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Antrim, Belfast, Belfast Peace Lines, bombing, British Army, Bruce Springsteen, Castledawson, Good Vibrations, IRA, Joe Strummer, La Mon House Hotel Bombing, Memoir, Mix tapes, Movies, Music, Northern Ireland, Omagh, Pop-in Records, Record Shops, Regrets, Sectarianism, Sherman Alexie, Terri Hooley, The Clash, The Miami Showband, The Troubles, The Undertones, Themes of childhood, UVF, Vinyl Records
for the record . . .
Dedicated to the legendary Terri Hooley . . . I rarely watch movies when I’m flying, but on the plane from Chicago to Dublin two Novembers ago, perusing my options for in-flight entertainment, I paused when I heard the unmistakable hiss that comes after a stylus is dropped right in the groove, and a Northern Ireland accent infused with Woodbine cigarettes: “Once upon a time in the city…
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9/11, Belfast, Boston Marathon 2013, Damian Gorman, Facebook, Health Activist Writer's Challenge 2013, Memoir, Northern Ireland, Poetry, Seamus Heaney, Seamus Heaney, Seamus Heaney, Soundtracks of our Lives, television, The Troubles, The Troubles
boston 2013 . . . without warning
Until September 11th 2001, I had taken for granted the sense of security I felt as a woman who had traded in Northern Ireland for America. Foolishly, I had too quickly dropped my guard, almost forgetting anything can happen. I grew complacent and smug, confident that – unlike her mother – my American daughter would never have to look twice at…
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Antrim Guardian, Being young, Belfast, British Army, Family, Funerals, IRA, Loughinisland, Memoir, News Travels by Yvonne Watterson, Northern Ireland, Punishment, Sectarianism, The Good Friday Agreement, The Troubles, The Troubles, Themes of Childhood, Themes of childhood, UVF
loughinisland lingers . . .
To forget them would be a second death. I don’t think I am responsible for their first death. But I can be responsible, if I am not careful, in the second death.” ~ ELIE WIESEL Yes. It is important. To bear witness. To say their names. I was recently contacted by Colm Smyth who survived the heartless attack on 16…
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9.11.2013, 9/11, Anything can Happen, Belfast, Billy Collins, Blog Awards Ireland 2013, Blogging, bombing, British Army, cancer, Diary, Healing Field Tempe, Loss, Memoir, Memoir, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Culture, Ordinary Things, Peace, Poetry, Remembering September 11th, The Peace Process, The Troubles, The Troubles, Themes of Childhood, Writers
from A to the final jolt of Z ~ September 11th
I have yet to be disappointed by what happens when my online world collides with the ‘real’ one. Landing on the virtual doorsteps of people in the middle of lives parallel to my own, I have been beautifully blindsided by unexpected coincidences and exchanges of truths that may not otherwise have seen the light of day. In my virtual home,…
