Little Elie Madden and her family find help, hope in Boston

By Ed Forry
January 9, 2012

The Madden family: 14-month old Elie, left, with her dad Eddie, mom Esit and twin sister Emie. Photo courtesy Madden familyThe Madden family: 14-month old Elie, left, with her dad Eddie, mom Esit and twin sister Emie. Photo courtesy Madden familyBy Pat Tarantino, Reporter Staff
After nearly a year-and-a-half spent in hospitals, operating rooms, and recovery units, a Dublin family's lengthy struggle to secure a healthy future for their ailing daughter may finally come to a happy end here in Boston.

Fourteen-month-old Elie Madden was born weighing less than four pounds and suffering from esophageal atresia - a rare disorder in which her esophagus is too short to reach her stomach - and has spent much of her young life dependant on machinery to keep her fed and breathing.

But thanks to a tireless fundraising campaign by parents Eddie and Esti and an outpouring of support in Ireland, Elie is now at Boston's Children's Hospital where she is currently receiving treatment that could give her a chance at a normal, healthy childhood.

Suzin Bartley relentlessly works her mission: Stressing prevention to stem tide of child abuse

By Greg O'Brien
January 5, 2012
Greg O'Brien

It has been said about child abuse that it "casts a shadow the length of a lifetime." Suzin Bartley, executive director of the Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund, has spent a professional lifetime trying to bring light to this darkness. She describes a chilling analogy—a haunting image that she has—of standing in a boat on a wide river, watching a baby float in the current. She grabs for the baby. Another one floats by, and she reaches out again. Again and again, until the boat is filled with babies.

Sen. Brown backing bill to open up 10,500 visas for Irish

By Staff
January 5, 2012

BY GINTAUTAS DUMCIUS
BIR staff
U.S. Sen. Scott Brown is pushing a bill that would provide 10,500 employment visas for Irish immigrants. Brown, a Wrentham Republican, filed the bill with U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican. Citing a “close bond” between the United States and Ireland, Brown said in a statement that “inefficiencies” in the national immigration program have led to “increasingly poor prospects” for Irish immigrants.

One Man’s Hero: In the ‘Age of Tebow,’ a forgotten Boston Irishman stands out as the ‘Genuine Article’

By BY PETER F. STEVENS
January 3, 2012
BY PETER F. STEVENS

What does this exhibit have to do with Tebow or the other celebrities whom so many folks deify? It reveals how they pale when set against bona-fide heroes, the type who stand for or against something with no fanfare and no desire for acclaim. Such a quiet hero was John Edward Kelly.

Troubling signals all up the line; a painful year looms for Ireland

By Joe Leary, Special to the BIR
January 3, 2012
Joe Leary, Special to the BIR

With draconian cuts in their standard of living, the potential collapse of the European Union, and the irrelevance of the Catholic Church in their lives, the people of Ireland are looking at a bleak 2012 as the new year dawns. The huge debts run up by swashbuckling real estate developers and crooked bank officials, which required massive borrowing from Europe, have placed a horrendous burden on the Irish government and the Irish people.

Teen charged with murdering Galway man in robbery attempt

By Staff
December 21, 2011

by Bill Forry
(Update: Dec. 30, 2011)
A teenager has been indicted for allegedly killing Ciaran Conneely, a 36 year-old Galway man who was shot to death outside his Dorchester apartment building on Oct. 10. John Graham, 17, will be charged with first degree murder in Conneely’s murder, which rocked the Adams Corner neighborhood last fall.

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