If you don’t know Belfast, you don’t really know Ireland. That thought always strikes me as I’m departing from Ireland’s second largest city. Throu...

In a recent Irish poll, Luke Kelly was voted “the best representative of Irish heritage.” What a distinction for this son of inner city Dublin who ...

The ospreys are gone. They left in the weeks after Labor Day. When they get the call – genetic or atmospheric - they don’t delay, it’s a long way t...

I often take a train to New Haven nowadays, and since I find trains very relaxing I invariably feel drowsy as we pull out of Grand Central Station....

At an out-of-state wedding recently, I fell into conversation with a cheerful gentleman whom I didn’t know from Adam. Or Eve for that matter. Upon ...

Maggie Higgins may have been the most consequential American woman. When it comes to the change she wrought, they don’t come much more important th...

One night, while departing the stage in the late, lamented Village Pub in The Bronx, I was approached by a gentleman who remarked: “When all is sai...

The Christian Brothers in Wexford were not fans of the Normans. They regarded these conquerors who arrived from Wales in 1169 as some subspecies of...

So Paddy Reilly’s has reopened. Welcome back. Though your absence was short, you were missed. It’s not just that New York City is daily becoming le...

Everything changed in November 1976 when The Sex Pistols released Anarchy In the UK. Punk was born. Yeah, yeah, I know Punk began in CBGB’s a coupl...

"I’m going up the country, Baby, don’t you wanta go, Going to take you some place, Where you’ve never been before, I’m going, I’m going, Where the ...

Pierce Turner and I used to share a flat in an old town house in Rathmines, Dublin. Once very upscale, the area had fallen on hard times and was di...