By the 1930s, an influx of Irish immigrants from Monaghan to New York had brought with them a great deal of the cultural and social traditions of their homeland. In the Monaghan County Museum, Ireland, a photographic exhibit opened on April 17, 2008, which tells the tales of many of these families and their lives in New York. The exhibit, which runs through July, represents … [Read more...] about I Heard They Went to New York
June July 2008 Issue
A Thousand Welcomes?: Asylum in Ireland
“I lost three of my four children. My son is the only thing I have left,” says a mother, her voice choking with emotion. “In Nigeria, it was all gangs, armed robbers, hired assassins. You were either in or out,” remembers a young man who escaped the violence. “There was no peace in the Congo. You never knew what would happen. You’d hear bullets – grr, grr – during the … [Read more...] about A Thousand Welcomes?: Asylum in Ireland
A Declaration of Intent
By Frank Shouldice, Contributor
June / July 2008
June / July 2008
Six flags fly at Kosovo’s Camp Viele – Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia and Ireland – but the camp commander comes from Rosses Point, Co. Sligo. Significantly, it’s the first time an Irish senior officer leads the multinational peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Lunch will be a brief affair. It’s Tuesday so the troops from Finland are in charge of the kitchen at … [Read more...] about A Declaration of Intent
Finding Home
September, 1930. Age 16, my mother, Kathleen Sloyan, the second of eight children, leaves her home in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo. She will marry, raise three children, and die in Brooklyn, New York, at age 53, without ever returning home. We have no photos of her as a child. With my first wage as a paper boy, I bought her a 78rpm record that had “Mayo” in the title. Her hug was … [Read more...] about Finding Home
The House That Hoban Built
James Hoban, Architect of the White House. In 1785, a newspaper in Philadelphia carried this advertisement: “ Any gentleman who wishes to build in an elegant style, may hear of a person properly calculated for that purpose who can execute the Joining and Carpenter’s business in the modern taste James Hoban. Hoban was an Irishman, born in Kilkenny. George Washington … [Read more...] about The House That Hoban Built