Irish America

Wild Irish Women

Touched by Fire

By Rosemary Rogers
IA Newsletter July 29, 2023

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Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun And left the vivid air signed with their honour. The Truly Great, by Stephen Spender Sinéad O’Connor who died Wednesday, at age 56, is one of "The Truly Great,” those heroes whose gifts and passions have granted them a kind of immortality. In the days since her death, tributes and vigils have come from all over the … [Read more...] about Touched by Fire

Wild Irish Women: Bernadette

By Rosemary Rogers
Spring 2023

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After 800 years of colonial rule, Ireland finally got conditional freedom and fell victim to the British Empire’s deadliest legacy, partition. In the six northern counties, bigotry and resentment simmered over the years until it broke wide open in 1968. Then along came Bernadette. In the beginning, there was a single face that symbolized the conflict, a passionate college … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: Bernadette

The Star of County Down

By Rosemary Rogers

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‘In Banbridge Town in the County Down One morning last July, From a boreen green came a sweet colleen, And she smiled as she passed me by.' What is absolutely, positively true about Greer Garson is that she was born Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson to George and Nina Garson. From the beginning of her acting career until her death in 1996, she maintained her birthplace was … [Read more...] about The Star of County Down

Constance Smith: A Hollywood Tragedy

By Rosemary Rogers

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“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”   Maybe she had too many gifts:  she was a great beauty with a quick intellect; she could act, sing and, with little effort, was “discovered” and groomed for Hollywood stardom. In the early 1950s, she was a newcomer at 20th Century Fox, deemed so promising, she landed a plum showcase –  a presenter at the 1952 … [Read more...] about Constance Smith: A Hollywood Tragedy

Wild Irish Women: Leonora O’Reilly

By Rosemary Rogers

Summer 2021

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“I am not going to give you any taffy!” The charismatic and powerful public speaker who pushed for equal pay for equal work, better labor standards and overall empowerment for women , is profiled by Rosemary Rogers. Leonora O’Reilly was born in 1870 to parents driven out of Ireland by the potato famine only to live in poverty in New York’s Lower East Side. Her father … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: Leonora O’Reilly