I had to go down to the hospital very early today. On the way back, I was exhausted and stopped in a coffee shop. And what do you know? My whole day was transformed. Somebody had left a copy of The New York Times behind, and there staring up at me from the front page was the man himself, wee Joyce. with his head and hat cocked…

Before I became ill I used to organize alternative St Patrick's days. The last one was here in Chicago. It was a tribute to black America and what its struggles had done for Irish culture. The idea was that the black civil rights movement played a major role in inspiring the civil rights movement in Ireland in the late 1960's and this in turn gave a new boost to…