Enda Walsh is securing his reputation as the most provocative Irish playwright of his generation. In his new play “The New Electric Ballroom”, now playing at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, he has written his best work yet.

The great review in The New York Times on Monday for "The New Electric Ballroom," the new play by Irish playwright Enda Walsh, further reinforces the remarkable story of Irish success in New York in recent years.

Bridget English: On the bus ride back we drove through lush countryside and towns like Monaghan and Omagh. These towns, though smaller than Derry, seemed equally appealing. While there is much beauty to be found in Southern countryside, the North feels unspoiled, ripe with possibility and well worth a visit.

Robert Reynolds: It's now clear that Mayor Michael Bloomberg became New York's third term mayor because of the Catholic vote. Irish and Italians in the boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island provided the margin of victory for Bloomberg in a much tighter contest than was anticipated.

Bob Geldof's daughter Peaches, 20, says her charity mad father is like an "Irish potato famine miser." Peaches, who was born one day shy of St Patrick's Day in 1989, made the comment after revealing that her millionaire father never paid her pocket money.

Mourners gathered at St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church on Staten Island Saturday to bury the dead, but this was no ordinary funeral. Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians escorted two caskets - one a small, white children's casket with golden angels; the other larger and pearl-colored - into the church as bagpipes played "Amazing Grace." The two coffins contained the final remains of immigrants who died over 150 years ago.

Her features are unmistakably Irish, but Nassau County, L.I. District Attorney Kathleen Rice, 44, first visited

The original Irish name is " Coimn and its variations are numerous in every part of Ireland. The name lends itself to many interpretations. Some say it comes from the Irish word cam, meaning crooked, while others incorrectly believed the name derived from the word camán, which means a hurling stick.

In “Turning Green,” an American-born teenager growing up in Ireland finds a novel way to finance his return to the freedom of New York -- by selling soft core girlie mags on the black market to the local men queuing up to buy them. The new film stars Academy Award winner Timothy Hutton and Colm Meaney, and features the debut of Irish newcomer Donal Gallery. We talk to the film’s writer and its young breakout star.

After receiving the call from God when he was just 16, Christopher Heanue, the youngest child of Irish immigrants based in New York took his first class at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on Monday, October 12 on the long road to becoming a priest.

Writer J. Courtney Sullivan on the Virgin Mary, her debut novel and fighting the good fight.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald could take it when he was demonized as a heartless Southern prosecutor in the movie that fictionalizes his real-life jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller. What he objected to — he quipped last Saturday during our “debate” over a proposed reporters’ shield law at the American Bar Association convention — was the prissy name they gave his character, played by Matt Dillon.

Peter Quinn remembers Danny Cassidy.

He’s American and Korean, but U.S. Army Sergeant Seamus O’Fianghusa considers himself an Irishman through and through. As the fluent Gaelic speaker prepares for a deployment to Afghanistan, he talks about his love for all things Irish.

The name Malone derives from the Gaelic O'Maoileoin meaning follower of St. John. The family originally came from Ballynahown, County Offaly.

Keough, Keogh, Kehoe, O'Hoey, Hoy, Haughy, Haugh and MacKeogh are all derivatives of the Irish surname Mac Eochaidh. The clan originated in Leinster, and the name is common in County Wexford, and in the Munster counties of Limerick and Tipperary, where the Irish spelling is MagCeoch or MacCeoch. In medieval times the MacKeoghs from Leinster moved from Kildare to Wicklow and then down to Wexford.

Based on family names and individual stories, there are many hundreds of American dead with Irish heritage, including Americans who through parents or grandparents had become Irish citizens. 

This is a tribute to several of these brave Irish men and women.

The shortlist for the 2009 Man Booker Prize was announced today, and surprisingly, no Irish-written novels were included.

Though this column has never received a question from a surviving spouse of a deceased U.S. citizen whose marriage was less than two years old at the time of death, there have been several cases reported in the national media of a so-called “widow penalty” in U.S. immigration law preventing the surviving spouse from becoming legal here.

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 game as well.

Frank McCourt was born in Brooklyn on August 19, 1930, the eldest son of seven children. His father

Author and raconteur Frank McCourt, in his autobiography, “has examined his ferocious childhood, walked around it, relived it, and with skill and care and generosity of heart, transformed it into a triumphant work of art,” writes Pete Hamill.

Eugene Kyne gives the skinny on the upcoming senior football and senior hurling matches from the Bronx, as well as an intermediate football match between St. Raymond's and Roscommon.

Eugene Kyne highlights the past week's intermediate and senior football matches from the Bronx.

