tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-211610772008-06-17T23:35:34.278-04:00Gerry Regan and Joe Gannonnoreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-53291985260628262022008-06-13T17:42:00.017-04:002008-06-17T23:35:10.000-04:00

Updated with refelections from his son Luke, Chris Matthews, Mike Barnicle, Pat Buchanan, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Tom Brokaw, Maria Shriver Buffalo-born Irish American Tim Russert, anchor of NBC's "Meet the Press," died Friday afternoon of an apparent heart attack. His last act was doing voice overs for Sunday's show. The Emmy award-winning Washington Bureau chief of the network was only 58

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-34551030894617066532008-05-22T12:13:00.004-04:002008-06-02T01:23:00.118-04:00

In a telephone interview with Edwin Torres, chairman of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's, he told us that the Committee will be holding a fundraiser/ celebration at Connolly's, 121 West 45th St. on June 18th, at 7 p.m. sharp. This will be a reprise of 2006's Bards for St. Brigid's, with musicians like Larry Kirwan, and authors like Peter Quinn and Malachy McCourt. The proceeds will be donated

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-57939057661850522872008-05-21T19:35:00.013-04:002008-05-23T01:24:38.282-04:00

Today's news about St. Brigid's Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan is truly miraculous. The embattled congregation, which has been working mightily to save the church, has received the news that their church will be purchased by an unnamed benefactor for $20 million dollars. We quote an email from Edwin Torres, the chairperson of the Committee to Save St. Brigid's: "Dear Members, The

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-52517861011511475132008-03-17T23:40:00.004-04:002008-03-18T04:33:01.076-04:00

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn hosted this year's City Council Celebration of Irish Heritage and Culture on Wednesday, March 12. Senator George Mitchell received the Thomas Manton Irish Man of the Year Award, Staten Island's own Assemblyman Michael Cusik and the CEO and publisher of the Irish Echo, Mairtin O'Muilleoir, and the Committee to Save St. Brigid's Church also won awards. But

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-91306473801343995032008-03-04T20:34:00.007-05:002008-03-05T02:39:33.631-05:00

It was reported this evening by Reuters that Antrim-born Ian Paisley will be resigning his position as First Minister of Northern Ireland in May. The Presbyterian minister, long infamous for his vitriolic diatribes against the Catholic population of the world, entered into the power sharing agreement brought about by the Good Friday agreement of 1998, which was implemented in 2007. "No

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-20488091663417401162008-02-25T00:09:00.010-05:002008-06-17T23:24:30.327-04:00

The 80th Oscars have ended, and the Irish have walked away with two awards; Daniel Day-Lewis, the Dublin actor, won as Best Actor for his astounding performance in "There Will Be Blood," the movie based on Sinclair Lewis' novel "Oil." This was as he was "knighted" with the golden statue by last year's Best Actress, Helen Mirren; Day-Lewis quipped, "And that's the closest I'll ever come to getting

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-61157645993064853862008-02-13T03:44:00.003-05:002008-02-13T04:06:41.614-05:00

Sunday night, February 10, a mighty wind blew around New York City. Beleagured St. Brigid's Church on the Lower East Side, which has been the subject of many protests, fundraisers, and hearings in State Supreme Court, held up despite the wind. Ironically, the scaffolding erected by the Archdiocese of New York as a preventive service to the community was blown to smithereens, according to Edwin

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-21366949187646576872008-01-27T01:53:00.000-05:002008-01-31T14:39:55.846-05:00

"The Devil's Disciple" by George Bernard Shaw, now up at Manhattan's Irish Reportory Theatre, while not one of his major works, offers a fine evening, indeed. The play dates to 1897 and is the only play of Shaw's to be set during the American Revolution. It's the story of one Richard Dudgeon, also known as Dick, his mother Annie, his brother Christy, his Uncle Titus, and his cousin Essie. It's

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-36323535169187942962008-01-09T12:03:00.002-05:002008-01-09T16:48:17.619-05:00

