Irish American

A fast-paced tour of 150 years of the Irish-American experience, James R. Barrett's "The Irish Way: Becoming American in the Multiethnic City" offers a wide-frame portrait of an immigrant group that helped define what it means to be an American. In his ambition to address every major aspect of Irish-American life and culture he often overrides opportunities for telling smaller, more intimate stories. But this isn't meant to be "Angela's Ashes. " "The Irish Way" is a biography of an entire people.

In a new production by the Huntington Theatre Company, a black mother in the fictional Boston suburb of Bellington is confronted with the potential loss of her home, because of a muddy sale to her grandparents long ago. The play, "Luck of the Irish," looks back to a time when upwardly mobile minority families — some were black, but others were Jewish — relied on white, Christian "ghost buyers" to gain access to bigger homes on leafy streets....

Hungry Hill: A Memoir By Carole O’Malley GauntUniversity of Massachusetts, 284 pp. illustrated, paperback, $19.95 The Irish or Irish-American coming-of-age story has a grand tradition, going back to James Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and brilliantly updated by Roddy Doyle's "Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha " and Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes. " The genre remains teeming with life, as shown recently by Michael Patrick MacDonald's "All Souls," a tragic memoir of his Irish-American upbringing in South Boston.

Urban Outfitters, the clothing chain that angered two Dedham women recently because of sexually themed items at its Legacy Place store, is in hot water again. The Irish Voice news site reported that Urban Outfitters was selling tee shirts and hats that promoted negative, alcohol-themed stereotypes about Irish people. The report prompted a letter from Irish-American members of Congress, including Massachusetts US Rep. James McGovern, to the chain's CEO. "By selling and promoting these items, Urban Outfitters is only fueling stereotypes that many...

DUBLIN - Like a lot of Greater Bostonians, my sister-in-law, who has resided in Framingham for the past 20 years, belongs to a distinguished statistical category: She's one of the roughly 45 million Americans claiming Irish ancestry. Except Dee Smithers acquired her Hibernian roots the old-fashioned way: She was born in Ireland and lived in Dublin until her early 20s, when she moved to the Boston area. Having passed her United States citizenship exam earlier this summer, Dee is now one of us, a hyphenated American, as entitled to wax nostalgic about her ancestral...

Ryan McCollum knows that on St. Patrick's Day, he cuts an unusual figure. All in green, a traditional Irish Claddagh ring on his finger and a houndstooth flat cap on his head, everything about his attire screams "Irish and proud. " But McCollum, 33, is also black. His father, a Navy man from Springfield, married an Irish-American girl from Downeast Maine. He knows his appearance does not fit the bill of a stereotypical Irishman - most assume he's black, or maybe Latino - but since childhood, his mother mandated that his Irish pride...

In a new production by the Huntington Theatre Company, a black mother in the fictional Boston suburb of Bellington is confronted with the potential loss of her home, because of a muddy sale to her grandparents long ago. The play, "Luck of the Irish," looks back to a time when upwardly mobile minority families — some were black, but others were Jewish — relied on white, Christian "ghost buyers" to gain access to bigger homes on leafy streets....

DUBLIN -- Just as Senator Edward M. Kennedy vowed not to meet with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams on St. Patrick's Day, one of the movement's top supporters in the US Congress called yesterday for the Irish Republican Army to disband because it was standing in the way of peace in Northern Ireland. In a major departure, Representative Peter King, Republican of New York, who for more than two decades has been an ardent supporter of the Sinn Fein-IRA campaign, accused the outlawed IRA of making a string of bad decisions that have fueled hostility within Irish-American circles.

Of all the 50 states, Massachusetts is officially the most Irish. A quarter of us claim Irish descent, the highest portion of any state population, and we also boast the nation's most Irish-American town - Scituate at 47.5 percent. As the great-granddaughter of Rosetta Nora Galvin, who emigrated to South Hadley from Cork, I'm proud to play into these fine numbers, I am. Even if a true Irishman would find my heritage, as the saying goes, as useful as a pair of shoes to a snake. Speaking of snakes, it's almost St. Patrick's Day. Inexorably, an Irish literary mood takes hold and, like Joyce,...

