“Immigration policy should be generous; it should be fair; it should be flexible. With such a policy we can turn to the world, and to our own past, with clean hands and a clear conscience.” – John F. Kennedy This past Thanksgiving, as I made my way to a friend's for a home-cooked meal, I thought about my early years in New York when I worked most holidays at my waitressing job. … [Read more...] about A Nation of Immigrants?
First Word
First Word: Climb Every Mountain
When I was a kid my father would take us for drives to County Clare, or as he called it, “Biddy Early country.” We’d drive the back road, so narrow that the trees on either side reached across to each other, pass through the tiny village of Portroe, and stop at the top of a hill at a place called the Lookout to take in the view across Lough Derg to County Clare on the far … [Read more...] about First Word: Climb Every Mountain
First Word:
“Reach for the Stars”
“We are adventuring into a new world.”
– Astronaut Eileen Collins.
℘℘℘
The idea of an issue devoted to women has been brewing for some time but it really took hold these past months with all of the 1916 commemorations and celebrations marking Ireland’s rebellion. Finally, the Women of the Rising are getting their due, and there has been a plethora of articles showing us just … [Read more...] about First Word:
“Reach for the Stars”
First Word: Does this sound familiar?
“I’m of Irish descent and in America, 100 years ago, we were refugees, my family. Irish were treated terribly in America for a period of time and not accepted, and America learned to accept all of these ideas. It’s what our country is, a country of immigrants. We have not recently done a very good job of remembering who we are.” — George Clooney, speaking to a group of Syrian … [Read more...] about First Word: Does this sound familiar?
First Word: “Two Hearts Beat as One”
“No New York. No America. No Easter Rising. It’s simple as that.” – Director of Glucksman Ireland House, NYU, J.J. Lee While editing the articles in this issue, I was struck by two related observations: without the Irish in America the 1916 Rising would not have happened; and Britain sealed its fate by implementing its terror policies, and allowing a famine that forced … [Read more...] about First Word: “Two Hearts Beat as One”