Will Real John Banville Please Stand Up! Wexford native and Booker-prize-winner John Banville has spent his celebrated literary career exploring the slippery nature of identity and reality. Characters in Banville’s dazzling, challenging novels, such as The Untouchable or Athena, slip in and out of personas, and conceal so many secrets from friends and family (not to mention … [Read more...] about Crime Pays for John Banville
Tom Deignan
Irish Links at the U.S. Open
When Caddyshack star Michael O’Keefe showed up at the U.S. Open this week, it was just the latest big role played by the Irish at the elite golf tournament. From the Irish Americans who dominated the Open’s early days, to top 21st Century golfers like Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy – both competing this week at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York – the Irish have left … [Read more...] about Irish Links at the U.S. Open
Keeping Children Safe
As a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Sean O'Leary talks about the impact of coronavirus on school openings. In this interview with Tom Deignan, he also talks about his heritage and the traditions that helped shaped his identity. Dr. Sean O’Leary has vivid memories of lively family reunions from his youth, which took place in lesser-known … [Read more...] about Keeping Children Safe
Reagan Democrats, Biden Time, and The Irish Swing Vote
If things were never simple they are even more complicated now, when we talk about the “Irish vote” as the 2020 presidential election nears. A 2017 Newsweek headline put it bluntly: “Why are all the conservative loudmouths Irish American.” The short answer: Um, they’re not. The longer answer: It’s complicated. But 2020 may finally be the year we recognize the many shades of … [Read more...] about Reagan Democrats, Biden Time, and The Irish Swing Vote
The Pull Of The Stars
By Tom Deignan Best-Selling Dublin-born author Emma Donoghue has a brilliant and timely new novel out. Set in an Irish maternity ward during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, The Pull of the Stars explores the challenges and heroism of nurses and other health care workers, while at the same time tenderly chronicling the loves and losses of their inner lives. Tom Deignan … [Read more...] about The Pull Of The Stars





