It is perhaps a love of words that endears the Irish to Saint Patrick. Son of a West Britain Roman family, at age sixteen Patrick was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. Six years later he escaped, fled to the coast, and was hired on as kennel master to a German boat that was transporting Irish wolfhounds to the continent. After many hardships, he at last … [Read more...] about Sláinte!: Saint Patrick
Issues
The First Word: Where’s Our Famine Movie?
There is a curious irony surrounding Schindler's List and the part that the Irish have played in bringing the movie to fruition. Thomas Keneally, an Australian of Irish Catholic background, wrote the book, and Liam Neeson, from the North of Ireland, was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of the man who saved some 1,100 Jews. As Keneally wrote in a recent … [Read more...] about The First Word: Where’s Our Famine Movie?
Spiral, Spiral Night & Other Paintings
By Robert F. Manning
March/April 1994
Robert Manning lives in Vermont. His many trips to Ireland resulted in an exhibit of his paintings: "Stone Walls of Ireland", which ran at the Arts Work Gallery in Hartford, Connecticut. Proleek Dolmen "This spectacular dolmen just out of Dundalk sits in a potato field behind a hotel now and it looks like some giant mushroom. The stones on top are there because of a … [Read more...] about Spiral, Spiral Night & Other Paintings
Plunging Into Irish Studies
By Peter Monaghan
March/April 1994
Seamus Deane, A Renowned Literary Scholar, Fills A Void At Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame, the home of the Fighting Irish, is the sentimental alma mater of many more actual and would-be Irish-Americans than ever have studied here. Yet until now, the most identifiably Catholic institution in the country--one where 14 of 16 presidents have been priests of Irish … [Read more...] about Plunging Into Irish Studies
Sláinte! Brigid: Goddess and Saint
By Edythe Preet
January / February 1994
For over a thousand years, February 1 has been celebrated as St. Brigid's Day. Legend holds it was then that the saint placed her foot in a spring outside the village of Liscannor by the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. Waters warmed; weather improved. Cows filled with milk; butter production expanded. To this day, pilgrims gather at Liscannor's well on Brigid's feast to … [Read more...] about Sláinte! Brigid: Goddess and Saint