Marty Walsh, a Boston College grad, will be sworn-in as Boston's Mayor at BC's Conte Forum

By Bill Forry
December 18, 2013
Bill Forry

By Bill Forry
Contributing Editor
On Jan. 6, Marty Walsh will be sworn in as Boston’s 54th mayor — and the first from Dorchester in more than a half-century. He’ll take the oath and give his first mayoral address in front of a few thousand of his closest friends and admirers — including Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, who’ll perform at the 10 a.m. ceremony.

Destiny has meaning on the Stonehill campus: Father John Denning is now holding the reins

By By Greg O’Brien
December 2, 2013
By Greg O’Brien

By Greg O’Brien
Special to the BIR

President Denning takes a stroll on campus with Danielle Berkman ’16. Photo by Kathy TarantolaPresident Denning takes a stroll on campus with Danielle Berkman ’16. Photo by Kathy Tarantola

Rev. John Denning, of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the newly inaugurated head of Stonehill, the college his order founded in North Easton in 1948, hardly needed an introduction to the campus when he took office two months ago as the institution’s 10th president. Friends say his appointment was the completion of divine order for a priest who had spent the previous 13 years at Stonehill building spiritual and cultural bridges in positions ranging from Director of Campus Ministry, to Vice President for Mission, to Vice President of Student Affairs.

A second-generation Irish American with paternal and maternal family roots in Cos. Louth and Westmeath, respectively, Fr. Denning has come full circle at the distinguished Catholic liberal arts college where he has come to be widely known as “the students’ president.” Reports Pauline Dobrowski, Stonehill’s vice president for student affairs, on the new president’s welcome: “People were just elated. “There was a celebratory feeling.”

Strong push to give Old Irish Goats rare breed status

By BIR News Room
December 2, 2013

By Judy Enright
Special to the BIR

It would probably be fair to call me a stalker – in the nicest sense of the word, of course.
This feral goat is currently in captivity being treated for injuries. Doesn't he look like he's smiling?This feral goat is currently in captivity being treated for injuries. Doesn't he look like he's smiling?

For at least a decade, I have stalked Old Irish Goats all around Mulranny, Co. Mayo. I desperately wanted to photograph them with their shaggy, unruly coats and huge, almost other-worldly horns.

Friends had advised me to drive the curvy Belmullet road. “The goats are always there on the hillside,” they said. Yet, no goats, no matter how many times I drove the route.

“They are always in the town (Mulranny),” friends said. I had never seen them there until one evening when we went to dinner at the Park Hotel and the most magnificent, regal Billy Goat, sporting a long, grey beard, was there, busily snacking on the hotel’s specimen plantings. Of course, I didn’t have my camera!

Dot’s Warren back home in ‘I Love Lucy’

By R.J. Donovan
December 2, 2013
R.J. Donovan

Lucy: Carolynne Warren misses Dorchester’s sense of neighborhood.Lucy: Carolynne Warren misses Dorchester’s sense of neighborhood.
Christmas is coming a little early for Dorchester native Carolynne Warren, who has built a successful career as an actress and entrepreneur in Los Angeles. The actress will find herself onstage at Boston’s Colonial Theatre from Dec. 3 to Dec. 22 as a member of the national tour of “I Love Lucy: Live On Stage.”

When she was growing up on Geneva Avenue in Fields Corner, she says she never dared dream of such a gig. Her Boston story includes local iconic highlights like the school dances at Florian Hall, Mass at St. Peter’s, dance classes at Fields Corner, high school at Boston Latin, and regular appearances “in my Nana’s kitchen.” Along the way, she picked up a diploma from Harvard University along the way.

Warren has been a member of Second City in Chicago, has appeared in several one-woman shows, and is the founder of Hey Dollface! Productions. She was back in Boston previously to appear in “Menopause: The Musical” at the Stuart Street Playhouse and “The Light In The Piazza” at SpeakEasy Stage.

‘New sounds’ emphasis helps keep Celtic Sojourn a ‘fresh’ attraction

By Sean Smith
December 2, 2013
Sean Smith

Boston-area musicians Maeve Gilchrist and Mariel Vandersteel will be among the featured performers as “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn” begins its second decade of flavoring the Christmas holiday season with music, song, dance, and storytelling from Irish, Scottish and other Celtic – even non-Celtic – traditions.

For Gerry Adams, storms clouds ahead

By Bill O’Donnell
December 2, 2013
Bill O’Donnell

By Bill O’Donnell

Storm Clouds Gathering For Gerry Adams –Sinn Fein Party Leader and Dail Deputy from County Louth, Gerry Adams has led a relatively charmed life as prisoner, negotiator with the British, Good Friday peacemaker, and immensely successful politician with stakeholds in a persistently divided Ireland. However, that charmed life may be about to be interrupted by British government and loyalists forces in the North who finally have the scent of a weakened Irish republican in their sight.

Destiny has meaning on the Stonehill campus: Father John Denning is now holding the reins

By Greg O'Brien
December 2, 2013
Greg O'Brien

Rev. John Denning, of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the newly inaugurated head of Stonehill, the college his order founded in North Easton in 1948, hardly needed an introduction to the campus when he took office two months ago as the institution’s 10th president. Friends say his appointment was the completion of divine order for a priest who had spent the previous 13 years at Stonehill building spiritual and cultural bridges in positions ranging from Director of Campus Ministry, to Vice President for Mission, to Vice President of Student Affairs.

A Q & A with Mary McAleese

By BIR News Room
December 2, 2013

Belfast-born Mary McAleese served two terms as president of Ireland during 1997-2011, the first native of Northern Ireland to hold that office. McAleese’s presidency was marked by her advocacy for peace and reconciliation through regular trips to Northern Ireland and by hosting visitors from the North at her official residence. This fall, McAleese is serving as the Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies, accompanied by her husband Martin. She recently spoke with Sean Smith of the Boston College Chronicle.Excerpts from that interview follow:
  

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