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.

Robert Muse, family man, defense lawyer; at 92; Peter Muse, Esq., dies 16 days after his father

By BIR News Room
January 7, 2013

Robert Muse, who, with his wife Mary of 68 years and their family of 11 children, 38 grandchildren, and 9 great-gfandchildren, was honored at the Boston Irish Reporter’s Boston Irish Honors luncheon in October, died on Nov. 29. He was 92 years old and made good use of virtually every day in his long life.

Irish community stalwart Kathleen Lawlor dies

By BIR News Room
January 7, 2013

One of the Boston Irish community’s brightest lights was extinguished a week before Christmas with the death of Kathleen Lawlor, who leaves her husband John, five children – Mary, Maeve, Paul, John, and Owen – four grandchildren, and two brothers, Paul and Brian Kingston.
In her youth Kathleen was beautiful, brilliant in scholastics, a gifted step dancer, and enamored of all things Irish. She had degrees from Newton College and Boston College, represented Boston in Ireland’s international Rose of Tralee pageant, and later was a teacher.

Cameron admits to British role in Finucane murder

By BIR News Room
January 7, 2013

By Associated Press

LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron last month condemned actions by British agents in the 1989 death of the Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane one of the most bitterly disputed killings of the entire Northern Ireland conflict.

Cameron cited a long-awaited report on the slaying that said there was a shocking level of state collusion with an outlawed Protestant group in the murder of Finucane in his Belfast home as he was having Sunday lunch with his wife and three children. He specialized in defending Irish Republican Army suspects.

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