King Derek is back for 'night of storytelling and song'
Derek Dempsey was once asked by an uncle what he wanted to be when he grew up. “A singer,” the youngster said. The uncle responded that it would be...
November 11, 2021
by Peter McDermott
Strong Irish entries for DOC NYC
“You could say we were seasoned travelers,” That’s according Keith Byrne, recalling his lifestyle of 36 years ago. And that was even before the 10-...
November 10, 2021
by Peter McDermott
Forward is forum for fresh perspectives
Once upon a time in New York, there was a Yiddish-language paper for every political point of view – conservative, anarchist, communist or whatever...
November 05, 2021
by Peter McDermott
From local festival to cultural phenomenon
The story has a humble beginning. It was in 1951, in a small town in Ireland’s Southeast, when a group of friends decided that instead of just list...
October 26, 2021
by Peter McDermott
Bonsai just keeps getting bigger
No company is an island. That seems to be central to serial entrepreneur Patrick Sullivan’s philosophy. Since May 2020, he has been building Bonsai...
October 22, 2021
by Peter McDermott
A family during hard times, war
At age 22, Gordon Bennett Jr. in a letter thanked his parents for their sacrifices and their example. It was 1940, and the ultimate sacrifice was s...
October 08, 2021
by Peter McDermott
New York movie
Gene Hackman’s debut as a leading man on American cinema screens came finally at age 41 with the release of “The French Connection,” 50 years ago t...
October 07, 2021
by Peter McDermott
‘Worlds’ for in-person NYIC launch
Have wifi, will travel. Or stay at home, as the case may be. John Kearns is flexible. The knowledge economy and its workers have adapted well over ...
October 06, 2021
by Peter McDermott
A poetic critique from Belfast
Christopher R. Agee’s “Trump Rant” ought to be placed in a time capsule to explain the U.S. from January 2017 through January 2021 to people at som...
September 30, 2021
by Peter McDermott
Martin recalls Aiken, Lemass contributions
On Jan. 7, 1922, Dáil Eireann voted to accept the terms of the Anglo-Irish treaty, signed by Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and others in London ...
September 29, 2021
by Peter McDermott
Blending Frontier fact and fiction
"Eoin Ua Cathail was a fabulist and a memoirist who wrote stories in Irish about the American West and Midwest. He was a master of detail and chron...
September 09, 2021
by Peter McDermott
Backward glance at beloved city
Lynda Tonery remembers the tunnel. “We went, one by one, down a very dark staircase,” she says, “The tunnel itself was narrow. Also it wasn’t very ...
August 25, 2021
by Peter McDermott