Navy veteran John Washington Michael Condon died as he lived, a gregarious man with a penchant for sharing a good story. He was one of my father’s numerous uncles, and was known to me through Dad’s recollections as Uncle Jack. As evidenced by the following letter, dated July 19, 1918, Jack served during World War 1,…

And then when we got to Miami, the Gesu Church, which is a beautiful Catholic church, an old church in the heart of Miami, they had big signs posted as you entered, ‘Colored seat from the rear.’…

Was it the IRA who created the bomb that killed two detectives outside the New York World Fair's British Pavilion 75 years ago today?

Or was it a German agent or Nazi…

New York -- News of the passing of former New York state Governor Mario Cuomo reminds me of one of several serendipitous encounters I had with the Governor, whom I once happily envisioned as US president. With his flights of eloquence, his progressive views, and staunch opposition to the death penalty, he seemed to exude the self-assurance and humanism…

Part 2 of 3 of the series ‘We Will Probably Land Christmas Day’: At War in the Atlantic, 1942 

Part 1 of 2, “Getting To Where We Are Going” includes my father's accounts of his first quiet week on the high…

No large operation in World War II surpassed the invasion of North Africa in complexity, daring, risk, or -- as the official U.S. Army Air Forces history concludes -- 'the degree of strategic surprise achieved.'



     -- Author Rick Atkinson,…

There are many Irish 'spots' in New York City that intrigue me, but perhaps none more so than St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. The edifice, today a parish church, is at turns historic, memorable, symbolic, poignant,…

My father's uncle, Sgt. Lawrence Condon, died of shrapnel wounds in France two months before the Armistice ending World War I, "The War to End All Wars." His division, the U.S. Army's 27th, was known as "O'Ryan's Roughnecks." He was third generation American. One of his grandfathers was an Irwin, reputedly from Ballyjamesduff,…