Nearly thirty-eight years ago an exuberant friend named Eddie burst into the office where I was working as assistant to a Hollywood producer commanding, “Come with me right now. I want to introduce you to someone.” Fortunately, I was alone and it was almost five o’clock. As I closed up shop, Eddie paced agitatedly about the room singing the praises of Bill, the stranger he had … [Read more...] about Slainte: The Irish Wake
April May 2007 Issue
A Day to Make St. Patrick Proud
Maeve Binchey, the renowned Irish author, explains how St. Patrick’s Day has changed in Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day used to be the dullest day in the Irish calendar until we got sense and learned to follow our transatlantic brethren and make it into a carnival. When I was young in the 1950s, March 17 was a bit like Tombstone City. For one thing it was in the middle of Lent and … [Read more...] about A Day to Make St. Patrick Proud
Photo Album
In the above photograph, taken in Lockport, New York in 1914, my grandmother Mary Fitzsimons Dowd (front, right) is pictured with four of her children and one grandchild. Mary Fitzsimmons was born in County Roscommon in the town of Elphin, near the River Shannon, in 1848. She and husband John O’Dowd emigrated from Ireland in 1871. They dropped the ‘O’ from O’Dowd when they … [Read more...] about Photo Album