From acclaimed actors, musicians, novelists and sports writers, to daring athletes and caring doctors, we lost some of our finest citizens in the past year, including William McCool, one of the seven astronauts who died in the space shuttle Columbia tragedy and two gifted, world famous entertainers, singer Rosemary Clooney and actor Richard Harris. ℘℘℘ Most notices of Richard … [Read more...] about Those We Lost
Issues
Book Reviews
A sampling of the latest Irish books. ℘℘℘ RECOMMENDED "The reason I wanted to be a Gopher was simple: them gangsters never had to work for a living." This is famed New York gangster Owney Madden, speaking in the crackling voice which runs throughout Michael Walsh's gritty new novel And All the Saints. Madden rose from a tough youth in an Irish ghetto in England to become one … [Read more...] about Book Reviews
Photo Album: The Queen of the May
This photograph of my grandmother Ella Theresa Shea was taken in 1880 when she was 14 years old. She was crowned the Queen of the May at the traditional May Day Festival in newly-opened Golden Gate Park. Ella was born in San Francisco on May 18, 1866, the second of nine children, to James Shea (born James Sheahy), from Barlogue Lough Hyne, Co. Cork, and Anna Shipsey of Cape … [Read more...] about Photo Album: The Queen of the May
The Sporting Life
From King Kelly to Mark McGuire, Ron Kaplan traces the Irish influence in baseball. Irish ballplayers have helped to shape baseball ever since the game took its first foundering steps on the playing fields of New York and New Jersey over 150 years ago. Their impact is still felt. While no official organ of the game keeps records of ethnicity, one only has to glance through … [Read more...] about The Sporting Life
Forever Hamill
Pete Hamill, not unlike Cormac, the hero of his novel Forever, lives in the Five Points area of downtown Manhattan where the streets teem with immigrants just as they did back in the founding days of the city when Hamill's hero emigrates from Northern Ireland. (On the day of our interview Hamill had yet to see Gangs of New York which is also set in the Five Points -- see … [Read more...] about Forever Hamill