Rosie O'Donnell, the queen of daytime TV, recalls the time she and her family spent in Ireland shortly after the death of her mother.
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I remember eating salt and vinegar potato chips and having sweets, the candy, those Marathon bars, remember those? We used to go to the woods and my cousin would shoot cap guns and we'd hide in the bushes and watch the helicopters come … [Read more...] about Rosie O’DonnellQueen of Comedy
Patricia Harty
Rosie O’Donnell
The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
On a plane to San Francisco a young couple sit across from me with two boys. The younger one is kicking up a ruckus. As I reach for my ear-plugs I hear the wife say something to her husband, a trendy fellow with glasses and an earring. "Big Ian" she calls him. Belfast, I think to myself. The accent is that of my sister-in-law Elaine. That this family is from Northern Ireland … [Read more...] about The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
The First Word: Payback Time
The Ireland I grew up in was doubtful of its own identity. The school curriculum reflected a post-colonial lack of confidence and ignored Irish poets and prose writers in favor of English scribes. While I'm grateful for the grounding I was given in Shakespeare and the like, I mourn the fact that the words of Yeats will never come trippingly off the tongue like say, the poems … [Read more...] about The First Word: Payback Time
The First Word: Celebrate With Concern
"Every human being has an obligation to help those less fortunate." – George Mitchell ℘℘℘ Father Finucane has a warm and friendly face, and a welcoming Irish smile. And he's not at all the type of person to guilt you. But every time I see him, I get a stab of conscience. It isn't anything that he says; indeed he's a most … [Read more...] about The First Word: Celebrate With Concern
The First Word: In the Beginning . . .
From the time of St. Brendan, the Irish were drawn to America. Maybe it came from gazing out on the vast Atlantic Ocean and wondering what was on the other side. Brendan made his legendary trip in an ox-hide currach. Later the Irish reached "Inishfail" -- that "island of destiny" envisioned by the poets -- as migratory fishermen making their way to Newfoundland in the holds of … [Read more...] about The First Word: In the Beginning . . .