First Word Archives
First Word: We Are Now 44.3 Million Strong
Founding publisher Niall O’Dowd. Good news! The 1990 U.S. Census has…
First Word: The Bishops at the Bat
Founding publisher Niall O’Dowd. There are far worse offenses for a…
First Word: Making a Difference
Patricia Harty, Editor-in-Chief. Did you ever panhandle? Ask for money on…
More Articles
The First Word: No Immigrants Need Apply
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once told an uncomfortable audience of the Daughters of the American Revolution that “we are all immigrants.” It is something that we should remember now when the […]
The First Word: The New Irish Heroes
IN olden times, Ireland’s icons were comely maidens strumming harps or perhaps mythical heroic warriors such as Cuchulainn, bravely besting the enemy in his lair. In more recent times, a […]
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, […]
The First Word: Our Own Flesh and Blood
Wee Annie’s uncle is dead. You might have read about him. He got a line in the New York Times. He was the 72-year old pensioner shot in the Loyalist […]
First Word: The Belly of the Beast
Prison literature from John Mitchell’s Jail Journal to the prison diary of Bobby Sands has a revered place in Irish literature and the latest addition, though written from a cell […]
First Word: Past and Future Presidents
A “carbuncled faced old drunkard,” a “howling atheist,” a “syphilitic lecher,” a “pickpocket thief and murderer,” a “crook and an anarchist.” Hardly terms of denigration, but those are just some […]