The biggest of all flapper races in Ireland, Dingle attracts the best horses from all over the country, and a variety of jockeys, some as young as eleven. And they’re off! Bachelor brothers Stevie and Timmy Kelliher saunter up Heartbreak Hill, balancing buckets of paint and brushes as they go. Joe Ryle, self-styled “chief cook and bottle washer,” trots off to repair railings … [Read more...] about The Dingle Races
Issues
Too Late To Stop Now
Ian Worpole ruminates on why Van is still The Man. So I get this press release along with the new CD, Pay the Devil, and it says “For 40 years Van Morrison has continued to be an important and vibrant artist,” and I’m like, yeah, I guess he has, they sure got that right, and then I’m like, is that the best they can come up with? So herewith, my own totally subjective, totally … [Read more...] about Too Late To Stop Now
Paddy Play Ball!
John Fitzgerald, a New Yorker, went to Ireland to play baseball. When he found out he was ineligible for the national team, he did the next best thing - he made a documentary about them. COLIN MURPHY talks to Fitzgerald about how baseball has found a place in the Irish sporting lexicon. Filmmaker John Fitzgerald doesn’t remember exactly how he happened upon the website for … [Read more...] about Paddy Play Ball!
The Irish Revolution in America
Tom Deignan explores the role that Irish America played in the Easter Rising of 1916. Ninety years ago this month, in May of 1916, over 20,000 Irish-American nationalists and their supporters flocked to New York City’s Carnegie Hall. They were not there for a night at the opera. They went, instead, to voice their anger. Just one month earlier the ill-fated Easter Rising had … [Read more...] about The Irish Revolution in America
Book Reviews
NON-FICTION Former New Yorker writer Bill Barich is best known for his horse racing book Laughing in the Hills, published 25 years ago now. For his latest book, Barich has again written about horses, but this time added Ireland as a topic as well in A Fine Place to Daydream: Racehorses, Romance and the Irish. Barich fell in love, moved to Dublin and took quickly to the Irish … [Read more...] about Book Reviews