Irish America
Irish America
A Story of Ireland Whenever Michael Walsh thought he was finished at last with Ireland, all of it would come flooding back, like a sudden wave on a glassy sea. He had tried to rid himself of that sad green country with cheap whiskey in too many bad bars in a city that was not his own. And now, on this perfect spring day in his eleventh year of New York exile, he could feel … [Read more...] about The Exile
After 800 years of colonial rule, Ireland finally got conditional freedom and fell victim to the British Empire’s deadliest legacy, partition. In the six northern counties, bigotry and resentment simmered over the years until it broke wide open in 1968. Then along came Bernadette. In the beginning, there was a single face that symbolized the conflict, a passionate college … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: Bernadette
Quarantines are not without their benefits. During the early months of the pandemic, I was able to reduce my bedside leaning tower of books before it toppled over on my head. Two of the best deal with Northern Ireland. Together they are essential to understanding the conflict. Maurice Fitzpatrick’s John Hume in America: From Derry to DC tells the story of a man who, in the face … [Read more...] about Understanding Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”
April 17, 2021
By Deaglán de Bréadún
Concern has been growing in Ireland, north and south, that the Troubles which caused so many deaths and injuries for thirty years from the late Sixties until the end of the Nineties might be on the way back. The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement was concluded in April 1998, with former US Senator George Mitchell chairing the negotiations, … [Read more...] about Growing Unrest in
Northern Ireland
Oh! star of Erin, queen of tears, Black clouds have beset thy birth, And your people die like morning stars, That your light may grace the earth. – "Stars of Freedom," 1981 By IRA volunteer Bobby Sands, M.P. H-Block, Long Kesh Prison Camp Watching Bobby Sands die in 1981, much of the world realized, finally, that the young IRA soldier and hunger striker was a freedom fighter, … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: A Most Sorrowful Mystery
