Five nights in four different venues across New York City. Kicking off the festival starting January 6, Ireland’s mega-popular comedian and media figure (and Flushing native) Des Bishop brings us his new comedy show about the loss of his much-adored mom. This is the US premiere engagement of “Mia Mamma” which was beginning a national tour in Ireland in early 2020 before … [Read more...] about Origin 1st Irish Presents Des Bishop’s “Mia Mamma”
Bronx
Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry
1st IRISH 2022 PRESENTS 50TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATION OF BLOODY SUNDAY WITH IRISH ARTS CENTER 50 YEARS TO THE DAY ON SUNDAYSunday, January 30, 2022 at 7:00pm ESTOrigin Theatre Company and the Irish Arts Center are jointly presenting a star-studded commemorative reading of Richard Norton-Taylor’s “Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Enquiry” to mark the … [Read more...] about Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry
“What’re You Having”
1939 - Astor Bar, New YorkMy father, Michael Rogers, was a bartender at New York’s legendary Astor Bar from 1936 to 1965. The photo above was taken for the N.Y. Daily News series, “The Correct Thing,” on tipping bartenders. It’s not a good shot of him, as it doesn’t do justice to his hair, wavy and deep black, a color he likened to “the inside of a raven’s wing.” He was born in … [Read more...] about “What’re You Having”
First Word: A True Friend of Ireland
My first home in America was in the Bronx, a basement apartment on Briggs Avenue off Fordham Road. It was a happy time. We were a revelry of young Irish immigrants caught up in the glorious freedom of having shed parents and small towns and farms for apartments and subway trains that we took down into the city to work as waitresses and bartenders. At the end of the day we’d … [Read more...] about First Word: A True Friend of Ireland
Recollections of a Bronx Irish Catholic
In the 1950s, the Bronx was a melting pot of immigrants and first-generation families: Jewish, Italian, and Irish alike. Peter Quinn shares his story of what it was like to be a Bronx Irish Catholic, commonly referred to as a B.I.C. “Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, / Who never to himself hath said, / This is my own, my native land! / Whose heart hath ne’er within … [Read more...] about Recollections of a Bronx Irish Catholic