Irish America
Irish nurses, in fiction and in real life, shaped nursing and healthcare in the U.S. There is a moment late in J. Courtney Sullivan’s excellent 2017 novel Saints for all Occasions when “hundreds of people showed up” to a Boston Irish American wake. Among the mourners are a trio of sisters, “Peggy, Patrica and Jane, all of them nurses…two of them wore scrubs beneath their … [Read more...] about “Saints” in Scrubs
In late 1990s baseball, home runs were everywhere. The balls were allegedly juiced. The sluggers were definitely juiced. Players who had been lanky rookies would later display cartoon-sized muscles, thanks to a regimen of syringes in the posterior. Even hitters of mediocre power were expected to belt 15 home runs per season. About one century earlier, however, 15 round-trippers … [Read more...] about Window on the Past
The Irish Bambino
Calgary, nicknamed “Cowtown,” is home to the largest rodeo in the world, the Calgary Stampede, which annually draws millions of visitors. The first Calgary rodeo in 1912 was organized by a New Yorker with Irish roots, as Ray Cavanaugh explains. Cowboys seem like a self-assured lot. But Guy Weadick was more than self-assured; he was a bold visionary, and … [Read more...] about Window on the Past: Stampede of a New York Cowboy
The extraordinarily gifted Emmett Kelly, who turned clowning into an art form. Though he was most certainly a clown, Emmett Kelly’s performances were wistful rather than slapstick. Instead of wearing cheerfully bright clothes and having a prominent grin painted on his face, Kelly flouted clownish convention, wearing dark-colored rags and having a face forever contorted … [Read more...] about Window on the Past: The Triumph of a Sad Clown
Two words from one Irishman who trumpeted the world's superpower. “Manifest destiny...” These words, placed together, command one’s attention. They sound important, almost biblical. But they didn’t come from an Old Testament patriarch or New Testament prophet. Rather, they came from the pithy pen of a 19th-century Irishman named John O’Sullivan. His ancestors were from County … [Read more...] about Window on the Past: Manifest Destiny
