O.K., it should be obvious (hopefully) that I am not a man.

But dear old dad definitely is... and as, like it or not, I've always been dad's girl I've acquired a bit of an insight into what makes certain types of men…

There is a place where fiction overlaps reality and creates a place where half-truths and should-have-beens and never-really-were’s create something that is less than factual and more than fictional -- "Blue Bloods" occupies one such place.…

The West, the American West, is the place in our souls where romance and reality meet head-on. Ironically it is also the place where reality and romance have always met head-on. Ever since “the West” was that ill-defined space on the map west of the White Mountains, west of the…

The film "Spotlight" was recently released, based on the true story of the Boston Globe’s investigation of the Boston Archdiocese’s willful coverup of child molestation and abuse. The reviews have been, like the movie itself, scattered.

This is, without a doubt, a shattering film. Well made and well acted, it…

There is a moment in "Brooklyn" -- the recently released 1950s period semi-romance -- when one naive and worried young Irishwoman turns to a slightly less naive and worried young Irishwoman and asks her what America will be like. The response is heartfelt, immediate, true and not quite true, all at once: "Like Ireland,…

New York looms large in the history of the Irish. For the Irish-American -- particularly the 19th century Irish-American -- New York City was, in almost every way possible, the gateway city of America. Vast, foreign, dangerous, the city consumed migrants and emigrants alike. Decade after decade the people…

There is a certain type of Irishman who looms large in fiction: The "haunted man," the "angry man," the "tortured man," the "violent man," the "quiet man." He is a cliche ... but a cliche born of so much truth it is a bit like encountering an old friend when he shambles onto…

"Here's to the three birds! May you always have a bird on the table, a bird in your glass and an eagle in your pocket."

I first heard that toast when I was very young from an elderly neighbor. It was a toast from her childhood in the early 1920s. The toast her mother and uncles always used. Already something of an antique in Jazz Age America.…

This was originally in the Winter 2014 edition of Celtic Life magazine. One person's (mine) view of what it means to be part Irish, Irish-American, and not always fit in a box.

Somebody Who Looks Like Me

Reviewers have already begun to weigh in on "Calvary," the new John Michael McDonagh film (in U.S. theaters now).

Dark, depressing, soulless, derivative, quirky, devout,…

A romantic comedy, particularly a romantic comedy set in Ireland, can run the gamut from silly to tragic in just a few scenes. The Yank, a new film by Sean Lackey, does that -- and much more. The idea of an American, particularly a Guinness-drinking…

Alternative isn’t a word that springs to mind when I think about St. Patrick’s Day. For me -- and probably millions of other Irish-Americans -- the 17th of March has always been a day marked by traditions that border on the cliche.…

Today the iconic claddagh ring is, along with the harp and shamrock, one of the most widely recognized and most iconically “Irish” symbols in America. The commercial value of the claddagh ring design is enormous -- and probably impossible to…

A war movie, particularly a war movie that is the true story of a real group of men and women, is hard to make and hard to watch. Anything short of the truth is disrespectful, but the truth is hard to define, hard to acknowledge, hard to understand.…