Irish America

August September 2012 Issue

The Year of Michael – An Interview With Michael Fassbender

By Patricia Danaher, Contributor
August / September 2012

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An interview with Michael Fassbender. Michael Fassbender looks tanned and relaxed as he strolls into the bar at Claridge’s Hotel in London to join me for a drink. Sporting a bushy red beard, he is thin and slight in appearance, and like the chameleon he is on screen, he glides through the hotel undisturbed by importunate fans. For someone who became so famous as an actor in … [Read more...] about The Year of Michael – An Interview With Michael Fassbender

The First Word: Hunger and Silence

By Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief
August / September 2012

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“People think [the Irish] are such great talkers, but there is so much silence in Ireland about certain issues.” – Fionnula Flanagan The image of Michael Fassbender on our cover is very different to how he was seen in Hunger, the 2008 movie in which he played Bobby Sands, leader of the 1981 hunger strike in Northern Ireland. Fassbender, a Kerry native whose mother is from … [Read more...] about The First Word: Hunger and Silence

Martin McGuinness Meets the British Queen

August / September 2012

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In a seemingly simple gesture that would have been unthinkable not too long ago, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness and Queen Elizabeth II shook hands for the first time, on June 27 in Belfast. During the Queen’s two-day visit to Northern Ireland (part of her Diamond Jubilee celebration), in a private room at the Lyric Theatre, they shook hands as … [Read more...] about Martin McGuinness Meets the British Queen

Bloody Sunday Investigation Launched

By Catherine Davis, Editorial Assistant
August / September 2012

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Police in Northern Ireland are launching a murder investigation into the infamous Bloody Sunday shootings, which occurred on January 30, 1972, in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, and left 14 unarmed Catholic-civil-rights protesters dead at the hands of British soldiers. PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott told the Irish Times, “It’s a lengthy investigation. This has … [Read more...] about Bloody Sunday Investigation Launched

Keep ‘er Lit: The Olympic Torch in Ireland

By Laura Corrigan, Editorial Assistant
August / September 2012

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The Olympic torch relay, a throwback to ancient Greece, became a contemporary Olympic tradition at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin. The 2012 summer games will open on July 27, in London, after the torch has completed a 70-day tour of 8,000 miles, carried by 8,000 torch bearers. As the Olympic torch traveled its 5-day relay through Northern Ireland and Dublin  June 3 through … [Read more...] about Keep ‘er Lit: The Olympic Torch in Ireland