Irish America
Irish America
‘In Banbridge Town in the County Down One morning last July, From a boreen green came a sweet colleen, And she smiled as she passed me by.' What is absolutely, positively true about Greer Garson is that she was born Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson to George and Nina Garson. From the beginning of her acting career until her death in 1996, she maintained her birthplace was … [Read more...] about The Star of County Down
Her likeness appears on a banknote and in portraits by famous artists. Who was Lady Lavery Women rarely have their faces on currency. Except, of course, for the recently departed Queen Elizabeth II who was on the currency of Great Britain and her colonies for over 70 years. In 1928, Ireland, too, cast a woman on the banknotes of a new, free Ireland, Lady Hazel Martyn … [Read more...] about The Lady From Chicago & The Pound Note
“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Maybe she had too many gifts: she was a great beauty with a quick intellect; she could act, sing and, with little effort, was “discovered” and groomed for Hollywood stardom. In the early 1950s, she was a newcomer at 20th Century Fox, deemed so promising, she landed a plum showcase – a presenter at the 1952 … [Read more...] about Constance Smith: A Hollywood Tragedy
“You men say to us: ‘Your place is in the home,’ yet as children we must come out of the home at 11, at 13, and at 15 years of age to earn a living. We have got to make good or starve.” The charismatic and powerful public speaker who pushed for equal pay for equal work, better labor standards, and overall empowerment for women is profiled by Rosemary Rogers. Leonora … [Read more...] about The Agitator: Leonora O’Reilly
Pilloried by the press and railroaded to prison, she still managed to sail into the sunset. During the summer of 1965 in the East Bronx, the collective grief in Saint Raymond’s convent was almost palpable. The nuns learned that one of their students, a former Good Irish Catholic Girl, had brought shame on them and the rest of the tribe. Alice Crimmins was now fodder for … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: More Sinned Against Than Sinning
