Tom Coyne, whose 16-week jaunt through Ireland’s 38 seaside golf courses led to the best-selling book, A Course Called Ireland, has put together a list of 18 of his favorite quirky Irish golf holes. Quirky: possessing an individual peculiarity of character; an unusual habit or way of behaving; different from the ordinary in a way that causes curiosity. In compiling my list of … [Read more...] about A Course Called Quirky
Issues
Rebranding Limerick
As Ireland’s first City of Culture, Limerick is positioning itself to become a new capital of the arts in the west. Adam Farley traveled there to see how it’s going and what it means for the future of the former “Stab City.” Richard Harris used to drink here. Angela McCourt used to buy single cigarettes here. The Cranberries used to play house shows here. Kevin Barry used to … [Read more...] about Rebranding Limerick
Whatever Happened
to Launt Thompson?
By Michael Burke, Contributor
How one of the most important post-Civil War sculptors died in obscurity and is buried in an unmarked grave.
Lancelot (Launt) Thompson was born in the town of Abbeyleix, in what was then Queens County and is now County Laois, on February 8, 1833. He came to the United States in 1847 with his recently widowed mother, who had no means of support in Ireland. They settled in the … [Read more...] about Whatever Happened
to Launt Thompson?
Roots: Lynch
One of the 100 most common surnames in Ireland, the Lynch name derives from several independent clans who inhabited just about everywhere from Ulster to Cork. The most notorious of the Irish Lynches, though not the largest clan, comes from the Norman de Lench, who were the most powerful of the 14 “Tribes of Galway,” Norman clans who ruled the medieval city. These Lynches were … [Read more...] about Roots: Lynch
Paris’s Irish Cultural Center
Just around the corner from the Pantheon in Paris’s 5th Arrondissement is the former Collège des Irlandais, now the Irish Cultural Center (Le Centre Culturel Irlandais). Matthew Skwiat explores its storied past and current revival. Henry Miller once said “to know Paris is to know a great deal.” His words seemed to take on a whole new meaning once one has traveled to France. … [Read more...] about Paris’s Irish Cultural Center