Matchmaker carries on Irish tradition in Chicago
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008A Chicago newspaper has reported on an age-old Irish tradition that’s crossed the water: matchmaking. Maureen O’Looney, an 86-year-old owner of an Irish import shop who emigrated in 1953, has two marriages to her credit. She practices the fine art of matchmaking every year at Chicago’s Hooley Happy Hour at the Irish-American Heritage Center. The report says the Hooley is modeled after the Lisdoonvarna festival, and attract people from their early twenties to their late 40s and older.
The report features Kevin McBride and Bridget McGowan, who attended the Valentine’s Day hooley in 2006. O’Looney matched them up, and they were married on June 14. “We basically both decided to come on by and try our luck�, said the new husband. “You have nothing to lose. Why not? You never know�.
While O’Looney says the matchmaking is ‘just fun to start with, all fun’, she adds, “Who knows? You might meet your match.”
Read the report from the Chicago Sun-Times.
Taoiseach visits US: focus on economy, community
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008Brian Cowan is making his first visit to the US since becoming Taoiseach in May. The focus of this three-day visit will be heavily economic; he will visit the New York Stock Exchange and address a Wall Street dinner, as well as meeting with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. He will meet with Irish and American business executives at a business sponsored by Enterprise Ireland. Mr Cowan will also meet with New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The Taoiseach said, “I will be bringing a clear message that Ireland is now a successful European country, with a coherent strategy to maintain that success and build for the future.�
Politics will also be on the agenda, as Mr Cowan meets with the chair of the Friends of Irleand in the US Congress, Richie Neal, as well as New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and New Jersey Governer Jon Corzine. “I look forward to meeting our many friends in the United States and listening to their advice on how we can continue to work together during a turbulent period for the global economy,”
Mr Cowan will also meet with the Irish community in New York. He will address the Wall Street 50 Dinner, a major annual event honouring Irish-American business leaders. He will also open an exhibition at the Irish Arts Centre, and attend a reception for the Gate and Abbey theatres, which are staging productions in the city. Mr Cowan said, “I am also delighted to be meeting with representatives of the Irish community in America, who have been and remain a key part of Ireland’s international success story and of our nation.”
The Irish Times quoted a spokesman for the Taoiseach who said, “He is glad to get the opportunity to meet with the Irish diaspora and the business community there, renewing the links which are so important on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly in the current economic climate when Irish businesses are creating a similar number of jobs in the US as American companies are creating in Ireland.”
RTE news features intending emigrants
Friday, July 11th, 2008The buzz about a projected increase in emigration is continuing, along with talk of an impending recession.
An RTE reporter met people considering packing their bags yesterday – those interviewed included both Irish-born people and returning emigrants from other countries.
England, Denmark and Sweden were among the destination countries named, while a Polish person said he would return home, and an Irish electrician said he was heading for Australia.
The last ESRI quarterly report has projected that net outward migration would begin again next year.
View the report at RTE’s website.
Returned emigrants to reunite in Athlone
Friday, July 11th, 2008Hundreds of emigrants who returned from America are expected to attend a reunion party in Athlone this month. The event is the brainchild of Helen Greene and Shelia Denning, both returned emigrants, and is being organised by Tom Woodlock, who has recently returned to Tipperary. They are hoping to make it an annual event, according to the Irish Voice, and intend to hold it in a different town in Ireland every year.
Organisers are encouraging all returnees to come. “A lot of returnees may not know about the event so please tell them and give them our numbers so they can contact us,� Woodlock told the paper.
He added: “We all live in different parts of the country and it’s not often we all get to meet up, so by organizing this reunion it gives everyone a chance to catch up with old friends, faces and even make some new ones. It will be just nice to share old stories of America and the good times we all had there with each other.�
The reunion will be held at the Shamrock Hotel in Athlone on Saturday, July 19, with a buffet from 7-9 pm, followed by music and dancing. Entry is 18 euro. Call the organisers at 011-353-87-7903022 or 011-353-87-0545644 for more information.
Read the original article in the Irish Voice.
Former emigrant chaplain dies
Thursday, July 10th, 2008Cannon Paddy Curran, a former emigrant chaplain in London, was buried on July 5 after his funeral mass at the Church of the Holy Rosary in Castelbar. Archbishop Neary paid tribute to his work with emigrants in his eulogy, as reported in the Mayo News:
From 1968 to 1970 he ministered in Belclare outside Tuam. It was a time when the haemorrhage of emigration was leaving communities lifeless in the west. Many of those emigrating at the time were ill-prepared. Some were not street-wise; poorly educated, many were very vulnerable. These were very close to Paddy’s heart,� the Archbishop continued. “Accordingly, he volunteered to work as an Emigrant Chaplain with our exiles in England, particularly in the London area and in Scunthorpe.�
Read the entire article in the Mayo News.
Ireland: Arrivals and Departures. ACIS: Minnesota, October 2008.
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008Call for Papers: Midwest American Conference: Ireland: Arrivals and Departures
From the organisers:
This year’s Midwest American Conference for Irish Studies will be held at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota. The conference will open with a reception on the evening of Thursday, October 9.
The conference theme is IRELAND: ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES. We encourage attendees to think of these concepts in the broadest possible way — not merely as the migration of individuals and groups, but as of the arrival of new ideas and new critical perspectives, and concomitantly, as the departure of received wisdom. We note the arrival of new literary voices, and the arrival of new conceptions of Ireland. And we believe all papers are best conceived as a “point of departure” for further research and discussion.
This conference hopes to explore the movements of ideas, peoples, and more in Irish art, history, music, literature, cinema, and culture in Ireland from earliest times to the present. We welcome papers on any aspect of Irish studies from new or present ACIS members.
Please propose 20-minute papers in 250-300-word abstracts in .pdf or .doc format to Professor Thomas O’Connell at Thomas.OConnell@metrostate.edu by midnight on August 1, 2008 (Early submissions encouraged.). Include your name, institutional affiliation, and contact information in document, as well as in the body of your email.
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