The Comstock Lode in Nevada, uncovered in 1859 by two Irish laborers, ultimately produced more than $500 million worth of silver, a large share of which went to the Irish-American “Big Four” – James ...

The name Grosse Ile (Big Island) is almost a generic term on the map of North America, it appears in so many places. But there is one island by that name that far outstrips the others for the drama ...

Daniel O’Connell is remembered as the Liberator of Irish Catholics, but he also played a significant role in the movement to end slavery. On 23 May 2011, President Obama made an historic visit to the ...

The descendants of Irish people sold into slavery in the 1600s live in a close-knit community beset by poverty and ill health. During the winter of 1636, a ship bearing a consignment of 61 men and ...

This exchange in a novel about college sports in the 1920s catches the prejudices that many Americans of the time held toward citizens of Irish-Catholic descent. However, unlike other immigrant groups ...

More than two dozen sons of Irish immigrants, who played in the 1880-1920 period, are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Many other great Irish players have made their mark on the ...

Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason talks to Patricia Harty about her pride in her hometown, her career; the hard reality of work on the U.N. Security Council; and her new role as Ireland’s Ambassador to ...

The Chieftains, Ireland’s top traditional group, celebrate their 50th anniversary with a compilation album featuring many young recording artists. In traditional Irish music, the road to success is ...

From the Civil War to Chicago’s Mercy Hospital, the extraordinary history of Irish nuns in health care. The Sisters of Mercy were the first women to go with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War ...

As the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending the right to abortion upheld for decades, Niall O’Dowd looks at how abortion became legal in Ireland in this extract from his book A New Ireland ...

The Celtic cross that the Ladies’ Ancient Order of Hibernians Auxiliary dedicated to Great Hunger victims at the Cohasset Cemetery in Massachusetts. Her other books include: Black Abolitionists In ...

Jack Donovan Foley, the American grandson of Irish immigrants, invented “foley art,” a sound-effects technique still used in films today – so subtle and perfect that viewers don’t notice anything has ...