Boston College and the Irish Way: Connected at Birth, and Still At It

By Matthew DeLuca
September 1, 2010
Matthew DeLuca

Today, it sits just outside the most ethnically Irish of American cities, but in the mid-19th century, Boston College was basically a local school in Boston's South End neighborhood providing a Jesuit-Catholic education to the sons of recent Irish-Catholic immigrants.

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Look to our colleges as affordable option, Ireland is saying

Ed Forry
By Ed Forry
September 1, 2010

 High school seniors and their parents looking for another, more affordable option for college should consider the colleges and universities in Ireland. That's the message  being delivered by Ireland's Minister for Education and Science, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, who will be in Boston late this month to promote an Irish government marketing effort to attract American high school students to enroll in Irish colleges and universities.

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Leftover Irish Pounds? Bring 'em to the Bank on Your Next Visit

By by Bill O'Donnell
August 3, 2010
by Bill O'Donnell

Get Thee To A Bank -- There is $300 million in old, outdated Irish pounds or punt still unredeemed after almost eight years. When the Irish shifted from its national currency to the European Union’s euro, millions were left on the table by residents in Ireland and also in the US, England, and other countries. Since the conversion at the end of 2002, only $75 million in old currency has been redeemed.

Irish Cultural Centre to Host Eddie Dillon's One-Man Show 'An Irish American Family' - on Aug. 20

By Sean Smith
August 2, 2010
Sean Smith

Just imagine if the band that inspired and influenced your youthful musical development invited you, years later, to join them. This fantasy - common to musician and non-musician alike - came true for Boston area native Eddie Dillon during the late 1990s, when he played with The Clancy Brothers, which at the time comprised original members Paddy and Bobby Clancy and Bobby's son Finbarr (Paddy died shortly thereafter, but the group kept performing until Bobby's death in 2002).

(Ap)praising Michael Hartnett

By Thomas O'Grady
August 2, 2010
Thomas O'Grady

One of the many wonderful scenes in Flann O'Brien's novel At Swim-Two-Birds has Jem Casey, "the Poet of the Pick and the Bard of Booterstown," kneeling to assist the injured King Sweeny, a man of words in his own right: "poet on poet, a bard unthorning a fellow-bard," O'Brien inscribes that moment. Almost inevitably I thought of that scene when I finally sat down with Notes from His Contemporaries: A Tribute to Michael Hartnett, a substantial book of poems and prose that landed on my doorstep around a year ago.

Judy Collins: Inspired by her Irish Heritage

By Dave Palmater
August 2, 2010
Dave Palmater
Over her long and storied career, Judy Collins has recorded everything from ancient English ballads to the latest Broadway show tunes, but her main musical influence was an Irish tenor: her father, Charles "Chuck" Collins. The son of an Irish immigrant, Chuck was proud of his heritage, and named his first-born son Michael Collins. Though Chuck became blind at an early age, he never let it hold him back in any way up to, and including, driving a car.

Over The Years, The 'Yankee Spirit' Has Been An Economic Boon

By Thomas H. O'Connor
August 2, 2010
Thomas H. O'Connor
At a time when the nation faces severe financial depression, bank failures, and high unemployment, it should come as something of a consolation to recall that over the course of some 350 years New England has demonstrated an uncanny ability to adapt well to all kinds of economic changes.

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