Irish America
Irish America
In the Brooklyn world of my childhood, Ireland seemed especially close at Christmas. While we kids looked forward to Santa, Mom and Dad were looking back to Ireland. Cards would arrive, and Mom would cherish each and every one, especially those from her sisters, my Aunts Una and Joan, who would include letters for her to linger over, her eyes growing all teary. My parents left … [Read more...] about A Child’s Christmas in Brooklyn
This story is about Rita and Mel and a Christmas song — no, make that "The Christmas Song." "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose." Rita O’Donnell was just 15 years old and a sophomore at Coughlin High School in 1940 when she got a call from her older sister, Aileen, who was dancing as a member of the Rockettes at Radio City Music … [Read more...] about The Back Story to Mel Tormé’s Classic Christmas Song
“It’s the holiday season…” So sings Andy Williams - as have many other crooners - in the classic Christmas song “Happy Holidays.” For many Irish Americans, that “holiday season” means it’s time for our annual trip to Macy’s in New York City where, in 1947, Irish Hollywood legend Maureen O’Hara portrayed a busy holiday parade planner, in the beloved Yuletide flick Miracle on … [Read more...] about Christmas Movies
It's Christmas Eve and the Brew and Burger on 47th Street where I work is crowded with last-minute shoppers and tired children brought in from the boroughs and New Jersey to see the tree at Rockefeller Center by irritated parents and young nannies with short skirts who look at their watches anxiously. I'm 21 years old, just out from Ireland a couple of months and homesick. For … [Read more...] about The First Word: At Home in America
By Pat Fenton A Christmas Eve memory comes back to me, almost hauntingly in this crazy long night of the Pandemic, the Corona Virus we’re all living through. And it makes me think again of the importance of memory and how it brings us back so faithfully to the way we were. I’m 20 years old, a young soldier from 17th Street in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. And I’m down … [Read more...] about Silent Night
