Round two of Mel Gibson's war with the British. ℘℘℘ Jack L. Warner once said he hated the kind of movie in which the hero "writes with a feather." Hollywood's aversion to the quaint details of a distant historical period helps account for the scarcity of films dealing with the American Revolutionary War. But reluctance to alienate Great Britain probably had more to do with … [Read more...] about Film Forum: The Patriot
History
Roots: The Curran Clan
The surname Curran is common in all four provinces in Ireland, but especially in County Donegal and throughout Ulster. The name is also prevalent in the south of Ireland, appearing many times in the County Tipperary Hearth Money Rolls of 1665-7. Currans showed up frequently as Waterford residents in the census of 1659. The 1901 census in Kerry counted 142 Curran or Currane … [Read more...] about Roots: The Curran Clan
Time Stands Still at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral
By John A. Barnes
April / May 1999
You could be forgiven for thinking they had never left. But it was not the world-famous, stately edifice that stands on Fifth Avenue between East 50th and 51 st Streets that was the center of attention. No, it was the far more humble Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, located far downtown at the very unfashionable intersection of Mulberry and Prince Sts., right where what is left of … [Read more...] about Time Stands Still at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers
By James P. Gannon
February / March 1999
From Bull Run to Appomattox, the 6th Louisiana's Irish Confederates fought proudly On April 28, 1861, two weeks after Confederate guns had fired the first shots of the Civil War against Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, a notice appeared in the columns of The Daily Picayune, one of New Orleans' leading papers. It was a call to arms aimed at the thousands of Irish immigrants … [Read more...] about Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers
Footsteps of the Past
By Margaret M. Johnson
September/October 1998
The Queenstown Story Their names were Peter, Jack, Nora, Maggie, Minnie and Kate, and one by one, the Sullivan children left Bounard, County Kerry, for Boston. They eventually made their way to Newburyport, where my grandmother, Minnie, married a Cork lad named James Barry. In my eyes, the most fascinating souvenir of the journey was my grandmother's trunk, mostly black, but … [Read more...] about Footsteps of the Past