His birthplace claimed by two states, Jeremiah Curtin, son of Irish immigrants, shed glory upon the state to which he was brought as an infant -- Wisconsin. Something of his indomitable nature was evident in his triumph over frontier conditions to become the first Wisconsinite to earn a degree from Harvard College and to go on to become one of the greatest linguists the world … [Read more...] about The Last Word: Frontiersman Curtin
Issues
The Finnegan Clan
By Maeve Molloy and Mary Gallagher
December/ January 2021
Finnegan is an Irish surname coming from the Gaelic Ó Fionnagáin, meaning “son of fair-haired.” James Joyce immortalized the name for all time in his 1939 novel Finnegans Wake. But literary giants aside, Finnegan is one of the most recognizable Irish surnames of our times. The Finnegan clan’s ties to America have only bound more tightly since the election of Joe Biden as … [Read more...] about The Finnegan Clan
Pat Conroy: The Prince of Tales
By Patricia Harty Editor-In-Chief In the fall of 1995, Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, was back on the best-seller list with Beach Music. He talked to Patricia Harty about his work, his family, and his desire to find his Irish relatives. Pat Conroy was born on October 26, 1945, in Atlanta, Georgia, to a young career military officer from … [Read more...] about Pat Conroy: The Prince of Tales
The Right Stuff
By Patricia Harty, Editor-In-Chief
April / May 2000
Eileen Collins, the first female to command a space mission, is a determined down-to-earth woman who never let anything stand in the way of her dream. August 1999: NASA, Texas: Eileen Collins looks a little tired and it's no wonder. America's first female space commander has been caught in a whirlwind of publicity since she returned to earth some three weeks before, having … [Read more...] about The Right Stuff
Flannery O’Connor’s
Irish Roots
How Flannery O’Connor’s upbringing and her Irish Catholic heritage impacted her writing.
O’Connor’s great-great-grandfather, Patrick Harty, came to Georgia in 1824 from County Tipperary, settling in Taliaferro County. His Irish-born daughter Johannah, who became Flannery O’Connor’s great-grandmother, married Hugh Donnelly Treanor in 1848. Hugh had also emigrated from … [Read more...] about Flannery O’Connor’s
Irish Roots