“And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. Dear readers: We hope that you are enjoying a summer respite from the pandemic and reuniting with friends and family. We are living through strange and stressful times, to be sure, but I do not doubt that things will get better. History makes … [Read more...] about The First Word: There’s No Hope in History
First Word
The First Word: At Home in America
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
First Word: Dreamers
“Our focus is to create ladders of opportunity to help people get to the middle class through the construction trades. That's really why you do it.” – Sean McGarvey This year’s Hall of Fame honorees reflect the length and breadth of the Irish-American experience. They show us the extraordinary impact that the Irish have had in every aspect of American life – the arts, … [Read more...] about First Word: Dreamers
First Word:
The Dreamer of Dreams
"We are the music makers / And we are the dreamers of dreams, / Wandering by lone sea-breakers, / And sitting by desolate streams; / World-losers and world-forsakers, / On whom the pale moon gleams: / Yet we are the movers and shakers / Of the world for ever, it seems. – “The Music Makers” by Arthur O’Shaughnessy
Welcome to our annual Business 100 issue. Congratulations to … [Read more...] about First Word:
The Dreamer of Dreams
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