It is fitting that the 1969 Nobel Prize for literature went to the Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett. After all, in works such as Waiting for Godot and Endgame, Beckett alternated between tragedy and comedy, drama and farce. The same could be said about 1969. It has now been 40 years since that eventful year which gave us Woodstock, the moon landing, the Manson … [Read more...] about 1969: A Crazy Year for Irish America
The Kennedys
Sláinte: Rest in Peace Ted Kennedy
As my sophomore year of high school began in 1960, the country was buzzing with the coming election. An Irish American was running for president! My Irish relatives rallied to the call and even my Italian family members supported the candidate. He might be Irish but he was Catholic too! When John F. Kennedy’s campaign came to Philadelphia, my father was one of the official … [Read more...] about Sláinte: Rest in Peace Ted Kennedy
The Last Word: What Ted Kennedy & John Sweeney Built On
The death of Ted Kennedy precedes by three weeks the end of John Sweeney’s 14-year tenure as president of the AFL-CIO. Together, these events signal the end of an epoch in American political history: that of Irish American leadership of the nation’s liberal institutions and Democratic organizations. Time was, of course, when the Democratic Party was largely big-city machines … [Read more...] about The Last Word: What Ted Kennedy & John Sweeney Built On
Bobby Kennedy’s Bridge
Senator Robert R. Kennedy represented New York from 1965 until June 1968 when he was fatally shot in Los Angeles while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. On November 19, 2008, forty years after he was assassinated, the Triborough Bridge, which connects Manhattan with the Bronx and Queens, was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. “It is an honor to join … [Read more...] about Bobby Kennedy’s Bridge
Inside the Kennedy White House
When Barack Obama moved into the White House, many felt a sense of optimism despite the vast challenges facing America. Such feelings, naturally, recalled January of 1961 when, on a bright, frozen Washington morning, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated, declaring that “the torch has been passed to a new generation – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a … [Read more...] about Inside the Kennedy White House