Hospitals in Ireland came to a standstill in late October when the country's 28,000 nurses started strike action over a long-running pay dispute. Despite last minute talks between union representatives and the government, the industrial action went ahead as scheduled, making it the first time in the history of the State that nurses had gone on strike. A spokeswoman for the … [Read more...] about News from Ireland:
Irish Nurses Strike for Better Pay
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The First Word: At Home in America
It's Christmas Eve and the Brew and Burger on 47th Street where I work is crowded with last-minute shoppers and tired children brought in from the boroughs and New Jersey to see the tree at Rockefeller Center by irritated parents and young nannies with short skirts who look at their watches anxiously. I'm 21 years old, just out from Ireland a couple of months and homesick. For … [Read more...] about The First Word: At Home in America
The Last Word: Frontiersman Curtin
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
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