Irish America
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
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
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
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
July's announcement that the IRA was ending its military campaign drew a muted response from political quarters north and south of the Irish border. Although the statement was potentially historic by calling on IRA activists to unconditionally dump arms, unionist politicians again reacted skeptically to how decommissioning would take place and be independently verified. The … [Read more...] about Muted Response to IRA Statement
