Irish America

bigotry

The Bearing of the Green

By Pete Hamill, Contributor
October / November 2000

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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

Paul O’Dwyer

Civil Rights Champion

By Niall O’Dowd
October / November 2000

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Since his childhood in Mayo during the worst of the Black and Tan atrocities, Paul O'Dwyer has been a fearless champion of human rights. During the Red Scare and the civil rights movement he stood up for the oppressed regardless of personal cost. He was an early ally of the State of Israel and helped persuade President Truman to recognize this nation's independence. His law … [Read more...] about Paul O’Dwyer

Civil Rights Champion

Leaves of Pain

By Jimmy Breslin
October / November 2000

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How too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. ℘℘℘ At first, it seemed to be nothing. It was a curled-up dark brown leaf about the size of a good lock of hair and it was preserved in glass in a room in the Fairlow Herbarium in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A typewritten card alongside the leaf said that it was taken from an infected potato plant in Ireland during the … [Read more...] about Leaves of Pain