Irish America
Irish America
Brian Friel himself cast Catherine Byrne as Chrissy in Dancing at Lughnasa after watching an Abbey Theatre dress rehearsal of his Aristocrats in which Byrne played clare. She talked of that moment during a pause in rehearsal for Molly Sweeney in which she plays the title role. "He didn't know me," Catherine Byrne recalls, "and when I heard he was coming I thought, what's he … [Read more...] about A Touch of Friel
What help can poetry be during a pandemic? This summer it feels like Ireland needs Americans and Americans need Ireland more than ever. I have visited Ireland close to twenty times since my first trip there in the late 1970s, drawn by the country’s remarkable beauty, justly famous hospitality, and, during the 90s, by my interest in American involvement in the Northern … [Read more...] about “Keeping Going”
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
Community theater groups from throughout the United States and Canada converged at the Geva Theater Center in Rochester, New York for the 24th Annual Acting Irish International Theater Festival in April. The adjudicated festival, founded in 1993, consisted this year of seven full-length productions presented over five days, all of which were attended by Oleans-based theater … [Read more...] about North America Acts Irish
Joseph Coffey 1938 – 2015 Sergeant Joseph Coffey, the legendary New York City detective who took on the mob and worked on some of the city’s most high-profile cases, including Son of Sam, died at home in Levittown, New York, in late September. He was 77. Coffey decided on a career with the police at an early age when mobsters shot at his father after he resisted their attempt … [Read more...] about Those We Lost
