BC High’s Mary Madden, math teacher, had a goal: Help my students to excel beyond their expectations

By Greg O'Brien
February 7, 2013
Greg O'Brien

BY GREG O’BRIEN
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
Veteran Boston College High School Principal Stephen Hughes doesn’t play favorites at the prestigious all-boys Jesuit prep on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester, an institution rooted in the 16th century teachings of the Spaniard St. Ignatius Loyola. Unless, of course, Hughes is talking about the best teacher he has encountered in his 30 years at the school.
Hands down, that would be Mary Madden.

Connemara’s charming Lough Inagh: More home than hotel

By Ed Forry
February 7, 2013

BY JUDY ENRIGHT
SPECIAL TO THE BIR
Would I ever steer you wrong about Ireland and all things Irish? No, I never, ever would.
So, I love it when I mention my favorite tourist attractions and accommodations and others agree. For instance, Ireland’s hospitality industry magazine, Hotel and Catering Review, recently chose my favorite hotel – Lough Inagh Lodge in Connemara – as the best country house for 2012. This was the second consecutive year that Lough Inagh won the Gold Medal, the top award. They were also runner-up another year.

The man from Cork brought the Babe to Boston

By Ed Forry
February 7, 2013

BY PETER F. STEVENS
BIR STAFF
“What’s Broken Can Be Fixed,” the full-page Red Sox ad blares. To launch that Fenway fix, the team’s brass has turned to an old friend with a Hibernian surname. Tito’s erstwhile pitching coach, John Farrell, pried loose from his managerial stint in Toronto, is hardly the first Sox manager with Irish roots.

On the drawing board: Kylemore Abbey as ‘a new icon’

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
January 7, 2013

By Judy Enright
Special to the BIR

Since before 2010, when the Benedictine nuns closed their highly regarded school for girls at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara, the most frequent question in the area has been: “What next?”

Would the picturesque castle, perched on a rise above Pollacappul Lake, become a tourist hotel? Would the property be transformed into a Celtic Magic Kingdom? Could developers build a casino or conference center in peaceful Connemara?

Katie McNally answers big challenge with élan Whirlwind tour with Carlos Nunez

By Sean Smith
January 7, 2013
Sean Smith

Boston-area fiddler Katie McNally already knew it was going to be a busy fall, what with recording her first album, getting ready for her annual stint with the Childsplay ensemble and, basically, living life as a college grad trying to make it as a Celtic musician.
Then, suddenly, opportunity came knocking.

At the office, on the golf course, or wherever he finds himself, Dick Connolly is always practicing

By Greg O' Brien
January 7, 2013
Greg O' Brien

At 16, Richard Francis Connolly Jr. had a vision for life. A golf prodigy at Woburn Country Club where his game was moving toward scratch, he queued up on a Friday night to a fully stocked buffet table that would have satisfied the most famished adolescent: steaming, lean roast beef, honey ham, sausage and pork, and a selection of thinly sliced deli meats that would delight a king. His buddies, all playing the following day in a junior tournament, put on the feedbags. To everyone’s surprise, Connolly wistfully walked away from the table empty-handed.

Swift Boaters, Tea Party Losers Go After Kerry

By Bill O'Donnell
January 7, 2013
Bill O'Donnell

Swift Boaters, Tea Party Losers Go After Kerry – It comes as no surprise that the Swift Boat gang that helped torpedo US Sen. John Kerry’s presidential bid in 2004 has been resurrected to do the same for his expected appointment as Secretary of State. They will have as allies in the attempted Kerry take-down the shrinking Tea Party stalwarts whose advocacy of right wing nut-case candidates has probably cost the Republican party five US Senate seats in just the past two elections.

When black-and-white stories leave out the gray

By Peter F. Stevens
January 7, 2013
Peter F. Stevens

The dead can’t defend themselves. While cliché, the sentence is a truism nonetheless as witness the recent release of FBI files on the late Kevin White offering some 500 pages of roughly composed, heavily redacted documents that delve into purported corruption during White’s four-term tenure (1968-1983) as Boston’s mayor.

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