Culture

I attended a conference relating to the Irish language in University of Notre Dame last week. It was my first time there and I was really taken wit...

In February, something unusual happened that received scant notice in the mainstream press: the worst sales total in SoundScan history for an album...

Within a couple years of their immigration in 1980 to Portland, Ore., I saw former Bothy Band members Kevin Burke on fiddle and Micheal O Domhnaill...

"The Shaughraun" By Dion Boucicault • Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd St., NYC • Through June 12, 2011 Dion Boucicault's "The Shaughraun," w...

Between the Lines / Peter McDermott We've mentioned in the Echo the alliances involving writers and musicians in recent times - most notably betwee...

London-born, Portland resident fiddler Kevin Burke, now age 60, has lost none of the spellbinding silkiness in his playing. Though his parents hail...

I was at home in Ireland last week renewing my visa. The weather was unbelievable -- so amazing that I didn't want to come back to New York. That's...

“The House of Blue Leaves” By John Guare • Walter Kerr Theatre, 218 W. 48th St., NYC • Open-Ended Run Alone among the plays of the Irish-American d...

"Did you hear about the two blondes who walked into a building?" Seamus Begley asked the audience. "Wouldn't you think one of them would have seen ...

Michael Leach's latest book "Why Stay Catholic?" is about the "good stuff in Catholicism. Beautiful Catholic ideas we never hear about, even from t...

"War Horse" By Nick Stafford • At the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, NYC • Open-Ended Run You probably won't ever forget the ears. If y...

By Peter McDermott I saw my first ever vulture when climbing the Volcán Maderas in Nicaragua a year ago. The first in the flesh, that is. And it wa...