Irish America

June July 2014 Issue

On The Set with
Norah O’Donnell

By Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief

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Norah O’Donnell is the co-host of CBS This Morning, guest host on Face the Nation, and a 60 Minutes correspondent. This seasoned broadcaster has earned the moniker “tough but fair.” ℘℘℘ Of course it helps Norah O’Donnell’s popularity that the camera loves her – she is tall and slim with perfect features, thick auburn hair, and big blue eyes. She’s also, as I found out when I … [Read more...] about On The Set with
Norah O’Donnell

The First Word: A Visit to Irish America

By Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief
June / July 2014

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I've come to think of Irish America as an actual place unto itself, sort of like in an Irish fairytale where someone is magically transported to another world. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, you get to take a trip to that place without ever leaving American soil. That’s how it was for me the week after Easter. It began when I took two friends, visitors from Northern Ireland, … [Read more...] about The First Word: A Visit to Irish America

Does Paul Ryan Have Irish Amnesia?

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On the eve of St. Patrick’s Day last March, Timothy Egan’s column “Paul Ryan’s Irish Amnesia” appeared in The New York Times. Egan cited Sir Charles Trevelyan, the British assistant secretary to the Treasury, who had ordered relief works to be shut down during the height of the Famine. “Dependence on charity,” Trevelyan declared, “is not to be made an agreeable mode of life.”  … [Read more...] about Does Paul Ryan Have Irish Amnesia?

Gerry Adams Arrested

By Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief
June / July 2014

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Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was arrested in Northern Ireland on Wednesday, April 30, and held until the following Sunday night when he was released without charge. Police cited new evidence from a Boston College Burns Library oral history project in which former IRA members apparently named Adams in connection with the kidnapping and killing of Jean McConville’s in 1972. Adams … [Read more...] about Gerry Adams Arrested

President Higgins's First State Visit to the Queen

By Adam Farley, Assistant Editor
June / July 2014

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In April President Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina made their first official state visit to Queen Elizabeth II – in fact the first official Irish state visit to the U.K. since the formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. Celebrated as a diplomatic success, the four-day visit included two banquets at Windsor Castle, the royal residence; a concert at Royal Albert Hall … [Read more...] about President Higgins's First State Visit to the Queen