cúisle mo chroí

An article in today’s Belfast Telegraph reports that the number of those affected by trauma (PTSD, etc) has increased by a third since last year, prompting the WAVE Trauma Centre to launch a new program at Queens to teach social work students to work with those affected by trauma related to the conflict.
Sandra [...]

So said Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney last night, in reference to his being inspired to write “A Sofa in the Forties,” a poem about the Holocaust train into Auschwitz. Last night I took Max to see Heaney’s poetry reading at Hunter College, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate. It was nice [...]

Irish Heritage and Cultural Celebration Video
The clip above is from the New York City Council’s “Irish Heritage and Cultural Celebration,” hosted by Council President and Speaker Christine Quinn and held on Tuesday, March 9th. Quinn’s support for Relatives for Justice and the struggle for truth was a fantastic way to celebrate the vote on [...]

A great article in the Daily News today that highlights the experiences of a couple of the Haitian members of Brother High Kanaval.
As Wilgainson Toussaint played horn for Brother High Full Tempo at Klub 45 above Connolly’s Pub in Times Square last week, he did so with a heavy heart.
The 18-piece Haitian rara [...]

I had the pleasure of joining the organization Irish American Writers & Artist almost immediately upon relocating to Brooklyn. IAWA is a unique organization in the city which is not only highlighting Irish American artists, writers, actors and so forth, but one that is “committed both to bringing together the Irish American creative community [...]

I watched the documentary film “The Cove” last night, which has apparently been nominated for an Academy Award this year. It has been a while since I’ve watched any sort of documentary film about animals, and it was particularly interesting to watch now that I would no longer describe myself as an animal rights [...]

The (fantastic) organization Reprieve today announced the release of a UN report (click that link to download the full report) into secret detention that exposes UK collusion in secret detention and torture. The investigation found, among other things, that the UK knew of the US’ rendition practices in 2002 but continued to hand them [...]

I had the pleasure of attending a discussion with graphic journalist Joe Sacco last night at the Brooklyn Public Library. It was both my first visit to the library and the first time I’ve heard Sacco talk about his work.
Footnotes in Gaza chronicles Sacco’s quest to uncover the truth about what happened [...]

Finally! We got hacked, causing all of our sites to go down and up and down again…and resulting in a lot of headaches. In any event, it’s a new year: goodbye Bluehost (you suck), hello new posts!