50 Years On: Bloody Sunday
What was "Bloody Sunday"? January 30, 1972 is a date forever ingrained in the minds of Irish people, both domestic and abroad. One could write a senior thesis on the event, but for the reader’s sake, I will condense the course of events. Thousands of the people of Derry were peacefully protesting the British policy of internment. Internment refers to...
State Sponsored Terrorism
Victims families will give their reaction to the devastating findings of Royal Ulster Constabulary ‘collusive behavior’ in 19 murders carried out by loyalists, in a special webinar for Americans this Saturday January 29th. The Operation Greenwich report by Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson, is the latest in a series of legacy proceedings, upholding claims of British state culpability or complicity...
Gaeilge At Pitt
This article first appeared on iIrish.us Maggie is ainm dom. Is as Scranton, Pennsylvania mé. Tá mé fiche bliain d’aois. (My name is Maggie. I am from Scranton, Pennsylvania. I am twenty years old.) I am currently an undergraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry, Latin, and Gaeilge. My favorite part of my...
King and Quill
Mike Quill was born on September 18, 1905 in the outskirts of Kilgarvan, County Kerry. Coming from a republican background, during the War of Independence he served as a dispatch and a scout for the IRA Kerry Brigade, aged just 14. In the subsequent Civil War he served with the anti-Treaty IRA, and like many anti-Treaty veterans living under...
AOH Legacy Webinar With Relatives for Justice
With Britain still moving to take away all legal channels for legacy justice, victims’ campaigners will open the New Year with a direct appeal for American help. Mary McAllan, previewing an explosive Relatives for Justice report into the murder of American citizen Liam Ryan, a representative of the New Lodge Six, and Seana Quinn, the sister of one of...
Lender Speaks Out Against Museum Closure
In the 1840's starvation forced many Irish citizens to move overseas. This starvation occurred at the behest of the British government, who removed food from Ireland at gunpoint to feed their booming population. Many of these emigrants died along the treacherous journey to the United States, in what were dubbed "coffin ships." Once here in the US, the struggle...
“Sean South” and “The Patriot Game”
On New Year’s Day in 1957, an event occurred that is remembered in song to this day. It all began after World War Two brought change to Northern Ireland as Loyalists and Nationalists shared the same bomb shelters, breaking down the barriers of prejudice erected to keep them divided. The war also created a small measure of prosperity that satisfied...
Upcoming Irish Language Act Protest
It is an absurdity beyond belief that the Irish language is not treated equally in Ireland's Northern Six Counties, yet that is the current political reality. Opposition from loyalists, who have insulted the language and its speakers on innumerable occasions, has stalled the passing of an Irish Language Act. Securing equal rights for the Irish language was a fundamental...
Hunger Strikers’ American Legacy
To the Editor: Almost overlooked, in this 40th anniversary year, is the historic American legacy which the 1981 Hunger Strikers inspired. British officials who plotted to undercut republican support by dressing up prisoners as criminals rather than wearing their own clothes as special category political prisoners, assumed the ploy would work well in America. Their criminalization plans did indeed become...
A Christmas Candle In The Window
As we enter the Christmas season, it is an appropriate time to reflect on a tradition that many families take part in, though few recall its origins. The Irish Christmas tradition of putting a candle in the window is an old tradition with both religious and political significance, which was in turn brought to the United States by Irish immigrants....
