The Irish American New York lawyer who defended a Russian spy, and negotiated on behalf of the thousands of prisoners captured after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, is remembered by his daughter Jan. It can often appear that the lives of individuals depicted on the silver screen are too fantastic to be real. For James B. Donovan, an Irish-American lawyer from New … [Read more...] about The Real Life Story of Bridge of Spies Lawyer James B. Donovan
Issues
Fiction: “Sky”
THE ROAD OUTSIDE this house is the same one my mother and father walked together each morning of their married life to Mass. Hand in hand, then arm in arm as they got older. That now is nearly seen as being sinful. Daily Mass-going is a thing to be suspicious of. Have you nothing better to be doing? No, faith, I have not. It’s not as though I sink too deeply into it; I only do … [Read more...] about Fiction: “Sky”
What Are You Like?
Author Donal Ryan
Donal Ryan is one of Ireland’s best new writers. His first novel, The Spinning Heart, was published to great acclaim in 2012. It won the Guardian First Book Award, the European Union Prize for Literature, and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and the Desmond Elliott Prize.
Born, in 1976, outside Nenagh, Co.Tipperary, Ryan … [Read more...] about What Are You Like?
Author Donal Ryan
Wild Irish Women: Dancer in a Rough Field
The extraordinary life of Kathleen Kearney Behan, 1889 – 1984. History has cast Kathleen Behan in supporting roles, reducing her to the “sister of” or “mother of” someone important. But she deserves so much more – Kathleen was a political powerhouse, raconteur, and gifted singer who, in the course of her long and often tragic life, managed to have a bit of fun along the … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: Dancer in a Rough Field
2016: Reflections on a Centenary
How the 1916 commemorations helped people connect on a personal level. “Everything is repeated, in a circle. History is a master because it teaches us that it doesn’t exist. It’s the permutations that matter.” - Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum We have had much to celebrate this year. Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising had been anticipated for so long that when it … [Read more...] about 2016: Reflections on a Centenary