BC’s Connolly awarded Ellis Island medal of honor

By Ed Forry
June 3, 2013

Seamus Connolly, the Sullivan Artist-in-Residence at Boston College and director of the university’s Irish Studies music programs, receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honor from the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO) on May 11 in recognition of his distinguished career as one of the world’s most respected master Irish musicians.

Colin Hamell explores lost dreams of The Titanic

By R.J.Donovan
June 3, 2013
R.J.Donovan

BY R. J. DONOVAN
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
From Hollywood to Broadway, the world has long romanticized the sinking of the Titanic. Further, the story of the 1912 tragedy has focused strongly on the ship being a luxury liner that took to its watery grave a fairly well-to-do list of passengers.
What many people don’t realize is that the Titanic – the largest ship in the world at the time – was designed to transport emigrants. And, that it was built in the shipyards of Belfast.

The Yanks are coming’ – to the Burren- Backroom series feature on June 19

By Sean Smith
June 3, 2013
Sean Smith

BY SEAN SMITH
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
A New York City-based Irish band called The Yanks might seem a tough sell in the hub of Red Sox Nation, but Bostonians shouldn’t leap to conclusions: As fiddler Dylan Foley explains, he and his mates did not choose the moniker as a tribute to a certain baseball team.
“ ‘Yanks’ are what the Irish call obnoxious Americans, and we are Americans playing Irish music,” says Foley. “And we are obnoxious – sometimes.”

Suffolk University President McCarthy fills role of a Renaissance man in challenging times

By Greg O'Brien
June 3, 2013
Greg O'Brien

BY GREG O’BRIEN
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
If they handed out frequent flier miles for an extended resume, Jim McCarthy would fly free, first class, the rest of his life. Instead, the president of Suffolk University is flying high in the academic world. To say that he is a Renaissance man is to say that Isaac Newton could count.

The value of accommodation

By Ed Forry
June 3, 2013

BY JAMES W. DOLAN
SPECIAL TO THE REPORTER
I refer not to the residential kind of accommodations of which we are all familiar but the adjustments one must make to the inevitable vicissitudes one experiences navigating the rolling swells that sometimes threaten life’s equilibrium.
Adapting to such currents requires patience, self-control, tolerance, understanding, and the capacity to overlook annoyances. By “overlook” I do not mean “ignore” but to look beyond the immediate irritation to something more important than anger or withdrawal.

About blights – the natural, and the man-made

By BY PETER F. STEVENS
June 3, 2013
BY PETER F. STEVENS

Recently, scientists announced the discovery of the actual strain of potato blight that unleashed the Great Famine, An Gorta Mor. The natural villain behind at least a million deaths from starvation or disease and the Irish Diaspora of the mid-1800s was “HERB-1,” the name that an international team of molecular biologists has give to the lethal blight.

Delivering hopeful change to both Dublin and Belfast Information technology training for the Irish unemployed and underemployed

By Joe Leary
June 3, 2013
Joe Leary

BY JOE LEARY
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
This is a bit of a personal story for me – testimony to the help that Irish America has provided to the most severely disadvantaged areas of Dublin and the rest of Ireland.
Social planners 50-60 years ago built huge apartment buildings to shelter those who were unable to purchase homes for themselves. As a social experiment they turned out to be disasters. Many of us will remember the “Columbia Point” project here in Boston as a well-intended answer to low income housing. It no longer exists.

Where to go in Ireland? There’s much to choose from

By Ed Forry
June 3, 2013

by Judy Enright
Special to the BIR
Want to know where to go when you visit Ireland? Well, check out recommendations from some of the Irish who voted for the best place to vacation in Ireland. The Irish Times newspaper recently announced 25 locations shortlisted by their panel of judges from 1,400 nominations submitted since March. The judges, most of whom are in some aspect of tourism, will choose an overall winner.

Irish Voting from abroad? New EU plan may mandate it

By Bill O'Donnell
June 3, 2013
Bill O'Donnell

EU May Force Voting For Expatriates – As it currently stands, Ireland is just one of six European Union countries that exclude their citizens abroad from voting in home elections. There has been continuing but ineffective pressure from young Irish living overseas to be allowed to vote in national elections, but that may soon be changing. Some top officials in Ireland and the EU are proposing legislation that would make all members of the Union eligible to vote in elections in their home countries, and Ireland would be ready.

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