Boston Irish Commentary
By Joe Leary
Special to the BIR
The recent British Parliamentary elections indicate a dramatic new phase in Northern Ireland’s journey towards peaceful change. New leaders in London, a continuing increase in National/Republican votes, Unionist parties in... Read more
By Robert P. Connolly
Special to the BIR
For years, the political playbook for Northern Ireland’s unionists stressed saber-rattling and offering up the hardest of hard-line stands. After all, the party that dominated unionist politics for decades, the... Read more
Giving new definition to irony, Rob O'Leary's academic pedigree in the spirited arena of Boston politics reads like one from central casting: Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire; The School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University where he rubbed... Read more
The results of the upcoming British Parliamentary elections will have a profound effect upon peace and understanding amongst the conflicted people of Northern Ireland. The people of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, will elect 650 members of... Read more
BELFAST - While the party leaders who have the most at stake in this month's British election are named Brown, Cameron, and Clegg, the leaders of three of Northern Ireland's four main political parties also have a lot riding on the outcome of the... Read more
If you had told Thomas Bartlett in 1970 that 40 years later he would be the Burns Scholar at Boston College, teaching classes on Ireland in the early modern era and researching the holdings of the "best Irish collection in North America," he probably... Read more
$88,200.
How many of you earn that amount in a year?
Not I, says the teacher. Nor I, says the letter carrier. Nor I, says the clerk at the corner store. Certainly not I, says the senior citizen living on Social Security.
$88,200. That’s 1,700 bucks a... Read more
The vast influence and power of Ireland throughout the world is proven every St. Patrick’s Day. And don’t think it is just parties and parades; it is testimony to the robust spirit and unique character of the Irish people who vigorously celebrate their... Read more
By Robert P. Connolly
Special to the BIR
With spring in the air and the landscape turning green, the mind wanders across the water…
The upcoming British election means that Northern Ireland’s 18 Westminster seats will be up for grabs. The Democratic... Read more
The Haiti earthquake claimed the life of Andrew Grene, but his legacy lives on through his twin brother – the Prodigals' Gregory Grene - and a foundation for the children of Haiti.
For 44-year-old Gregory Grene, of the popular band The Prodigals, nothing... Read more
A student of the classics and ancient Greece, Tom Hynes delights in the story of Pheidippides, the Athenian herald who in 490 B.C. announced the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon. As legend has it, Pheidippides ran a marathon 150 miles... Read more
In a close election last month, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) of Northern Ireland elected Minister Margaret Ritchie, 51, as its "leader" to guide the party into the second decade of the 21st century. With her ascension, Miss Ritchie... Read more
Northern Ireland's Troubles began with its police force front and center and in a very real sense may have ended with a grand compromise on the vexing question of where the ultimate control over policing should rest.
In many people's minds, Northern... Read more
The Irish Immigration Center is partnering with several organizations throughout the city to help Haitian immigrants seeking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) complete applications by a June deadline.
In recent weeks, the Obama administration granted TPS... Read more
The Jan. 19 election to succeed Paul Kirk - and Ted Kennedy - in the United States Senate was supposed to be the tripwire. The vote that launched a thousand domino campaigns, Democrats vying against Democrats for seats long held safe by Democrats, and... Read more
One of the more substantive heroes of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, Cardinal Cahal Daly, died in a Belfast hospital last month at the age of 92. A saintly man of small stature, the cardinal was trusted by Protestant church leaders on all sides. A... Read more
Declan Kelly describes himself as "a salesman for Northern Ireland" and like any good salesman, he comes to the job armed with facts and figures - and brimming with energy, determination, and ideas.
Kelly also has the great advantage of selling a product... Read more
The view is serene from Stephen John Murphy's office on the fifth floor of Boston City Hall. It overlooks Faneuil Hall and a swath of Boston Harbor in the distance on this promising late January day when the sun is a bit higher in the sky and the... Read more
When Maureen Gates received a phone call asking if she would like an intern from Ireland, she didn't waste a moment to jump at the opportunity. Gates works on the EagleEyes project at the Boston College Campus School and for the past decade she has helped... Read more
Every once in a while we have to be told to "slow down, you are going too fast; stop and think." Sometimes it is a speeding accident, or an exciting idea gone wrong, or a personal excess that should be controlled.
In Ireland's case it was the soaring... Read more
