This is a photograph taken of my mother, Elizabeth Schultz Daily, at the age of 16 wearing the shawl that her great-grandmother Jane McDonald McCarthy brought over from Ireland when she and my great-great-grandfather John immigrated to America. Jane was born in Dublin in 1814 and John in Blackwater, County Wexford, in 1807. My mother Elizabeth married Elmer Daily in Boswell, … [Read more...] about The Irish Shawl
History
Immigrant Ghosts on the Street of Ships
There's a row of lead laundry sinks on the third floor of an old building on the Lower Manhattan waterfront where Irish women worked in the 19th century. And beyond the laundry drying racks, Gaelic graffiti appear in ghostly but bold script on the old brick walls. "Erin Go Bragh" is writ large. So is "Faugh a ballagh" (clear the way), a famous battle cry, perhaps recorded by a … [Read more...] about Immigrant Ghosts on the Street of Ships
Terrorists Plotted Against Kennedy and Hill
Irish Sunday Independent journalist Alan Murray unearthed a plot by loyalist terrorist Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair to assassinate Courtney Kennedy, daughter of Robert Kennedy and her husband Paul Hill when they were in north Belfast in 1994. Adair had planned to attack the couple with a rocket-propelled grenade while they were driving in their car. Hill and three others spent 15 … [Read more...] about Terrorists Plotted Against Kennedy and Hill
Hepburn Letters Sold
A collection of letters written by Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn to her father and stepmother sold for £45,500 at auction at Christie's -- nine times more than the estimate of between £3,000 and £5,000. And a set of family photographs showing the My Fair Lady star, taken between 1939 and 1989, went for £24,150 to the same buyer -- far more than the pre-sale estimate of around … [Read more...] about Hepburn Letters Sold
Irish Landmarks Saved and Sold
The site of the last stand by leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule, nicknamed Ireland's Alamo, has won a last-minute reprieve. The house, in a run-down part of Dublin, had been earmarked for demolition to make way for a shopping center. It was where republican leaders held their last meeting before surrendering. After intense pressure from descendants of those … [Read more...] about Irish Landmarks Saved and Sold