Irish America

Irish America

Travel Story

The Stones of Gallarus or Two Pounds For a Pint

By James T. Dette

September October 1993

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Survival, we are told, is the first law of nature. If so, the Irish are the most law-abiding citizens in the world. That they survived centuries of English occupation and oppression is legend, but it was a recent trip that illustrated this in a very different way. It was my first trip to Ireland. To my knowledge I was the first descendant of James Burke, my mother's father, to … [Read more...] about The Stones of Gallarus or Two Pounds For a Pint

Beyond the Veil

By Therese Lanigan-Schmidt

May/June 1997

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A descendant of Famine immigrants recounts her trip home. It was our first trip to Ireland. And it was a trip my mother, Mary Lanigan Schmidt, always yearned to make, but never did. Now dead these 12 years, she left behind so much, including her First Communion veil from 1926, now yellow with age. I took two snippets of the delicate lace and brought them with me, a part of … [Read more...] about Beyond the Veil

In Pursuit of Irish Culture

By Owen O'Toole and Emmet O'Sullivan

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What is Irish culture, anyway? My name is Owen O'Toole. I'm 18, and while I proudly identify as Irish-American, I need to know more about my ancestral homeland.  As my high school, Regis, prepares a trip next year to Ireland ("a pilgrimage," as we members of Regis' Gaelic society affectionately call it), I want to understand what Irish culture is all about. Here's what I do … [Read more...] about In Pursuit of Irish Culture

A Sacred Place: Skellig Michael

Photos and article by Chris Ryan
Spring 2023

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Photographer and writer Chris Ryan visited the larger of the two Skellig Islands off the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, where an early-medieval monastery survives at the edge of the material world. Start at the Dublin offices of Google or Facebook, drive to the southwest tip of Ireland, hop a boat, journey seven miles out to sea, and climb 600 steps clinging to the edge … [Read more...] about A Sacred Place: Skellig Michael