Irish America
Irish America
Our house had several windows, and most were wide open, inviting in the first smells of spring. It was the kind of day where I would normally be outside, soaking up the sun. But this nap had been planned over all the previous nights that I had been up late studying for my exams. As I pulled up the covers and nestled in, there was a tap at the door, my mom stood at the bottom of … [Read more...] about “I Thought You’d be Taller”
I was born at home in Emmetsburg, Iowa in 1928. The doctor said, “You have a son!” My mother didn’t know what to name me and the doctor said, “How about Roger? That’s my father’s name. It’s a fine name.” Both my parents were Irish. Mother was born Mary Margaret Mahoney. My first memories involve living in the small town in the shadow of the Assumption Parish. We lived across … [Read more...] about Roger Goes to Medical School
Her first seal of office needed to have the word “his” crossed out and replaced by “hers” in pen as she was the first female to hold a municipal court appointment in the US. From Irish immigrant working as a child minder to becoming the first woman judge of a municipal court in the United States, was the unique and outstanding achievement of Mary O’Toole. Born in … [Read more...] about Great-aunt Mary O’Toole’s Amazing, Trailblazing Life
At rest, this picture belongs to a wedding album from 1966. Plain, awkward even, it was composed by the photographer whose job it was to snap the parents of the groom. It doesn’t speak of small Galway farms disappearing over shoulders, the ride over the sea, their names. They are Edward Donohoe and Winnie, who was first Una Ryan, then Winnie Donohoe and, for an afternoon, Jane … [Read more...] about Photo Album: The Wealth of the World
It was the accidental discovery of a vintage photograph, which enabled me to meet my first Irish-American relative, my great grandmother, Ellen Whelan Lyons of Co Waterford, Ireland. At a family reunion in South Dakota, my cousin, John Maloney, had tossed out on the table a bushel basketful of old photos. My wife Nona retrieved from the pile a photo of an … [Read more...] about Photo Album My Great-Grandmother Discovered
