Some thoughts on being Irish-American. As a proud Irish-American, I begin with a simple assumption: there is no way to precisely define that elusive, complex human category called the Irish-American. The tools of sociology are as inadequate to the task as the forms of the Census Bureau, and the jeweler's art of the lexicographer can't come close to an answer. This should … [Read more...] about The Bearing of the Green
Belfast
The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
On a plane to San Francisco a young couple sit across from me with two boys. The younger one is kicking up a ruckus. As I reach for my ear-plugs I hear the wife say something to her husband, a trendy fellow with glasses and an earring. "Big Ian" she calls him. Belfast, I think to myself. The accent is that of my sister-in-law Elaine. That this family is from Northern Ireland … [Read more...] about The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
Ulysses S. Grant The Irish Visit, 1879
By Kelly Candaele, Contributor
March / April 1996
March / April 1996
Ulysses S. Grant, in his visit to Ireland in 1879, covered much of the same territory as President Clinton did on his visit in 1995. Ulysses S. Grant was not actually president of the United States when he arrived in Dublin from London on January 3, 1879. His tenure as a two-term Republican president had ended in March of 1877. He was succeeded by Rutherford B. Hayes, … [Read more...] about Ulysses S. Grant The Irish Visit, 1879
The Irish Diaspora and the North
By Pete Hamill
November/December 1994
Writer Pete Hamill, whose parents are from Belfast, explores the connection between the Irish diaspora and Ireland, and offers suggestions as to what Americans of Irish descent can do now to help further the peace process. Almost forty years ago, a fine Irish-American writer named John McNulty wrote an account of his first trip of Ireland. The story was lovely, full of the … [Read more...] about The Irish Diaspora and the North
The First Word: And Now the Good News…
Belfast: "We need a solution the dead can live with," is how one Belfast resident, in a uniquely Irish way, described the prospects for long-term peace after the recent events in Northern Ireland that shook the world. His words were not such a paradox as they may seem. The graves of the over 3,000 dead stand as mute testament to the suffering on all sides that the Long War of … [Read more...] about The First Word: And Now the Good News…