By Ray O’Hanlon Total global domination is a way’s off yet and in all truth the Irish would take a pass anyway. But total global greening – that’s another matter. At the rate things are going the entire planet will be lit in green for March 17, 2030 – but for St. Patrick’s Day 2013 the greening, though global, was [...]

Al Smith IV leads bands, marching units By Ray O’Hanlon It was a parade full of the joyful and the poignant. It was also a parade of two meteorological halves. The 252nd New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade marched into the history books last Saturday with Grand Marshal Al Smith IV following in the footsteps of his namesake great-grandfather, and [...]

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has said the death threat he has received from dissident republicans won’t silence him. Mr. McGuinness revealed that he was contacted by a senior PSNI officer last week to be informed of a “real and active threat” against his life from a dissident group in Derry City and said he and the police were taking [...]

by Ray O’Hanlon Cardinal Timothy Dolan may or may not be back in New York from Rome by Saturday, but if he is not, Cardinal Edward Egan will be on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral to review the 252nd New York parade and greet Grand Marshal Al Smith IV. Smith will be leading a march that organizers style “The [...]

By Ray O’Hanlon This is a story about a ring that traveled full circle. And it’s journey took about as long as a Tolkien tale – 64 years to be precise. It’s also a story about friendship, faith and fate. It has an unlikely beginning, but a very definite end. And for sure it’s a good ending. It concerns a [...]

By Irish Echo Staff In 1845, Frederick Douglass, then an escaped slave from Maryland living in Massachusetts, traveled to Ireland and Britain, in part, to ensure his safety from “slave catchers” in the United States. While in Ireland, Douglass remained an active and outspoken abolitionist and befriended the Irish nationalist and abolitionist Daniel O’Connell. The product of the exchanges that [...]

By Sean Lehane An American man accused of murdering a County Wexford woman in Japan last year has said he had no reason to kill her. Nicola Furlong was found dead in the Keio Plaza hotel in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district on May 24, 2012. The trial in Tokyo began on Monday. Richard Hinds, aged 20 and originally from Memphis, denies [...]

By Ray O’Hanlon Just when you thought it was safe to don your Aran knits. T-shirts and other clothing items depicting St. Patrick’s Day as an excuse to get drunk are cropping up again in stores and website. And one of the biggest repeat offenders appears to be Urban Outfitters which caused a storm last year with t-shirts that state [...]

By Irish Echo Staff The Eastchester Irish American Social Club is readying for the Westchester County community’s 9th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday March 10. This celebration has become a tradition and a source of pride and enjoyment for Eastchester and its surrounding area residents, said the EIASC in a release. The group announced that this year’s grand [...]

By Irish Echo Staff John Deasy and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore “enjoyed a frank exchange in the Dáil” last week on the issue of the undocumented Irish in the U.S., this according to a statement from the Waterford TD’s office. “The problem is that there never has been a plan B put into operation either by this or the previous government. [...]