Screenwriter Michael JP Reilly, co-writers craft ‘a weapon for good’ in the film ‘Till’

By Peter F. Stevens, Boston Irish Staff
June 16, 2023
Peter F. Stevens, Boston Irish Staff

This past February, the movie “Till” was screened at the White House for President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and their guests. Among the team that brought the powerful true story of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, to the president’s home that evening was the 42-year-old screenwriter and producer Michael JP Reilly, formerly of Massachusetts and the son of local Boston Irish luminary William “Bill” Reilly.

Professing Seamus Heaney

By Thomas O’Grady, Special to Boston Irish
June 16, 2023
Thomas O’Grady, Special to Boston Irish

During my long and rich teaching career (1984-2019) at UMass Boston, I had the rare good fortune of being able to offer, multiple times—both as a graduate seminar and as an undergraduate senior seminar—a course centered on Irish Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney. As the tenth anniversary of his death, on August 30th of 2013, looms large, I’ve been thinking about the various iterations of that course. Heaney was only 74 years old when he passed away, but he made a lasting mark not just on the Irish literary landscape but also globally—a mark that I tried to take the expanding measure of with my s

Courtney O’Connor & her vision for the Lyric Stage Company

By R. J. Donovan, Special to Boston Irish
June 16, 2023
R. J. Donovan, Special to Boston Irish

Courtney O’Connor has a solid history in the Boston theater community as a director, educator and arts administrator. Having directed several shows at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston over the years, she joined the full-time staff at Lyric in 2018 and was named artistic director in 2020.  (She partners with Executive Director Matt Chapman in operating the theater.)

Curley Center (aka L Street) has opened for the public

By Bill Forry, Editor
June 16, 2023
Bill Forry, Editor

The doors of the Curley Community Center on Columbia Road in South Boston swung open to the public on June 9 for the first time in more than three years, welcoming residents eager to get their first look at the renovated beachfront amenity that has been completely modernized at a cost of $31.2 million.

A Donnelly Visa transformed my life

By Martin McGovern, Special to Boston Irish
June 16, 2023
Martin McGovern, Special to Boston Irish

I will always be indebted to the late Congressman Brian Donnelly. His initiative and legislative skill created a visa lottery program that helped me and around 25,000 other Irish people obtain permanent resident status in the United States followed by the option to petition for US citizenship after five years.

Letter from Dublin: Biden and the Irish exchange expressions of affection

By Timothy Kirk, Special to Boston Irish
June 16, 2023
Timothy Kirk, Special to Boston Irish

Every year Irish politicians joke that in America St. Patrick’s Day lasts at least a week. This year, it seemed closer to two months.  Ireland dominated the agenda of senior American policy makers in March and April with three, weeklong events: The annual St Patrick’s pilgrimage of Irish political leaders to America; a four-day visit by President Biden to Ireland; and a politically star-studded 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement conference in Belfast.

Meditation: About the yearning that faith keeps alive

By James W. Dolan, Boston Irish Contributor
June 15, 2023
James W. Dolan, Boston Irish Contributor

 Is my yearning for something better than what I see around me just an indication of my fretful human nature? Or am I being pulled by a force that draws me toward a destiny beyond my own mortality? Is it a dream or a promise?

True contentment is unattainable here. Fulfillment is beyond our reach. Why this feeling of disquiet and discontent even when things go well? Love, money, and power never satisfy. Something is always missing. It never is quite what we hoped it would be.

Silence shouldn’t be the price of peace

By Bostonirish Newsroom
June 15, 2023
Bostonirish Newsroom

Patrick Radden Keefe, a Dorchester native and the best-selling author of “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland,” was invited to offer remarks at a ceremony at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, on April 2 during an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that brought about a ceasefire and a relative peace in Northern Ireland. Following is what he said:

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