(All photos by James Higgins)

Fiddler Marie Reilly, 58, clearly has much to be grateful for, not the least of which is a much praised new album, “The Anvil,” her first, created after a 23-year self-imposed pause from playing.  Irish Echo reviewer Dan Neely, for example, called the…

When considering changing the title of my book The Life and Times of Liam O'Donnell to The O'Donnells of Philadelphia, an Irish-American Saga, 1918-1946, I became inspired:

The Irish-American Story

James Francis Smith

We dug the coal mines and…

Illustration by Maryann Tracy

Paddy Nolan's final letter home to his parents. Click on the image to see a larger view.

3 teens among 7 IRA 'irregulars' executed 90 years ago in Kildare

'We are…

Ireland to Texas, the Circle is Complete

In the most unlikely places, connections can be found linking two cultures, two worlds and two vastly different centuries. Such was the case in a small, village in County Laois, Ireland.

At the edge of Ballybritas, on the back road to Vicarstown, sits the dairy farm of Michael and Brigid Dempsey. It is a quiet, unassuming…

Word Nerd Alert! I am a self-professed word-aholic. Even in my young years, I read dictionaries for fun. It was no surprise then to anyone when I chose English as my major in college. It was also no great surprise that my two minors were Native American Studies and Celtic Studies. The only great curiosity was what I was going to do with all of that knowledge.

One of the research papers which I submitted in my final year covered commonly used words or phrases in day to day English…

SPRING

NOTHING is so beautiful as spring --

When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;

Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;

The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush

The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this…

                    By Riocard O'Cruimin  …

When the term "slavery" as it pertains to the United States is mentioned, almost all minds immediately turn towards thinking of the enslavement of Africans by pre-Civil War American citizens. While the images that are conjured up by contemplating this era of human indignity…

Cruiskeen Lawn

A song I learned from my father, who learned it from his father. 

https://soundcloud.com/jredmond13-1/cruiskeen-lawn-1

Parting Glass

An old pub closing song that also works well at funerals.The Parting Glass 

by RIOCARD Ó CRUIMÍN

Ah! A mothers love what wonderful memories we have of our mommas. This book by Tony Smith is a Masterpiece! I am suppose to write contradictions in an essay but how can I on…

 by RIOCARD Ó CRUIMÍN

By Robert Doyle

* Part 1 of 3: A Call to Arms

* Part 2 of 3: Engaging the Enemy…

In a way of introducing myself, I thought I might share some of my "Trail Tales" from previous journeys home...

I think we shall start with this one:

Sing Us a Song, Cowboy!

By Catherine Lilbit Devine © August 18, 2006

Whispers of the West has made our second journey to the Emerald Isle to perform our Music…