The divide between lace curtain and shanty had pretty much disappeared by the time I hit New York in the 1970s. That being said, the clientele of t...

There are a number of building blocks in any reasonably successful rock ‘n’ roll band. First of course, are the musicians themselves, followed clos...

Canal Street in Lower Manhattan runs just over a mile from East Broadway to West Street. It’s big, broad and bustling and many the famous person fr...

Who was the most successful Irish-American woman? In my book, she was a fugitive, a prisoner, vivacious, beloved, despised, and competitive. She co...

Like many people from Ireland I support an English football team. As I brace myself for sneers of contempt curried by hollow words of patronizing p...

The old Philips tube radio was my best friend in those Wexford boyhood days. It took a couple of minutes to warm up but then it delivered the sweet...

New York City is jammed in these boom times. The sidewalks are abustle with shoppers, the streets clogged with vehicles, their passengers staring o...

At around 11:30 p.m. on November 5th I realized the jig was up. Some figures came in from North Carolina, and though hardly earth-shattering, I kne...

Ever thought of attending an elite opera festival in an historic medieval town less than two hours from Dublin? I’m referring to Wexford in the sun...

“There’s only room for one genius in this family!” Brendan Behan is reputed to have remarked to Dominic, his younger brother. While Dominic Behan m...

Odd as it may seem, this presidential election is being fought between the normal and the weird, the logical and the fantastical, and the old and n...

I grew up on the banks of the Slaney River, right where it flows into Wexford Harbor on its way to the Irish Sea. There was water everywhere, lappi...