The second week of April certainly brought some confusion to Philadelphia residents as thousands of young girls in bouncy wigs and vendors with everything from Celtic t-shirts to Irish sweets descended on the Kimmel Centre of Performing Arts. The 39th Oireachtas Rince na Cruinne, World Irish Dance Championships, was held for the first time in North America at the Kimmel Centre … [Read more...] about The World of Irish Dance
Issues
Sea Fever: An Irish Surfing Odyssey
Ireland, with 3,000 miles of open Atlantic to the West, offers some of the best surf conditions in the world. Sea Fever, a documentary, covers the history of Irish surfing from the early 1960s to the present. Surfing. The very word brings to mind golden sunsets over tropical locations. The palm trees of Hawaii. The warm seas and roaring waves of Australia and California. … [Read more...] about Sea Fever: An Irish Surfing Odyssey
Irish Eye on Hollywood
Dublin native Colin Farrell is teaming up with Irish-American screenwriter William Monahan for a new film, which seems to be an homage to a classic. Farrell – who will be seen later this year subbing for Heath Ledger in the dead actor’s final movie The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus – will star in London Boulevard. The film, which also features Anna Friel and Keira Knightley, … [Read more...] about Irish Eye on Hollywood
Sisters of Charity: After All These Years
By Marilyn Coles Lownes
St. Patrick’s Day is always an important day for the Irish in New York and the 2009 St. Patrick’s Day Parade was a very special one for the Sisters of Charity. Not only was it the first time that they marched in their own congregational contingent, but the 248th parade was dedicated to the Sisters in recognition of their “200 years of dedicated service to the Poor of New York … [Read more...] about Sisters of Charity: After All These Years
Lincoln’s Watch Holds Message from Irishman
By Kara Rota, Contributor
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opened Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch in March 2009, and discovered a secretly engraved message that turned an unsubstantiated family story into a confirmed historical event. Jonathan Dillon, a watchmaker who immigrated to Washington, D.C. from Waterford, Ireland, repaired Lincoln’s gold watch in 1861 and engraved the … [Read more...] about Lincoln’s Watch Holds Message from Irishman