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Ray Cavanaugh

Window on the Past: The Triumph of a Sad Clown

By Ray Cavanaugh, Contributor
August / September 2019

August 1, 2019 by 2 Comments

Kelly in a 1953 Life Magazine photo.

The extraordinarily gifted Emmett Kelly, who turned clowning into an art form. Though he was most certainly a clown, Emmett Kelly’s performances were wistful rather than slapstick. Instead of wearing cheerfully bright clothes and having a prominent grin painted on his face, Kelly flouted clownish convention, wearing dark-colored rags and having a face forever contorted … [Read more...] about Window on the Past: The Triumph of a Sad Clown

Window on the Past: Manifest Destiny

By Ray Cavanaugh, Contributor
May / June 2019

May 1, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Two words from one Irishman who trumpeted the world's superpower. “Manifest destiny...” These words, placed together, command one’s attention. They sound important, almost biblical. But they didn’t come from an Old Testament patriarch or New Testament prophet. Rather, they came from the pithy pen of a 19th-century Irishman named John O’Sullivan. His ancestors were from County … [Read more...] about Window on the Past: Manifest Destiny

Window on the Past: A Savior of History

By Ray Cavanaugh, Contributor

December 22, 2018 by Leave a Comment

John Gilmary Shea preserved much of the existing knowledge of the beginnings of American Catholicism. Considering the Irish-American influence on U.S. Catholicism, it makes sense that someone of Irish descent – John Gilmary Shea – undertook to preserve much of the existing knowledge of the beginnings of American Catholicism. A prolific writer and dogged rescuer of rare … [Read more...] about Window on the Past: A Savior of History

“Sláinte, Mon!”:
The Irish of Jamaica

By Ray Cavanaugh, Contributor
June / July 2018

May 9, 2018 by 5 Comments

That Irish is Jamaica’s second-most predominant ethnicity may come as a surprise, especially to those outside the country. It all started in 1655 when the British failed in their efforts to claim Santo Domingo from the Spaniards and took Jamaica as a consolation prize. Of course, the British also had been quite active in Ireland, where, between 1641 and 1652, about half the … [Read more...] about “Sláinte, Mon!”:
The Irish of Jamaica

O’Reilly’s Tattoo Machine:
Fine Art for the Masses

By Ray Cavanaugh, Contributor
April / May 2016

March 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment

More than 45 million Americans have at least one tattoo. The vast lot of them got inked by way of an electric tattoo machine. And chances are they have no idea who invented the electric tattoo machine: Samuel O’Reilly. His rambunctious, enigmatic life began in May 1854 in Waterbury, Connecticut. Both his parents were Irish immigrants, and he was the oldest of five children. At … [Read more...] about O’Reilly’s Tattoo Machine:
Fine Art for the Masses

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Today in History

June 3, 618

This day marks the feast day of St. Kevin, who died on June 3, 618. Officially known in Irish as Saint Comegen, ‘gentle one’, of Glendalough, his name was anglicized to Saint Kevin. He was mentored by St. Petroc and established a church, which would later become a monastery and pilgrimage destination, at Glendalough in Co. Wicklow. Legend says that he lived until the age of 120.

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