While most people think of Ireland as a nation of “meat and potato” eaters, vegetables and dairy products are also a vital part of the Irish diet. One of my favorite Irish proverbs concerns Ireland’s most famous vegetable: “Be eating one potato, peeling a second, have a third in your fist, and your eye on a fourth.” For me the adage implies: Always have a back-up … [Read more...] about Sláinte! Eat Your Veggies
2015
What Are You Like?
Anne Enright
Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has published three volumes of stories, one book of nonfiction, and five novels. Her 2007 novel, The Gathering, won the Man Booker Prize, and her novel, The Forgotten Waltz, won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. She is currently the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction. Her most recent book, … [Read more...] about What Are You Like?
Anne Enright
Review of Books
Miss Emily By Nuala O’Connor The Irish put great store in spinning a narrative around every small thing,” quips Emily Dickinson in Nuala O’Connor’s revelatory American debut novel Miss Emily. O’Connor’s narrative is no small feat, bringing together the life of Dickinson the poet and her fictional Irish maid Ada Concannon. What follows is a moving and often engrossing tale of … [Read more...] about Review of Books
Photo Album:
The Shields Family
I’ve written about several Irish American mothers for this magazine – Eugenia Biden, Lorna Colbert, and Anne Meara – and the word that always comes to mind is indomitable. Nothing breaks them, which makes it all the more shocking when we lose them. My mother was a member of this club.
The last-minute child in a Jersey City family that included two older sisters, Mom was named … [Read more...] about Photo Album:
The Shields Family
The Last Word:
Who the Irish Really Are
The shocking news leapt across the airwaves and sped along the Internet – the Irish, by national vote, had declared gay marriage equal to the straight version. Gay marriage, something virtually unknown just a few years ago, had been approved as fully lawful and valid within the borders of the Irish Republic. Had been approved, not just by a majority of Irish voters, but by … [Read more...] about The Last Word:
Who the Irish Really Are