A bright, brand-new day dawns for Derry/Londonderry, the UK City of Culture 2013. John Hume, Derry’s first Catholic MP, sang the Derry anthem in Oslo when he and David Trimble won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998, and it has since become a staple of the White House St. Patrick’s Day gathering each year in Washington, D.C. At a recent concert in Chicago when Phil Coulter played … [Read more...] about The Derry Air is Rich With Culture
Issues
Heroes and Rogues: The Irish of Green-Wood Cemetery
Among the most noteworthy Irish expatriates reposing in Green-Wood are Matilda Tone, widow of United Irishmen leader Wolfe Tone, and their son William Theobald Wolfe Tone. William is buried with his wife, Catherine Sampson Tone, and in the plot right next to the Tones lie her parents: the controversial civil rights attorney William Sampson and his wife, Grace. The Green-Wood … [Read more...] about Heroes and Rogues: The Irish of Green-Wood Cemetery
Rory’s Legacy
The parents of Rory Staunton, a brilliant and passionate Irish-American boy who died of sepsis at age 12, are on a mission to make sure that no other child is felled by this fatal infection. "If I’d known about sepsis, I would have looked for sepsis,” says Orlaith Staunton whose 12-year-old son Rory died on April 1, 2012 from the deadly medical condition. “I knew about … [Read more...] about Rory’s Legacy
CALLING UP THE ANCESTORS:
Genealogist Megan Smolenyak
Genealogist Megan Smolenyak
Digital archives, DNA testing and increased interest have made finding ancestors easier than ever before. But tracing one’s roots – especially Irish roots – is still no easy task. Megan Smolenyak^2 is the genealogist behind such important discoveries as President Obama’s Irish roots and the real identity of Annie Moore, the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island. It’s … [Read more...] about
Genealogist Megan Smolenyak
Joe Kennedy – The Hollywood Years
Movie columnist Tom Deignan examines David Nasaw’s book The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy with an eye to Kennedy’s time in Hollywood. The year was 1926, a year before Charles Lindbergh would make his heralded flight across the Atlantic. And so, when a 38-year-old Joseph P. Kennedy made his first trip to Hollywood, a train would have … [Read more...] about Joe Kennedy – The Hollywood Years