The O'Neill Festival screened "The Iceman Cometh," a 1960 Play of the Week directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Jason Robards Jr. and a very young Robert Redford. The film depicts the accounts surrounding the 60th birth day party of saloonkeeper Harry Hope, an Irish ward heeler, and the down and out characters who inhabit his Last Chance Saloon. They correspond to O'Neill's friends in his younger

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-62260787931707451012008-01-08T08:50:00.000-05:002008-01-08T17:14:59.117-05:00

Think of John Wayne in a movie directed by John Ford. "The Searchers?" "Fort Apache?" "The Quiet Man?" "Rio Grande?" "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence?" All are correct answers, but not the one we're looking for. Imagine Wayne cast as an able-bodied Swedish seaman, complete with accent, and you have him in Eugene O'Neill's "The Long Voyage Home." Ole Olsen, who just wants to get back to his

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-31200165160887080272008-01-07T15:45:00.000-05:002008-01-08T02:33:47.648-05:00

Last night's showing at the O'Neill Festival was "The Hairy Ape" which was produced off-Broadway last season by the Irish Repertory Theatre. It was fitting that founding producer Ciarán O’Reilly and Gregory Derelian, who played the protagonist Yank, were the speakers for the after-screening event. Ciarán O’Reilly looks on as Gregory Derelian reads O'Neill Photo credit: Patricia

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-82861338191627114832008-01-06T11:18:00.000-05:002008-01-06T17:34:37.000-05:00

If "Long Day's Journey" is O'Neill's masterwork, "Ah, Wilderness!" is a 180-degree turn, one of the few comedies in his oevre. This Independence Day, 1906 tale of the coming of age of a young Irish-American was modeled after the McGinley family of New London; they published the New London Day, the local paper where O'Neill was for some time a reporter. Charlotte Moore of the Irish Repertory

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-73493520486903227122008-01-05T16:28:00.000-05:002008-01-06T17:48:00.742-05:00

Last night was the first of the 10th annual O'Neill Festival at the Provincetown Playhouse. We watched a screening of "Long Day's Journey into Night" -- the Richardson/Hepburn version -- and listened to a lively discussion about the generosity of James Tyrone toward his sons and the nun/coquette role of Mary Tyrone.Susan Chalfant and Steven Kennedy MurphyPhoto credit: Patricia Jameson-Sammartano

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-28229843951351627702008-01-04T14:22:00.000-05:002008-01-04T16:09:07.032-05:00

The Tenth Annual O'Neill Festival kicks off tonight, January 4, 2008, at Provincetown Playhouse, 133 Macdougal Street, Greenwich Village, where O'Neill began his acting and playwriting career. Curtain's up on his masterwork film, "Long Day's Journey Into Night" at 7 p.m., with discussion following led by Stephen Kennedy Murphy, artistic director of The O’Neill Festival, and featuring actress

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-57261698662218209162008-01-01T04:55:00.000-05:002008-01-03T17:28:30.403-05:00

More than a million viewers crowded Times Square on December 31 to say goodbye to the old year and ring in 2008, celebrating 100 years of dropping what has now become the world's largest Waterford pendant. Weather was warm for this time of year, and the crowds were friendly. Anderson Cooper was in his usual rare form. So were the musicians, including Kid Rock and Carrie Underwood. Photo credit:

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-50155539509836749822007-12-13T01:12:00.000-05:002007-12-19T10:33:42.326-05:00

Setting: A shabby two-story house, in a suburb north of Dublin, on Christmas Eve. We had originally thought that a play about five drunken Irishmen would be clichéd, but not in the hands of Dublin’s extremely talented Conor McPherson, who wrote and directs “The Seafarer,” now at New York's Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th St. between Broadway and 8th Avenue, by way of the National Theatre of Great

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-67113687163035515722007-12-02T18:21:00.000-05:002007-12-02T19:16:48.820-05:00

What’s the fastest growing sport in Ireland? That would be football, the American one with the oblong, pointy –ended ball that is, not the round one. The first American style football game to be played on the island was played in 1942 in Belfast. And it attracted a large crowd, said to be 8,000 strong, with proceeds from the tickets going to the Red Cross. But the two teams were made up of

Gerry Regan and Joe Gannonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-80022205945377112952007-11-29T17:30:00.000-05:002007-12-03T14:41:59.323-05:00

Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the stagehands' union settled their almost three-week strike against the League of American Theaters and Producers at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night, November 28. The lights will go up on Broadway Thursday. The five-year contract is tentative, as it must be ratified by the membership on December 9th. but the crew call was 1 p.m.

