Though not Gaelic and sometimes found in England of non-Irish origin, Joyce may certainly be regarded as a true Irish name, and more particularly a Connacht one. The first Joyce to come to Ireland of whom there is an authentic record was Thomas de Jorse a Welshman, who in 1283 married the daughter of Turiogh O’Brien, Prince of Thomond and went with her to County Galway; there … [Read more...] about Roots: The Joyce Family
Family
The McNulty Family Show Boat Sails Again
One of the most popular entertainment groups from the 1920s to the 1960s, Annie ‘Ma’ McNulty and her children Eileen and Peter have largely been forgotten, but that may change soon. Known as “The Royal Family of Irish Entertainment,” the McNultys were the leading Irish-American music act from the 1930s through the early 1950s. They had a hit radio show; they made hundreds of … [Read more...] about The McNulty Family Show Boat Sails Again
The Mighty Quinn
The remarkable Quinn Bradlee has a new memoir that offers a moving account of living with disabilities. How do you make your mark when your parents, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, are among the most famous figures in Washington lore and you have been born with a significant disability that makes many basic things in life difficult? You surpass them with a tale so full of … [Read more...] about The Mighty Quinn
Identical Triplets! And They’re Irish!
An Irish-American family went from four to seven in the space of an hour when Cormac, Declan and Kevin – identical triplets – were born to Desmond and Kerry Lyons on October 10 at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. It was at the ten-week ultrasound that Kerry and Desmond – also parents to three-year-old Liam and one-year-old Ciara – discovered the “shocking yet … [Read more...] about Identical Triplets! And They’re Irish!
Finding Home
September, 1930. Age 16, my mother, Kathleen Sloyan, the second of eight children, leaves her home in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo. She will marry, raise three children, and die in Brooklyn, New York, at age 53, without ever returning home. We have no photos of her as a child. With my first wage as a paper boy, I bought her a 78rpm record that had “Mayo” in the title. Her hug was … [Read more...] about Finding Home