In this week’s podcast, Senator George J. Mitchell speaks to Tim Reidy and Kevin Clarke about his experience negotiating peace deals in the Middle East and Northern Ireland. His latest book, A Path to Peace, written with Alon Sachar, lays out possible avenues for peace in the Middle East going forward. George J. Mitchell was […]
Ireland
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
The Politics of Summer 1968 Live On
American Maelstrom examines the 1968 election by focusing on the personalities who sought the nation’s highest office.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
At Citizens Assembly, Ireland’s abortion laws come back into focus
The assembly will be examining what is widely referred to as the Eighth Amendment, which gives effect to Ireland’s ban on abortion.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Signs Of the Times
Gang violence in Ireland has a new, deadly directive
Once over money and territory, violence in the country has taken a more destructive turn.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Imposing Independence: Questioning the moral authority of the Easter Rising
Catholic social thought has much to say about the issues surrounding the Rising.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
The Catholic side of Irish soda bread (and the world’s greatest recipe)
Cutting a cross into Irish soda bread dough before placing it in the oven serves both a scientific purpose and a spiritual one.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Storytelling at Its Irish Best
In the very useful Penguin Book of Irish Fiction 2000 editor Colm T ib n ultimately selected but one short story from the prolific Benedict Kiely an unenviable task to say the least T ib n chose Homes on the Mountain a modest-seeming tale about a 12-year-old boy and his extended family tw
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Paradise Lost
During an interview several years ago Edna O’Brien told me a story about an appearance of hers in the 1960’s on an Irish television program during which the host said to the studio audience: “Hands up all of you who think Edna O’Brien has shamed her country.”
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
Melting Pot: Gangs of New York
Not long ago a distant cousin, a genealogy buff, sent me an antique clipping from a local paper about a possible ancestor on trial for murder. In the labor wars of the 19th century, scabs did not have much longevity in the Irish factory towns of the Middle West. This long-forgotten enforcer simply p