It is a mid-October Sunday morning at Notre Dame, right after the home victory against Pittsburgh. It was a close-run thing and the sense of relief around the Notre Dame campus is palpable. Nowhere is it more obvious than in Coach Brian Kelly’s headquarters at the Guglielmino complex. It is easy to see what pressure a Notre Dame rookie coach is under just when you wander into … [Read more...] about Kelly Green at Notre Dame: Coach Brian Kelly
Sports
The First Word: Putting the Fight Back in the Irish
Niall O’Dowd returned from interviewing Coach Brian Kelly with a story of a cab driver he met – an immigrant from Africa who had seen little of America outside of South Bend, Indiana. When the cabbie learned that Niall was Irish, he exclaimed with admiration, “You Irish, you own everything over here!” Watching the televised game between Notre Dame and Utah and witnessing the … [Read more...] about The First Word: Putting the Fight Back in the Irish
Boxing Buddies: George Bernard Shaw and Gene Tunney
The unlikely friendship between prizefighter Gene Tunney and dramatist George Bernard Shaw is explored in a book by the boxer’s son, Jay Tunney. There are many books about famous literary friendships. John Keats, Lord Byron, and Percy Bysshe Shelley have more than a few dedicated to them, as do Edith Wharton and Henry James; Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. While … [Read more...] about Boxing Buddies: George Bernard Shaw and Gene Tunney
Those We Lost
Recent Passings in the Irish American Community Harold Connolly 1931-2010 Harold Connolly, who won the gold medal in the hammer throw at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, died in Maryland on August 19. He was 79. His son Adam Connolly reported that he died of a heart attack. After suffering from severe nerve paralysis as a child, Connolly underwent serious physical therapy and began … [Read more...] about Those We Lost
Those We Lost
Recent passings in the Irish and Irish American community. Brendan Burke 1988-2010 Brendan Burke, the youngest son of Brian Burke, general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the U.S. Olympic ice hockey team, died in a car crash in Indiana February 5. He was 21. He was driving along with 18-year-old Mark Reedy when heavy snow caused their Jeep Cherokee to slide into the … [Read more...] about Those We Lost