Irish America
Irish America
A Shy Priest from Cavan Who Helped Tame a Frontier Town Imagine him, pale Irish skin against a black robe. On that bright spring morning in 1845 when he first arrived in the little town that was fast-filling a mud shelf overlooking the Missouri River, the Indians – the Shawnee in their calico flocks and turbans, the Sac and Fox with their shaved heads and painted faces – … [Read more...] about A Founding Father
It had been 20 years since my first and only visit to Ireland -- a month-long stay on my grandparents' farm in County Mayo with my mother, father, six siblings, two cousins, and a lot of cows. I was only six at the time, and in my mind Ireland remained a place where I could of play among haystacks twice my size, choose a pretty calf to be my own, buy Cadbury chocolate bars in … [Read more...] about A Daughter’s Journey to the Land of Her Father
How two generations of O'Neills left their mark on California's history To the newly arriving immigrants of the mid-19th century, America was a "dream waiting to come true." Depending upon a combination of the industrial skills they possessed, the locales they chose to call home, the energy they exerted in trying to succeed, and simple chance luck, many eventually realized … [Read more...] about Home on the Range with the O’Neills
Reflecting on the past year, it appears to be a great time to be Irish. And if we Irish are being perceived as "great" at the moment, our creative artists are largely responsible. Time magazine's "Best of 1996" picked Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes as the best nonfiction book of the year, and it's been on the best-seller list for weeks now. Remember that wonderful review that … [Read more...] about The First Word: A Great Deal Left to Do
All around the world, the holiday season is a time to gather with family and friends, to share abundance, to feast, to reflect on the memories of joyful times past, and to make every effort to ensure that the future will be peaceful and prosperous for all. Here in the United States, the holiday season is celebrated in a myriad of ways bequeathed us by the thousands of … [Read more...] about Slàinte! A Universal Christmas
