In New York to promote her new album of old Irish songs, Sinéad O'Connor talks to Bill Crandall Sinéad O'Connor hasn't been here since the towers fell. As a car carries her from JFK to the city, she asks the driver what it feels like without them. He says he feels lost -- literally, because he used the buildings to help him navigate around town. That night she and her … [Read more...] about Sinéad’s New Style
Issues
Traditional Music Round-up
A roaring rip tide of traditional music recordings has been flowing out of Ireland and Irish America recently, much of it released by the musicians themselves without recourse to record labels. A listing of the year's best discs could easily include several dozen equally worthy releases, so limiting this roundup to a mere ten was a reviewer's nightmare. You won't go wrong, … [Read more...] about Traditional Music Round-up
Sláinte: Let Them Eat
Irish Christmas Cake
Not so long ago, when my daughter was a child, life was very different. The world moved at a slower pace and I had time on my hands. It was the era before cable TV and the internet. The phrases "fast lane" and "couch potato" and "net surfer" had yet to be coined. Time stretched like soft taffy, begging to be filled and I industriously did so – especially in the weeks preceding … [Read more...] about Sláinte: Let Them Eat
Irish Christmas Cake
The Last Word:
The Priestless Parish
On the surface everything at two County Clare villages in the west of Ireland appears as it's always been. Church bells tolling across Lough Graney call the faithful to Sunday services at Kilanena and Flagmount. The two churches make up one parish either side of the lake, but these days the parish is getting by without a priest of its own.
℘℘℘
By the time Fr. Michael Collins … [Read more...] about The Last Word:
The Priestless Parish
Photo Album:
Home at Last
We lost my mother, Mary Ellen Smith, née O'Connor last April, 2002. She was 86 years old. She emigrated from Ireland in 1929 when she was almost 14 years old from the Derries, Co. Mayo, a small village near Ballinrobe. At that time she came to the States with her older brothers James and Pat, 15 and 16 respectively.
Mom settled in with her mother's sister Aunt Mary Weimer, née … [Read more...] about Photo Album:
Home at Last