I saw this striking historical story just a few minutes ago. It kind of ups the ante on just how bad it could be for Irish coming to America in the earlier 19th century, and makes me all the more grateful that my ancestors made it to Wisconsin without such incident.

Pennsylvania Ghost Story Leads to Murder MysteryDavid Lohr ( Read more... )

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My eldest niece is Grace, who is seven years old and in second grade this year. (The others are Haley, 5, in kindergarten, and Sophie, just about to turn 3, in preschool.) One of Grace's classmates received a present from a Leprechaun on the morning of Saint Patrick's Day the other year, provoking a minor crisis among the other students of Irish ( Read more... )

With everything else going on - my weird back thing giving way (thanks for the exercises everyone suggested!) to the bronchitis I've had over the last two weeks morphing into a fever and headache: what is it with me getting sick at New Years? - I still spotted this news item. Despite the mess with some of the leadership in the Irish Church, I was ( Read more... )

These days are flying by, blurring together in their routine: Wake, breakfast, shower and shave, research, edit, dinner, write, snack, veg, sleep. Rinse and repeat. I've had horrible withdrawal symptoms from my cuteness addiction, as not only have I not visited the nieces in about a month, but I've not even heard any stories over the phone as Jim ( Read more... )

A few CNS articles I wanted to jot down, two brief ones on the continuing reactions to the awful report on the amount of abuse that was carried on in Ireland under institutions sponsored by the Church, and an article touching on the ongoing collaboration of the Church and the scientific establishment.

Child abuse was part of a prevalent church ( Read more... )

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Today's the Feast of Lewis, being the 45th anniversary of his death, as well as those of Kennedy and Huxley.

My birth certificate showed up in the mail, which was a relief. My identity remains my own for another day. So all my paperwork is in order, and my files can be put away for another decade. The day was spent digging back into Chapter 1 ( Read more... )

Still achey and woozy. Falling asleep and waking up is part of the pattern of what seems like a low-grade infection. But the really weird thing was finding myself with a crumpled Euro credit card receipt that said I'd just dropped fifty Euros on something in the south of Ireland.

Oi. Happy New Year Part Two - the Saw Doctors' second of their double-header gigs at Milwaukee's IrishFest this year. Last night's show was more of a "greatest hits" set; tonight it was a lot of their great stuff that doesn't make that top list so often, which made the show all the more cool, to my mind. And this time, I recorded it:
That's What ( Read more... )