The Irish Cultural Society has announced its annual writing contest for students in the 9^th through 12^th grades in Nassau County (NY) high schools.  The materials describing the contest have been mailed to the English Departments of the Nassau schools, public and private, and they have been posted on the…

Now I am in the public-house and lean upon the wall,

So come in rags or come in silk, in cloak or country shawl,

And come with learned lovers or with what men you may,

For I can put the whole lot down, and all I have to say

Is fol de rol de rolly O. – Yeats.

                It’s probably a wince-worthy cliché to begin with a Yeats, but I feel that I must. The songs of Ireland have long since compelled me to dance to their rhythm; the fluting of Yeats and…

The Irish Cultural Society’s 2014 writing contest centered on James Joyce’s “A Painful Case” from Dubliners resulted in a happy Society which received 425 entries and a happy group of 36 high school students from Nassau County who won prizes for their…

The Irish Cultural Society announces its annual writing contest for students in the 9^th through 12…

I desire silence. I want to be free from the noise that humans make. I fear I will never be free from this noise. I'm often in the woods and I still hear a car that is miles away or a plane flying overhead. And even my own sighing and thoughts can become too noisy. The sounds of…