By Megan Gillin-Schwartz Acclaimed journalist and documentary filmmaker Karen F. McCarthy’s non-fiction debut The Other Irish: The Scots-Irish Rascals Who Made America (Sterling Publishing, 2011) chronicles the strong, yet under-noted Scots-Irish influence on the shaping of the American character. Her cinematic background shines through as she shares the influence of the distinct culture that...
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By Sabina Clarke Patrick J. Eiding, a leader in the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania labor movement and a voice for workers across the country will receive the Dennis Clark Solas Award from the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians on December 7th. Some past recipients of the award, named in honor of the late Dennis Clark,...
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By Sabina Clarke Since she was six years old and the nun took her to see the Tabernacle in church, Judy Heffernan, a good Catholic schoolgirl, a product of Catholic education and a graduate of Presentation Blessed Virgin Mary grammar school, St. Mary’s Academy and Chestnut Hill College – proclaimed to all who would...
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By Sabina Clarke When Fiach MacConghail was appointed artistic director of Ireland’s National Theatre six years ago this month, the future of the Abbey Theatre, founded in 1904 by William Butler Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory, was in question, “At that time,” says MacConghail, “we were five million dollars in debt and morale was...
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By Sabina Clarke After 25 years as president of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, PCVB, Brooklyn native and now die-hard Philadelphian, Tom Muldoon—undoubtedly, one of the most well-liked and well-respected businessmen in the City, has retired from his post at the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, PCVB. (No surprise here, since I discovered...
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By Sabina Clarke Philadelphia’s top cop, former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney (1998-2003) was in town to pick up the Leadership Award from the American Ireland Fund, AIF, on Tuesday, December 7th at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in downtown Philadelphia. (The previous recipient of AIF’s Philadelphia Leadership Award was former Senator George...
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Editor’s Note: The following book review/ interview with Roy Bourgeois appeared in three parts in the Irish Edition (Dec., Jan., Feb 2010)—prior to the latest news that Roy Bourgeois is now being threatened with removal from the Maryknoll Order by his order if he refuses to recant his views on women’s ordination. Bourgeois has...
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We congratulate Tim McGrath for writing an outstanding and long-overdue book on the heroic life John Barry. Though born and raised in Wexford until the age of 15, Barry quickly adopted America as his country for which he fought valiantly in its cause for freedom from Britain. Philadelphia became his new home...
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Dr. James J. Murphy Reflects on Irishness Past and Present An Interview by Roslyn Blyn-LaDrew Jim Murphy grew up in Brooklyn (Flatbush). As a child, he had a paper route, a home full of Irish songs and ballads, and a village’s worth of aunts, uncles, and cousins, in Brooklyn and beyond. Jim’s mother, Kathleen...
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Anne O’Callaghan and The Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians Anne O’Callaghan is the director of The Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians. Originally from Co. Monaghan, in this interview she discusses the Center’s mission and how her childhood on the Border with Northern Ireland has influenced the path toward her current work, although it wasn’t...
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