What did the famed poets and writers get up to when they crossed the Atlantic? Dublin-born THOMAS MOORE (1779-1852) is still recognized as Ireland’s National Bard; he was once as famous a romantic poet as his best friend Lord Byron. While studying law in London in 1801 he published, anonymously, a book of naughty verses, The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Little. The … [Read more...] about The Adventures of Irish Poets in America
Brendan Behan
Wild Irish Women: A Most Sorrowful Mystery
Oh! star of Erin, queen of tears, Black clouds have beset thy birth, And your people die like morning stars, That your light may grace the earth. – "Stars of Freedom," 1981 By IRA volunteer Bobby Sands, M.P. H-Block, Long Kesh Prison Camp Watching Bobby Sands die in 1981, much of the world realized, finally, that the young IRA soldier and hunger striker was a freedom fighter, … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: A Most Sorrowful Mystery
Wild Irish Women: Dancer in a Rough Field
The extraordinary life of Kathleen Kearney Behan, 1889 – 1984. History has cast Kathleen Behan in supporting roles, reducing her to the “sister of” or “mother of” someone important. But she deserves so much more – Kathleen was a political powerhouse, raconteur, and gifted singer who, in the course of her long and often tragic life, managed to have a bit of fun along the … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: Dancer in a Rough Field
The Quare Fellow
As we commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Irish writer Brendan Behan in 1923 on February 9, Elizabeth Toomey writes about his time in New York. On September 3, 1960, the New York Daily News carried a photo of a beaming Irish playwright arriving at Idlewild airport was a glass of milk in his hand. It was Brendan Behan, on his first trip to America. The milk was the … [Read more...] about The Quare Fellow