He wears a $15 watch, flies economy class, and does not own a house or car. For years few guessed that Chuck Feeney was one of the world's biggest philanthropists, secretly giving away his billionaire fortune. Born in New Jersey during the Depression to a blue-collar Irish-American family, Feeney co-founded Duty Free Shoppers, the world's largest duty-free retail chain. He liked making money but not having it, so he gave it away for years in strict secrecy. Journalist Conor O'Clery's new book "The Billionaire Who Wasn't" reveals that Feeney could be destined to...

ew sent to indesign on 0306 Each Saint Patrick's Day, friends and family gathered at my grandmother's house  to practice the traditions of our distant heritage. Because it was my great-grandfather who had emigrated, we were nearly a century removed from the old country, and the only links to our ethnic past were some grainy photographs, a few anecdotes, and the inexpugnable fact of our Celtic surname. But we lived in a heavily Irish neighborhood and so felt obliged to honor, in some way, the memory of our patron saint.

Ryan McCollum knows that on St. Patrick's Day, he cuts an unusual figure. All in green, a traditional Irish Claddagh ring on his finger and a houndstooth flat cap on his head, everything about his attire screams "Irish and proud. " But McCollum, 33, is also black. His father, a Navy man from Springfield, married an Irish-American girl from Downeast Maine. He knows his appearance does not fit the bill of a stereotypical Irishman - most assume he's black, or maybe Latino - but since childhood, his mother mandated that his Irish pride run fierce.

The following was submitted by the Office of Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt, Jr.: Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt, Jr. will help recognize Irish-American Heritage Month on Thursday, March 15th when he joins members of the AOH Division 11 to raise the Irish Flag at City Hall. "Thousands of Peabody residents trace their roots back to Ireland," Mayor Bettencourt said.  "We proudly celebrate this heritage by coming together in the spirit of friendship and honoring the many contributions of our Irish-American brethren.

WASHINGTON - Fifteen students gathered inside a basement classroom at Catholic University here on a recent evening to ponder a laminated vocabulary list that looked like some language instructor's cruel joke. The words were jumbles of seemingly random letters, strings of unpronounceable consonants, like the work of a touch typist who inadvertently plants his fingers on the wrong keys. But for these students, and for kindred spirits in America and Ireland, the Irish language has emerged as an improbable passion.

A fast-paced tour of 150 years of the Irish-American experience, James R. Barrett's "The Irish Way: Becoming American in the Multiethnic City" offers a wide-frame portrait of an immigrant group that helped define what it means to be an American. In his ambition to address every major aspect of Irish-American life and culture he often overrides opportunities for telling smaller, more intimate stories. But this isn't meant to be "Angela's Ashes. " "The Irish Way" is a biography of an entire people.

Of all the 50 states, Massachusetts is officially the most Irish. A quarter of us claim Irish descent, the highest portion of any state population, and we also boast the nation's most Irish-American town - Scituate at 47.5 percent. As the great-granddaughter of Rosetta Nora Galvin, who emigrated to South Hadley from Cork, I'm proud to play into these fine numbers, I am. Even if a true Irishman would find my heritage, as the saying goes, as useful as a pair of shoes to a snake. Speaking of snakes, it's almost St. Patrick's Day. Inexorably, an Irish literary mood takes hold and, like Joyce,...

DUBLIN - Waterford Crystal, a glittering icon of Ireland, said yesterday it will lay off most of its Irish workforce and move its factory production overseas after losing a six-year battle to boost sales, cut costs, and control debts. "We regret the necessity of ending large-scale manufacturing in Waterford, but we reaffirm our commitment to the city," said chief executive John Foley, referring to the company's 61-year-old base in the southeast Irish city of the same name. It didn't say where the work was going but the company has contracted much of its production to a...

NEW YORK -- Frank Durkan, a lawyer and activist who defended Irish-Americans entangled with the law due to their involvement in the politics of Northern Ireland, died Thursday at a hospital in Greenwich, Conn., of pulmonary lung failure, his daughter Mary Louise Martin said yesterday. He was 76. "He was the most emotionally generous man you've ever met," said another daughter, Ashling Durkan. "He could tell wonderful stories. " Known as a fierce defender, Mr. Durkan counted among his most famous clients George Harrison, who for many years was the main...

Ian Speliotis (19) and Cam MacDonald (12) accounted for the Westford Academy goals. (Craig Forde) By Craig Forde, Globe Correspondent Westford Academy (13-4-3) kept their foot wedged in the door of the Super 8 conversation with a 4-2 victory over Billerica on Wednesday night in Woburn. "That's a very big win for us," said Westford head coach Bob Carpenter. The No. 12 Grey Ghosts went down early to the Indians in the opening game of the Irish American Shootout at O'Brien Rink, but managed to bounce back quickly, getting two first period goals from sophomore Cam MacDonald to take a...