By Turlough McConnell The President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins paid tribute to the First Nations of Canada and Native Americans for their contributions to Irish Famine relief in 1847 at the National Famine Commemoration Day ceremony held in Kilmallock, County Limerick, on May 17th. Speaking at the event, he acknowledged donations from the Choctaws and Cherokees in the United … [Read more...] about On Famine and Native Americans: President Higgins leads Ireland’s Commemoration
History
Thomas Moore: The Minstrel of Ireland
By James Flannery
Thomas Moore was the most popular Irish poet of his day. His famed “Irish Melodies,” with exquisite lyrics by Moore composed to traditional airs, were translated into many languages and won him international fame. He was particularly dear to the hearts of Irish Americans and a million and a half copies of the music for “The Last Rose of Summer” were sold in the United States … [Read more...] about Thomas Moore: The Minstrel of Ireland
Pope Adrian IV, King Henry II and The Siege of Ireland
By Rosemary Rogers
On December 4, 1154, Nicholas Breakspear, the first and only Englishman to ascend to the papacy, was unanimously elected the Catholic Church’s 107th pope. He chose Adrian IV, a posh name for a pope who proved deadly for the pesky isle across the sea, Ireland.
Quite unfairly, in 12th-century Europe, Ireland, a country steeped in spirituality, learning, and illuminated … [Read more...] about
Nellie Bly: “The Best Reporter in America”
By Darina Molloy
November 1999
Nellie Bly’s biographer, Brooke Kroeger, captured the essence of his admirable subject when he wrote: “In the 1880s, she pioneered the development of ‘detective’ or ‘stunt’ journalism, the acknowledged forerunner to full-scale investigative reporting.” Born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on May 5, 1864 to Michael Cochran and Mary Jane Cummings, both of whom were of Irish descent, Bly … [Read more...] about Nellie Bly: “The Best Reporter in America”
How the Irish Saved Civilization
Thomas Cahill, author of How the Irish Saved Civilization, talks to Patricia Harty. Thomas Cahill was born one of six children to a middle-class Irish family in the Bronx. He grew up in Queens, New York, attended a Jesuit high school on Long Island, and later became a Jesuit seminarian earning a pontifical and becoming proficient in Latin and Greek – language skills which … [Read more...] about How the Irish Saved Civilization