another." This clever characterization -- or caricature, if you like -- may rub you the wrong way, but you will recognize in it a small germ of truth, namely, the social habit the Irish themselves … [Read more...] about The Irish Character
June July 2004 Issue
Talking Tremane
Five phrases are all you'll need to get along in this part of Ireland. If you learn to use them fluently you can hold your own in almost any conversation. Not only will they help to keep the patter flowing, they'll also lend you an aura of wisdom that the natives will respect. Repeat after me: Nothing strange in the world. I'm easy. Ah, what harm? There's no panic on … [Read more...] about Talking Tremane
The Rebirth of Moya Brennan
If you don't immediately recognize the name Moya Brennan, it's only because she recently changed the spelling of her name. As the lead singer of Clannad, and now a successful solo artist in her own right, Brennan had been known as Maire Brennan for years. She explains, "I was not winning in trying to get people to say my name right, and it was harder for people to find me in … [Read more...] about The Rebirth of Moya Brennan
Meet Eve Bunting
It was only natural that the young Eve Bolton would grow up to be a writer, and a very prolific one who would produce more than 200 books for children. From her earliest years in Maghera, a small town in County Derry, books and stories filled her life. Both of her parents were great readers. Eve remembers sitting in her father's lap and being read to. "It was always poetry. He … [Read more...] about Meet Eve Bunting
Review of Books
RECOMMENDED Early in his new memoir Pull Me Up, New York Times columnist Dan Barry writes: "Noreen Barry, née Minogue, originally of Shanaglish parish, County Galway, and lately and sporadically of Sts. Cyril and Methodius parish, Deer Park, Long Island, died on a rainy morning in February; she was all of sixty-one. And that should have been that: another Irish mother dies and … [Read more...] about Review of Books