As Saratoga Springs celebrates 150 years of thoroughbred racing, Liz O’Connell tells the tale of John Morrissey, an Irish immigrant who organized, operated and had the vision to develop what is now one of the world’s greatest racecourses. A scant month after the Confederate Army was pushed back at Gettysburg, the “swells” holidaying in Saratoga Springs, New York, flocked to … [Read more...] about Saratoga’s Irish Visionary: John Morrissey
October November 2013 Issue
A Jazz Age Love Story
Irving Berlin and Ellin Mackay put aside their differences in culture, background, and age to form one of the best-known, enduring and loving relationships in New York social history. At the same time, the stories of the Berlin and Mackay families, which both started with brave immigrants taking a chance in America, are not so different as they first appear. ℘℘℘ Their whirlwind … [Read more...] about A Jazz Age Love Story
The Fighting 69th Marches Again
As America reflects upon the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and its deciding turn at Gettysburg, thousands of Americans are donning the uniforms of yore as they re-enact the long war’s battles. Corinne Dillon talks to members of the 69th New York State Volunteer Historical Association about the continuing legacy of the Irish regiment. This year has been a busy one down in … [Read more...] about The Fighting 69th Marches Again
Portraits of a Nation at War
An exhibition on the Civil War, featuring photographs by Mathew Brady, Timothy O’Sullivan and others, and a new biography of Brady, are reviewed by Tom Deignan. One of the most chilling portraits in the exhibition “Photography and the American Civil War” – which just finished a five-month run at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art – is also one of the most seemingly … [Read more...] about Portraits of a Nation at War
The Black O’Connell
Christine Kinealy writes about the American abolitionist Frederick Douglass who visited Ireland and came to be known as the “Black O’Connell.” In 1845, Frederick Douglass traveled to Ireland. He stayed there for only four months, but regarded the experience as “transformative.” Fifty years later, an American friend, who claimed to have accompanied the recently deceased … [Read more...] about The Black O’Connell