Eugene Kyne gives the lowdown on the upcoming football action from the Bronx between New Jersey/Kilkenny and Offaly, Cork and Tyrone, Roscommon and Brooklyn/Long Island, and the John Joe McGovern Final between Rangers and St. Barnabas, the first junior final of the season.

Former Brooklyn and (as no New York baseball fan can forget) Los Angeles Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame today.

Eugene Kyne's recap of the week's senior football and hurling matches, the John Brady Cup final and the first GAA Minor Board title for Brooklyn.

It is impossible not to get caught up in the mischief and malarkey of one of Irish band Shilelagh Law's shows, with the crowd pumping their fists in the air, screaming soccer stadium chants between songs, and shouting out the words to all the bedrock traditional ditties and original tunes in the band’s repertoire.

Eugene Kyne breaks down the senior football league contests between Donegal and Tyrone, Down and Four Provinces, and Leitrim and Sligo, as well as the intermediate football match between Brooklyn/Long Island and Mayo at Gaelic Park in the Bronx.

Marian Betancourt highlights the McAllister Towing Company, a family business that has been working the waters of New York since 1876.

Tom Deignan reviews a selection of recently published fiction books of Irish and Irish-American interest.

"I DESIRE to live and work in Ireland as an Irishman I believe I am eligible to obtain Irish citizenship and an Irish passport because of my family. I have a great aunt born in Co Wexford who raised my mother after the death of my natural mother in childbirth..."

A tribute to Paddy Reynolds, a fine musician and an even finer man.

Colm Toibin's new book, "Brooklyn" is certain to mark the celebrated Irish writer's transition from critic's favorite to international bestselling author

New York’s favorite Irish American comedian, Colin Quinn, is ready to knock the socks off his fans as he performs seven back-to-back comedy shows this weekend at the Gotham Comedy Club in New York City.

A Co. Westmeath man is teaching free martial arts classes to people who are unemployed at his New Jersey academy.

The name Doyle is found in older annals as O Dubhgaill but is almost never found in this form in modern times. Although the Doyle name is fairly common in Ireland, the origin of the name is not clear. It is generally believed to be derived from the Gaelic "Dubh Gall," meaning "dark foreigner."

The name Walsh or Welsh is one of the most numerous of the Norman associated names found in Ireland. It seems to have been the name used independently by the many different groups of Welsh people who arrived in Ireland with the Normans during the 12th century. The name simply means Welshman and its early Norman form was "Le Waleys" but this became gradually anglicized to Walsh.

One of the most common names in Ireland, the Murphy clan has distinguished itself in every field. Among them were an Army chaplain, poet, war hero, police commissioner, and mistress. The name Murphy, the most common and widespread name in Ireland, is a derivation of the Gaelic personal name of Murchadh or Murragh, which gave rise to the different versions MacMurchadh (son of Murchadh) and O'Murchadh (descendant of Murchadh).

Al Capone may have been a notorious gangster, but he also had a tender side: A song he wrote for his Irish wife will be released next month.

From Dennis Lehane to Samantha Power, the best of the best Irish-American writers and Irish writers in America

Irish leading man and Brooklyn, N.Y. resident Gabriel Byrne, 59, talks drink, depression

All the latest news and views from the New York GAA world.

Irish-American Fox 5 news reporter Mike Sheehan was arrested Monday after his car hit an NYPD horse and he refused a Breathalyzer test

When our resident film critic picked her Top 10 Irish movies of all time, she provoked a storm of protest from many of our readers. So here, we let our readers have their pick.

The 248th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade drew hundreds of thousands of people along Fifth Avenue, and the festive mood was heightened by great weather and the popularity of the man who led it. Michael J. Gibbons, son of an immigrant father from County Mayo and a mother from Nova Scotia of Scots Irish descent.

Speaking of Schumer, his chief of staff Martin Brennan will receive a well-deserved honor when he leads off the Bay Ridge St. Patrick's Day parade this year. It seems Brennan, whose parents hail from Mayo and who has been an outstanding worker for Irish causes, really wowed them with his acceptance speech at a recent kick-off function for the parade.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen came, saw and conquered at the launch of Irishcentral.com last

Dear MTN, I've been dating a guy for six months now and he still hasn't invited me over to his place. I have a house, so we usually just end up there after a date. We are both in our 30's and are single with no children.

The New York GAA football scene got a little clearer for the upcoming year with a dramatic piece of editing by the Association this past week. The alignments of the senior and junior divisions were changed dramatically, with an intermediate division born from necessity and intuition.