What will likely be the last burial of the U.S. Civil War took place at Arlington National Cemetery on March 8. Two sailors whose skeletons were found in 2002, when the gun turret of the sunken USS Monitor was unearthed off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, were finally laid to rest in a full naval ceremony. Speaking at the funeral service, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus … [Read more...] about USS Monitor Sailors Laid to Rest
Issues
Those We Lost
Recent passings in the Irish and Irish-American communities. Inez McCormack 1946 – 2013 Northern Irish civil rights and labor activist Inez McCormack died late January. She was 66. McCormack, who once said, “There is no fun in being the first woman on anything,” served on numerous boards as the sole female representative, and broke the glass ceiling in labor and politics as … [Read more...] about Those We Lost
A Sacred Place: Skellig Michael
Photographer and writer Chris Ryan visited the larger of the two Skellig Islands off the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, where an early-medieval monastery survives at the edge of the material world. Start at the Dublin offices of Google or Facebook, drive to the southwest tip of Ireland, hop a boat, journey seven miles out to sea, and climb 600 steps clinging to the edge of … [Read more...] about A Sacred Place: Skellig Michael
I’ll Be Back In the Springtime – JFK in Ireland
Sean Reidy, CEO of the JFK Trust, looks back on President Kennedy’s visit to New Ross in 1963, and forward to celebrations on the 50th anniversary of that visit. "I’ll be back in the springtime” were the last words spoken by President John F. Kennedy before he boarded Air Force One to return to the U.S. after his momentous visit to Ireland in 1963. His desire to return was … [Read more...] about I’ll Be Back In the Springtime – JFK in Ireland
True Grit – Sandy Fails to Derail the Xavier Knights’ Run for Glory
All they wanted was a chance for ten more days of football. Just before the end of the season, a quarter of the players and one of the coaches on the Xavier High School Knights had been forced from their homes when Superstorm Sandy slammed into the East Coast. But when the displaced kids voted to play on, their courage inspired the team to go on to an improbable playoff rumble … [Read more...] about True Grit – Sandy Fails to Derail the Xavier Knights’ Run for Glory