Breaking barriers in Baltimore: David Badejo’s J-1 Experience

David Badejo began his visa journey in January of 2023 with a bit of a rocky start. He shared with us that initially there was a misconception about the timeline, but with the support of individuals like Jude and Nora at the Rian Immigrant Center, he was able to successfully secure his visa by February. It was a remarkably quick turnaround time!

Reflections at 85

Having reached the final chapters of my life, I think back on all I have absorbed within the context of my professional career as lawyer, judge, and, in retirement, as an arbitrator, mediator, and occasional columnist.

Unfortunately, I am not as confident as I once was. My faith in a benevolent, all-knowing deity, a creator that oversees the universe and guides a flawed humanity to truth, love, understanding, justice, compassion, and mercy, is diminished, due in part to my work, which is largely based on analyzing evidence upon which a sound, coherent judgment could be based.

Letter from Dublin: Belfast’s elite have long stoked sectarian division to blunt labor solidarity. Is 2024 the turning point?

On Jan. 18, more than 170,000 public sector workers in Northern Ireland went on a 24-hour strike.  The 17 trade unions representing nurses, teachers, ambulance staff, bus drivers, and road maintenance crews did so with the support of most of the people in Northern Ireland.  According to the office of national statistics, there are 861,000 workers in Northern Ireland, which means the strikers constituted 20 percent of all workers in the six counties.

Letter from Wicklow: Stormont back in the North, Sinn Féin slipping in the Republic

With a mixture of fanfare and cautious optimism, Northern Ireland’s power-sharing Stormont assembly finally is up and running after a two-year impasse.  Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill is the first ever nationalist First Minister in the six counties and Emma Little-Pengelly of the Democratic Unionist Party is her deputy.

The Presence of Rose: Remembering an aunt’s immigrant example

 When my father declined to cross the Atlantic for my wedding in 1990, I understood why. Traveling from Dublin to Massachusetts and meeting so many new people would have been anxiety inducing for him. Although his decision did not upset me, it left me worried about my mother traveling solo and without a partner at a family event.

Consul General embraces life as a Bostonian: ‘Everybody’s so lovely, so warm, so welcoming’

Ed Forry

It was Christmas Eve Day 2023 and Ireland’s Consul General Sighlé Fitzgerald was on the beach at M Street in South Boston. The outside temperature was 5 degrees with the water temp in the high 30’s and she was there to join with a few other sturdy souls to take a mid-morning plunge into the waters of Dorchester Bay to help raise funds for the Irish Pastoral Centre.

“It’s a Lovely Christmas Eve Dip this morning with the Boston Irish Dippers…. and amazing post-dip catering,” she posted that day on her Facebook page. 

For Dorchester, March 17th marks two landmark holidays

In early March 1776, Gen. George Washington rode out to Dorchester and reined in at the farm of Captain John Homans, who lived in “the upper end of town.” Homans’s acreage was full of white birch, and Washington ordered his troops to cut down the trees so that “the citizens of this and the neighboring towns…could cart them…on the night of the 4th, to [Dorchester] Heights.”

The Heights were dotted by “nine dwelling houses on the Neck, now South Boston.” The American Revolution was about to arrive at the front doors of those nine Dorchester households.

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