Is Sinn Fein's Abstention Policy Dying?

By Bill O'Donnell
May 1, 2010
Bill O'Donnell

Maybe it's because Gerry Adams has had some recent personal setbacks along with his party's electoral hopes, but the call for the voice of the Provos to end their parliamentary abstention is growing louder. The new leader of the SDLP, Margaret Ritchie, has openly suggested to the republicans that it might be time for elected Sinn Fein representatives in the House of Commons to start actively representing their constituents instead of playing hard to get.

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Rob O'Leary, State Senator for Cape and Islands, Looks to Congress With an Eager, Practiced Eye

By Greg O'Brien
May 1, 2010
Greg O'Brien

Giving new definition to irony, Rob O'Leary's academic pedigree in the spirited arena of Boston politics reads like one from central casting: Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire; The School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University where he rubbed shoulders with a young Bill Clinton; a master's in public policy from Harvard; and a PhD in history from Tufts. The state senator serving Cape Cod and the Islands, with his trademark Kennedy good looks, was the first Democrat to represent the region in the state Legislature since the Civil War.

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How About a Real Act of Contrition?

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
May 1, 2010

What will my church do to confront the continuing scandal associated with the sexual abuse of children? In an effort to avoid scandal, church leaders were complicit in efforts to cover up not only serious crimes but also grievous sins.

Concerned more about perpetrators than victims; more about scandal than truth; and more about image than justice; the church allowed the evil to continue. In doing so, it undermined its moral authority and caused many Catholics to look elsewhere for spiritual guidance.

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British Elections Loom Crucial to Peace in Northern Ireland

By Joe Leary
May 1, 2010
Joe Leary

The results of the upcoming British Parliamentary elections will have a profound effect upon peace and understanding amongst the conflicted people of Northern Ireland. The people of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, will elect 650 members of the newly constituted Parliament, which will rule the country for the next five years unless the new government fails to maintain its majority.

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British Election a High Stakes Game for Three Party Leaders in the North

By Robert P. Connolly
May 1, 2010
Robert P. Connolly

BELFAST - While the party leaders who have the most at stake in this month's British election are named Brown, Cameron, and Clegg, the leaders of three of Northern Ireland's four main political parties also have a lot riding on the outcome of the Westminster vote.

On the surface, a British parliamentary election does not mean as much in Northern Ireland as it once did. With the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running and with most governmental power now in the hands of Assembly ministers, much of the action has moved from London to Belfast.

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The hotshot pitcher on the 1919 Red Sox

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
May 1, 2010

To hear Colin Donnell tell it, his family hasn't ever actually researched its roots in Ireland and Scotland. He says his Irish credentials are more physical. "Look at me: Black hair. Blue eyes. It's only been a matter of just how Irish we are," Donnell said. "We are Irish, I just don't know the full story. I hope that one day we do find out our story better."

That day may have to come soon for Donnell, a singer/actor who has been tapped by the American Repertory Theater to play the lead in the world premiere of "Johnny Baseball," a musical about the Red Sox.

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Eruption equals disruption for those coming, those going

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
May 1, 2010

By Judy Enright
Special to the BIR
What a crazy month for travelers! If you had told someone prior to April that you couldn’t visit due to a volcanic ash cloud, they’d think you were joking.
And that’s exactly what I thought when a longtime friend called from England to cancel her April 15 trip to Mayo. Of course, as our readers know, she was not joking and the eruption of the Icelandic volcano and resulting shutdown of airports all over Ireland, the British Isles, and Europe has been anything but a joke.

BC's Burns Scholar: a non-stop life

By Ana Lopez
May 1, 2010
Ana Lopez

If you had told Thomas Bartlett in 1970 that 40 years later he would be the Burns Scholar at Boston College, teaching classes on Ireland in the early modern era and researching the holdings of the "best Irish collection in North America," he probably would not have believed you.

Then a graduate student at the University of Michigan, Bartlett had come to the United States from Ireland to engross himself in the study of American colonial history. It was in Ann Arbor that he stumbled upon a set of documents that changed the course of his academic life.

For a True Taste of Irish Music, Fun, and Good Will, Check out the Russell Memorial Weekend in Doolin

By BostonIrish.com... (not verified)
April 8, 2010

By Judy Enright
Special to the BIR

If music is the heart of Ireland, then surely Doolin in Co. Clare is the soul of the country as evidenced by the huge annual turnout for the Russell Memorial Weekend.
This musical weekend -- in memory of brothers Micho, Packie, and Gussie Russell -- has become a late winter tradition and is held in Doolin on the last full weekend in February. The festival originated in 1995 to honor Micho Russell, one of Ireland ’s best-known traditional musicians, who died in 1994. But in 2006, his family renamed the festival the Russell Memorial Weekend to give equal honor to all the musical brothers.

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