Sidewalks
by Tom DeignanRecent Posts
- The real Fighting Irish - Boston Irish fight each other
- Stephen Colbert’s “Rock me like a Herman Cain” serious joke - VIDEO
- Mitt Romney’s troubling immigration pal Kris Kobach
- New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan - much power but little glory
- Predictions for a wild 2012 - what the news could hold month by month
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The real Fighting Irish - Boston Irish fight each other
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan - much power but little glory
“Could Cardinal Dolan Become Pope?”
The question jumped out at me from the CBS News website and made me chuckle for several reasons.
Predictions for a wild 2012 - what the news could hold month by month
It's that time of year again. We can look back on another miserable year and, against all evidence to the contrary, hope for better things. Herewith, some predictions for the year to come.
JANUARY: Since no one seemed to care when New York City Fire Department big wigs referred to Irishmen as “drunks,” budget crunchers devise a novel way to save money during tough fiscal times -- get rid of the Irish!
Ron Paul.
Here comes a religious hurricane - the 9/11 Memorial
No, they are not angry at the New York mayor’s handling of Hurricane Irene.
It is a religious conflict revolving around 9/11 which has many upset, and even calling upon the memory of 9/11’s first official victim, the sainted Irish American Franciscan Father Mychal Judge.
Some must-see Irish TV - ‘Whitey’ Bulger and Sarah Michelle Gellar’s ‘Ringer’ - VIDEO
There is word out of Hollywood that an acclaimed sitcom writer has sold an idea for a TV sitcom to Twentieth Century Fox. The premise?
Imagine you were living right next door to Whitey Bulger, South Boston killer extraordinaire, and didn’t know it.
‘Irishmen Who Are Drunks’ - a reaction to FDNY's discriminatory remarks
As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 looms, you see many stories these days about firefighters and their families, and how they are coping with the loss of loved ones and the passage of time since that terrible day.
But that’s not all you will hear about the FDNY these days. For the past several weeks, Brooklyn Federal Court has been the setting for a federal discrimination trial against the New York City fire department.
The feds are looking into allegations that the FDNY discriminates against minority firefighters. So it is interesting that in this setting, one of the most blatantly anti-Irish statements I’ve ever heard was not only muttered, but entered into the public record.
Make us proud Denis Leary - 10 years after 9/11 the finale of "Rescue Me" - VIDEO
It is also believed that 10 years ago this week, 9/11 hijacker Mohammad Atta flew off to Spain to meet with fellow terrorist Ramzi bin al-Shibh, where they were finalizing plans for an attack that would change the course of world history, and to this day weighs upon thousands and thousand of families from Washington, D.C. to Rockaway Beach.
It is a question that cannot be asked too many times -- has it really been nearly 10 years?
The good and bad guys - FBI's most wanted and possible new head honchos
It was an indication of how the Irish American community -- hit so hard by the terror attacks -- responded to this long awaited news.
Now that bin Laden has been sent off to (we can only hope) a much worse place, there remain practical matters of law enforcement to sort out.
The failed plot to kill President John F. Kennedy
On April 3, the long-awaited mini-series The Kennedys will air on cable TV.
Starring the likes of Greg Kinnear and Mrs. Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, the mini-series was famously dropped from another cable channel a few months back. Rumors swirled that members of the Kennedy clam were displeased by its depiction of Jack and Bobby and the patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy.
Well, the mini-series will finally air beginning April 3 on something called Reelz. This may turn out to be much ado about…well, not very much. Most of us, like it or not, already know much more about the Kennedys than we want to know.
Enough already with the Irish mob
A friend of mine came up to me the other day and mentioned that a new movie called Kill the Irishman, was about to open.
“How many of these Boston Irish mob movies are they going to make?” he added.
I pointed out that Kill the Irishman, which opened this week and stars Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken, is actually set in Cleveland.
But his point was well taken.
The real problem with Congressman Peter King’s hearings
Read more: Why not have Muslim congressman investigate Catholic Church scandals, ala Peter King?
Read more: IrishCentral founder on 'Hardball' with Chris Matthews
There is a group in America. They are a minority, but they are quite a high-profile group, especially in and around large cities.
'The Fighter's' 'Irish' Micky Ward - a working class hero - SEE VIDEO
Read more: Irish Micky Ward: "The Fighter" speaks out
This Sunday, when Hollywood big wigs gather for the 83rd annual Academy Awards, The Fighter will be looking to have the biggest night for a heavily-Irish movie in five years, since The Departed was up for a bunch of awards, including a Best Supporting Actor nod for “the fighter” himself, Mark Wahlberg.
Given what is going on in the world, given the angry, messy state of the union here at home, it’s tempting to dismiss the Oscars as little more than a gathering of pretentious, pretty folk.
How the CIA got ‘Wild’ Bill Donovan
Given what New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg apparently thinks about the Irish, he almost certainly would have had some trouble back in January of 1940. That was when “Wild” Bill Donovan was out and about talking up a new movie starring fellow Irish Americans Pat O’Brien and Jimmy Cagney.
The movie was The Fighting 69th, about the famously Irish National Guard brigade which leads the St. Patrick’s Day parade down Fifth Avenue every year.
Given the stars and subject matter of the movie, you can imagine our mayor envisioning the brigade kicking off the march, while dozens of “inebriated Irishmen” hang out of their Fifth Avenue windows.
The enemy is...multiculturalism - foiling home-grown terrorist plots
In his new book The Matchmaker of Kenmare, Irish novelist Frank Delaney sends his characters on a tour of World War II-era Ireland.
Soon, they become sucked into the era’s foggy diplomacy, visiting the war-town landscapes of both England and Germany. These characters are able to move around without raising too much suspicion, in part, because they are from Ireland, and Ireland, of course, was neutral during World War II.
We can argue some other time about Irish neutrality in the face of Nazi barbarism. What this does remind us of is that people – and nations – have had to make tough choices in the past.
Why Ronald Reagan beats John F. Kennedy as a better presdient
There were nostalgic observations about the brilliance of JFK’s “Ask not what your country can do for you…” speech that frigid January morning back in 1960.
And there was also a fair bit of blarney, such as pundit Chris Matthews on The Colbert Report implying that JFK became president at a time when there were still “No Irish Need Apply” signs.
The joke is on the Catholics
If nothing else, give Doritos points for good timing. This all happened just as the New York Archdiocese announced that nearly 30 Catholic schools would either be closing or consolidated.
One wonders if the church higher-ups might actually consider dispensing Doritos instead of Communion wafers, if the orange-dusted snack would actually put fannies in the pew and, thus, more dollars in the collection plate.
What is so great about New York Irish?
In the current issue of New York magazine, a wide range of heavy hitters weigh in on what the cover calls “New York’s Greatest-Ever Everything.” As in, New York City’s greatest book, mayor, TV show, athlete and more.
Trouble is, there is a decided shortage of Irish names among both the greatest as well as those choosing the greatest.
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