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Bunratty Castle, Celtic Tiger, County Clare, craic, Dromoland Castle, Ennis, global partnerships, homesickness, hurling, Irish American relations, Mark Twain, Memoir, Phoenix Sister Cities, recession, Shannon Airport, The Burren, Tourism, trad, Travel
a long, long way from clare to here . . .
It’s not taking time to rain today in Phoenix – I might as well be looking out at the playing field that stretched between our house on the Dublin Road and Lough Neagh. It is – according to the 11 Levels of Irish Rain “REALLY lashing . . . hammering down.” On such a day, I can expect inexplicable pangs of homesickness, that old, unchanging feeling that I know will pass, the way it has done countless times since I first came to America. It is as real a feeling as it was when I first experienced it twenty five odd years ago, reminding me of what Stephen King says – that homesickness can…
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BC Action, Breast Cancer Advocacy, Breast Cancer Awareness, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Treatment, Breast cancer walks, Culture of breast cancer, Early Detection, Mammograms, Mastectomy, Pink Ribbons, Pinkwashing, Profiting from breast cancer, Susan G Komen Foundation
the five people I met in cancer country . . .
Opening the in-flight menu on my trip back from Denver this past Sunday, I was reminded that Breast Cancer (industry) Awareness Month is in full swing. Again. So again, I am reminding my friends to remind their friends to think before they pink. With all that’s happened over the past year, I have chosen not to dwell so much on being diagnosed with cancer, living with cancer, or even expecting to die from cancer. Having said that, the paralyzing fear of it progressing certainly knew how to make an entrance a couple of weeks ago. But in the early days following diagnosis, cancer hung from every sentence. Anchored down in unfamiliar waters, I would have lost my way back…
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booby-trapped this October?
This will be my only post about breast cancer awareness month. I’m aware.
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Act Two, After death of a spouse, Arizona, Being a Widow, Belfast, Blog Awards Ireland 2014, Death of parent, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Dr. Mary McAleese, Fatherless daughters, First birthday without him, George Moore, Irish culture, Irish Diaspora, Joseph O'Connor, Language of Cancer, McClelland Irish Library, Memoir, Milestones, Northern Ireland, Phoenix, Rites of passage, saying goodbye, The Canon of Expectation, The Good Friday Agreement, The Peace Process, The Troubles, Themes of childhood
neither here nor there: a note from the irish diaspora (& widowhood)
The immigrant’s heart marches to the beat of two quite different drums, one from the old homeland and the other from the new. The immigrant has to bridge these two worlds, living comfortably in the new and bringing the best of his or her ancient identity and heritage to bear on life in an adopted homeland. — FORMER IRISH PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE Continuing to pay tribute to the Irish Diaspora, President of Ireland, Mary McAleese visited Phoenix, Arizona in December 2008. Moving through the crowd gathered at the Irish Cultural Center, she greeted many of us personally, even obliging me with a photograph when I told her where I was from.…
