(First published 1/26/12) Waterford-based poet, writer and sociologist Jean Tubridy (left) writes about her Irish experience, often in lyrical, charming terms, in her blog, Social Bridge. In the following excerpt, she describes a recent night in her home town of Tramore: “At about ten o’clock on New Year’s Eve,…

(First published 12/30/11) At 70 years old, Billy Willbond is a man of many roles: a poet, decorated peacekeeping veteran, and social  activist, providing humanitarian aid to the developing world through his NGO, ICross…

(First published 12/14/11) 2011 marked the 150^th anniversary of the start of America’s Civil War, and in Ireland, a group of historians and writers used the occasion to promote the concept of a Civil War heritage trail. Archaeologist Damian Shiels and writers James Doherty and Robert Doyle  [All three…

(First published 11/4/11) Guthrie, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, spent six years covering the parishioners’ fight.  Her book tells the story of the parish’s history, the drama of the fight to save it, and what the parishioners learned about their own…

By Robert Doyle

Dublin, Ireland (First published 10/5/11) -- “Although this is…