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-18204376098534697552007-10-17T02:27:00.001-04:002007-11-13T22:37:06.975-05:00

Proving that old fashioned nativism(a/k/a racism)is not dead, Arby's latest TV commercial features a team of scientists(one of whom appears to be Indian) watching a group of chimppanzees on an assembly line making hamburgers, ostensibly for Arby's, the fast food chain. The scientists are amazed as the chimpanzees break into an Irish step dance. Arby's gets an F for stereotyping and stupidity in

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-14903162686033757112007-09-24T00:05:00.000-04:002007-09-24T23:35:08.059-04:00

The implosion of the Irish-American family after a tragic loss is grist for theater, and Larry Kirwan has refined that material in "The Heart Has a Mind of Its Own," playing in rotating repertory until September 30th at the Boomerang Theatre Company, Center Stage, 48 West 21 St, 4th floor. Playwright Larry Kirwan; Photo courtesy of Black 47 The drama is driven by the death on 9/11 of New

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-87381421872946452572007-09-11T03:39:00.000-04:002007-09-11T04:29:34.686-04:00

This is part one of a reflective essay begun last year: The morning of 9/11 was commonplace: racing around, getting ready for the commute to school, hopping the bus to grab the 7:20 ferry. Yet it was an election day, one of those early September days that sparkled with sunlight and deep blue skies. Fall was yet to come with its glories, yet this day was ironic perfection. Photo of stained glass

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-52511675004803058752007-08-08T04:39:00.000-04:002007-08-08T05:44:24.140-04:00

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles "Joe" Hynes spoke before a gathering of lawyers from the Irish community at John Dearie's office Tuesday, August 7, 2007. He discussed his new novel, "Triple Homicide," released this summer, and talked about some of the reforms in the police community since the Mollen Commission of 1992.Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes at booksigningPhoto credit: Patricia

Patricia Jameson-Sammartanohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13124156931790304417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-73438469537434245652007-08-02T10:10:00.000-04:002007-08-02T11:07:21.482-04:00

We have received word from Charles McKenna of the Irish Cultural Centre of Tommy Makem's death from lung cancer yesterday. We take the liberty of quoting his letter of August 1, in our inbox this morning, here: Patricia Jameson-Sammartano Culture Editor, WGT A Chara, Friend, This is Charlie McKenna and I am writing this message with a very heavy heart. A personal hero of mine has been called

Gerry Regan and Joe Gannonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-63070381852866969992007-07-17T15:48:00.000-04:002007-07-17T16:18:39.845-04:00

Recently we got an email about the Akron Celtic Guards Hurling Club, "The Hibernian Rifles !,” from Paddy Taylor, organizer/founder of the team. Paddy and the “Celtic Guards” will be playing in a four team hurling tournament at the Dublin (Ohio) Irish Festival, which will be held August 3rd, 4th and 5th. Below is their 2006 team photo, taken at last year's festival. Paddy’s passion for the game,

Gerry Regan and Joe Gannonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21161077.post-50377069580924794132007-07-05T21:07:00.000-04:002007-07-05T22:51:52.609-04:00

Few fictional characters could be more British than James Bond’s boss, “M.” The inspiration for that character, however, may have been an Irish Catholic man born in Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland in 1850. The incredible life of that man, William Melville, is now being highlighted in an exhibit at the Kerry County Museum and some in the area disagree with that. It is another chapter in the dichotomy

Gerry Regan and Joe Gannonnoreply@blogger.com