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.

July Still Means Troubles in Belfast

By Joe Leary
August 2, 2010
Joe Leary

The July parades in Northern Ireland celebrate a Protestant military victory over a Catholic army at the Battle of the Boyne in the Republic of Ireland over 300 years ago. The marches are an in-your-face expression by some of Northern Ireland's Protestants to maintain their appearance of superiority over Catholics.

An anti-Catholic organization called the "Orange Order" is chiefly responsible.

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