Irish America

Irish America

Issues

Charles Riley: Jesse Owens’ ‘Irish Father’

By Chuck Leddy

March/April 1997

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The fascinating relationship between Coach Charles Riley and his pupil, the legendary, Jesse Owens, is an engrossing human interest story about a gentle, selfless, Irish American school teacher who became a second father to a disadvantaged Black adolescent. From completely different backgrounds, Owens and Riley grew to love and respect each other at a time of overt racial … [Read more...] about Charles Riley: Jesse Owens’ ‘Irish Father’

Kenneally’s List

By Niall O’Dowd, Founding Publisher
September / October 1998

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Thomas Keneally is one of the world's great writers, an Australian who has revived the literary tradition in a country better known for shrimps on the barbie than the strength of its intellectual tradition. Schindler's List was the book which made Keneally's worldwide reputation, but long before that he had solidified his Australian roots when he explored the differences … [Read more...] about Kenneally’s List

A Founding Father

By Pat O'Neill

October/November 2000

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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

A Daughter’s Journey to the Land of Her Father

By Jill Fergus

January/February 1997

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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

Home on the Range with the O’Neills

By Jim Sullivan

January/February 1997

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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