An old-time bar in Brooklyn, Farrell’s has served as a community center since the 1930s, and is the last marker of what was once a thriving Irish neighborhood. Farrell’s Bar, on the corner of 16th Street and 9th Avenue in Brooklyn, has been in the same location in Windsor Terrace since 1933. It was the very first bar to open in New York after Prohibition. The writer Pete … [Read more...] about The Last Irish Saloon
Writers and Poets
Window on the Past: A Savior of History
John Gilmary Shea preserved much of the existing knowledge of the beginnings of American Catholicism. Considering the Irish-American influence on U.S. Catholicism, it makes sense that someone of Irish descent – John Gilmary Shea – undertook to preserve much of the existing knowledge of the beginnings of American Catholicism. A prolific writer and dogged rescuer of rare … [Read more...] about Window on the Past: A Savior of History
Review of Books
Recently-published books of Irish and Irish American interest. ℘℘℘ MEMOIR Box of Butterflies: Discovering the Unexpected Blessings All Around Us By Roma Downey A 10-year-old Roma Downey, mourning the sudden, unexpected death of her vibrant mother, goes to Maureen O’Reilly Downey’s grave to plant her favorite flower – pansies. “She used to say she thought they looked like … [Read more...] about Review of Books
The Irish Airman’s Grave:
From Padua to Kiltartan
The story of W.B. Yeats's tower, Lady Gregory's autograph tree, and the grave of Irish airman Robert Gregory, whose death inspired some of Yeats's most well-known poems.
January 23, 2018, marked the 100th anniversary of the death in Italy of Ireland’s most famous aviator, Major Robert Gregory. His grave stands in a quiet corner of Padua’s elaborate Cimitero Maggiore in a … [Read more...] about The Irish Airman’s Grave:
From Padua to Kiltartan
USPS Gives Flannery O’Connor Her Own Stamp
June 5, 2015
Award-winning Irish American novelist and devout Catholic Flannery O’Connor will appear on a new postal stamp, joining distinguished authors like Hemingway and Steinbeck in the “Forever” U.S.P.S stamp series. Famous for her unnerving southern fiction style, O’Connor’s absorbing work deals with the ideas of racism, free will, sexism and inevitability of belief. Her … [Read more...] about USPS Gives Flannery O’Connor Her Own Stamp