Once again, Northern Ireland dominates headlines, both in Ireland and internationally. The Manchester IRA bomb was a huge blow for the peace process and set back support in the U.S. for Sinn Féin. Once again, Gerry Adams has to answer whether or not he can bring about a ceasefire. But the IRA is not the only problem. Day after day, it seems it is one step forward and two steps … [Read more...] about The Politics of Peace
IRA
Rebel With A Cause
In a rare television interview from 1983, Michael Flannery speaks with Niall O'Dowd for a PBS show based in San Francisco called Irish Magazine. Michael Flannery fought in the Irish War of Independence. He joined the volunteers when he was 14 years of age. “I was as tall then as I am now, and no one asked,” Flannery says in this interview with Niall O’Dowd taped in … [Read more...] about Rebel With A Cause
Photo Album: Tales of New York
I have no interest in Ancestry.com or tracing my roots. I know most of my DNA and it’s all Irish on my mom’s side. Her father, the son of a Ballylongford, County Kerry, farmer, was named Tom Keane. He emigrated to America sometime around 1900 – it’s believed he had to hightail it out of Ireland because of his IRA affiliation, and that doesn’t surprise me at all. Tom had crossed … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Tales of New York
Hall of Fame: Academy Award-Winning Director Terry George
There is a thread that links each of Terry George’s films, and it comes directly from his life. “I’m talking about ordinary people struggling against oppression,” he tells Irish America. “That’s always been my kind of guiding light.” Whether it’s the true-to-life tale of the late Gerry Conlon (the Belfast man who spent 15 years in an English prison having been wrongly accused) … [Read more...] about Hall of Fame: Academy Award-Winning Director Terry George
Twenty Years After
the IRA Ceasefire
August 31 marked the 20th anniversary of the 1994 IRA ceasefire that paved the way for the ending of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the beginning of the Good Friday Agreement. This historic event is being celebrated all over Ireland and America as the world remembers this historic moment. Niall O’Dowd, co founder of Irish America and founder of IrishCentral, offered … [Read more...] about Twenty Years After
the IRA Ceasefire