Irish America
Irish America
Patricia Harty was honored at the St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and decided that if there is a place called Irish America, this could be it. Its heart, Holyoke, Massachusetts, is still Ireland Parish, which is what it was known as back in the 1800s when immigrants, mainly from the Irish-speaking area of Dingle, Co. Kerry, settled there and found … [Read more...] about Holyoke’s Irish Heart
When I was young, a visit by two Frenchmen caused great excitement in our house. They were distant cousins – descendants of Oliver Harty who was born in Knockainey, Knocklong, County Limerick in 1746 and left for France as a lad of sixteen. Like many young Irishmen who had lucrative careers in continental armies since the 16th century, Oliver left for France in 1762 to serve … [Read more...] about The First Word: Celebrating the Far-Flung Irish
“The robins came – that’s a sign of luck,” my cousin whispers in my ear as the men start to shovel the clay. Sure enough, I look up and see a pair of robins swoop down over the heads of those gathered and then fly off together. It’s a bright sunny day, but the temperature is below freezing and I worry that the clay will be frozen solid. Perhaps it is. But the men – whom I … [Read more...] about The First Word: The Comfort of Tradition & Ritual
Mary Pat Kelly’s new novel Galway Bay captures the essence of the Great Starvation and the 19th-century Irish-American experience. Ireland has a terrible history. As a kid in school reading about that history I was always afraid to turn the page; what seemed like a hopeful turn of events always was undone by a traitor or some clever English piece of skulduggery – the Indians … [Read more...] about The Triumph & the Tragedy
The highest- ranked Irish-born CEO in the U.S., and the longest- reigning CEO of an oil company, Chevron’s DAVE O’REILLY talks to Patricia Harty. Dave O’Reilly loves oil. It is why he became a chemical engineer. He doesn’t know how exactly this love came about – he wasn’t influenced by any American westerns featuring Texas wild-catters that populated the fledgling Irish … [Read more...] about The Irish Oil Man: Dave O’Reilly
