Martin Fagan won the Boston Half Marathon Sunday when he beat Kenyan Philemon Terer to finish the course in a time of 1:02.21.

Once there were nine siblings, and now just Jean Kennedy Smith is left from the children of Joe and Rose FitzGerald Kennedy, who went on to become the most powerful political family in America. We forgot what the Kennedys accomplished for Irish Americans. They grew up in an era when “No Irish Need Apply” signs were still up in some New England neighborhoods.

The same virus that caused the potato blight in Ireland in the 1840s that decimated the population and drove thousands to these shores has been found in potato and tomato crops in Rhode Island.

Over 800 dancers competed from a number of Irish dance schools across the east coast from beginner to championship level at the Irish Heritage Feis, hosted by the O’Shea Chaplin Academy of Irish Dance at Saugus High School on Sunday, June 14.

The Mulvihill-Lynch Feis, a local competition in Smithtown in Long Island, may seem like a small event by some standards. Organized by Debbie Lynch-Webber, head of the Mulvihill-Lynch School of Irish Dance, it takes place at Smithtown West High School. Yet it draws hundreds of children from New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and as many as seven or eight hundred kids will compete. In fact it’s a big deal.

Competition 57B Dance Drama (Any) results Entry Name School Rank 17 Foireann  A Smith-Houlihan : New England, USA 1 8 Foireann  A Watters : Florida,

Competition 46 Senior Ladies Ceilí results Entry Name School Rank 91 Foireann  A Smith-Houlihan : New England, USA 1 72 Foireann  A Claddagh : Western, USA 2 12 Foireann  A Harney : Mapole, USA 3 17 Foireann  A

Competition 44 Junior Girls Ceilí results Entry Name School Rank 23 Foireann A Kelly Hendry : Newcastle-U-Tyne, England 1 24 Foireann A Claddagh : Western, USA 2 41 Foireann A Smith-Houlihan : New England, USA 3 8 Foireann A Kidd :

Competition 42 Minor Girls Ceilí results Entry Name School Rank 12 Foireann  A Smith-Houlihan : New England, USA 1 20 Foireann  C Harney : Mapole, USA 2 4 Foireann  A Claddagh : Western, USA 3 57 Foireann  A Pender-Keady :

Competition 21 Senior Ladies results Entry Name School Rank 21 Ashley Smith Smith-Houlihan : New England, USA 1 94 Heather Lynn Hanson Inishfree :

Competition 3 Men 18 - 19 Results Entry Name School Rank 36 James Greenan Mona Ní Rodaigh : Dundalk, Ireland 1 16

The girls from Smith-Houlihan Irish Dance School are now world champions

You wanna rest in real peace, then do it in an Irish Casket!

  Entry Name School Rank 151 Shauna Ryan Uí Nualláin : Luimneach, Éire 1 135 Mellisa McCarthy Harney : Walpole,

Entry Name School Rank 4 Shannon Bradley Doherty : Belfast, Ireland 1 94 Amy-Mae Dolan McConomy : Derry, Ireland 2 99 Ciara O'Sullivan Sheehan-Murphy : Kerry, Ireland 3 16 Anna Sulger Pender-Keady : Connecticut, USA 4 27 Kelly Donegan Sylvan Kelly : Mayo, Ireland 5 138 Olivia Murray Mona Ni Rodaigh :

Entry Name School Rank 53 Cyra Taylor" href="/topics?topic=Cyra+Taylor">Cyra Taylor McConomy : Derry (County Derry)"

Competition 9 Boys 12 - 13 results Entry Name School Rank 22 Sean Downes McCutcheon : Glasgow, Scotland 1 42

The twisted saga of Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish mob has already inspired numerous movies and TV shows, from the Oscar-winning "The Departed" to Showtime's "Brotherhood." Now Irish director Jim Sheridan plans to tackle Bulger's story directly.

For decades, one simple question has split the Irish on both sides of the Atlantic into two warring factions: Do you love or loathe "The Quiet Man," that 1952 stage Irish classic starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, and directed by John Ford? Ford himself was often more Irish than the Irish themselves, making up an ultra-Gaelic name for himself, and playing the role of a fervent Irish nationalist. But as an epic new biography of Ford shows, there was no need for Ford to exaggerate his background: his family was tight with the IRA, and Ford visited Ireland during the Civil War, riling British authorities. He later shared a boat back to the States with Michael Collins.

Before Emmett Till was killed in Mississippi in 1955 for being black, and before Leo Frank was lynched in Atlanta in 1913 for being Jewish, two Irish Catholic immigrants in Boston, in 1805, were victims of an angry city. Dominic Daley and James Halligan were traveling from Boston to New York City. Around this time, a man named Marcus Lyon was robbed and murdered along the path traveled by Daley and Halligan.

Dan Milner has been plying the Irish and folk music scene of New York City for decades, and acquired a well-earned reputation for his store of knowledge about countless folk songs and the times that created them. He comes from that folk singing tradition where delivery and articulation are critical to imparting the most colorful details contained in a song or the nuance that drives it home as a great ballad of the people. Through committed interpreters and vocalists like Milner, the songs of the people that depict our history are like buried treasure to be reclaimed over and over again with an audience that appreciates that folk song tradition.

Brotherhood, the high octane Showtime family drama of Irish gangsters, politicians, blood and betrayal, set in the back streets and boardrooms of Providence, has returned to the airwaves. If you've been missing The Sopranos, this is definitely the best way to get a mob drama fix. CAHIR O'DOHERTY talks to the show's creator, writer and executive producer Blake Masters about the new season.

FROM time to time, performance troupes from Ireland offering Irish music and dance organize themselves as a traveling show to say that they toured America.

A Leitrim-based group called The Emerald Revellers is in our midst at the moment. The 34 members hail from the north west of Ireland with Leitrim the majority county but Sligo, Fermanagh, Cavan and Longford are also represented and even some musicians from London (but from Leitrim and Galway stock).

What more is there to say about the Kennedys? Since their story is the defining one of the Irish in America, and of all immigrants who have come to these shores before and since, there's still quite a lot. In the documentary The Kennedys: Americas Emerald Kings, director Robert Klein lifts the veil on the famous clan. This week he talks to CAHIR O'DOHERTY about the continuing relevance of Irish America's first family.

Readers Forum : Letters

Dear editor

In your excellent editorial: Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears (December 2007/January 2008), you write: "And so we dedicate this issue to a country where dreams can still come true.

And as we pay tribute to those on our Business 100 list we put forth the hope that today's immigrants, Irish and otherwise, who languish on the sidelines waiting for proper documentation, will eventually get through the process and have a shot at keeping the American dream alive."

I would like to pay tribute to the story of some of those pre-Ellis Island and pre-Business 100 List Irish immigrants who responded to the opportunity of this country and successfully took a shot at the American dream and built this country.

IRISH billionaire Thomas J. Flatley, a Massachusetts real estate icon and philanthropist, died on Saturday, May 17 at the age of 76. Flatley, who emigrated to the U.

New England boss Martin Johnson believes Declan Kidney can lead Ireland to a first Six Nations championship this season - but he still wants to spoil the party in Dublin this Saturday. Six years after he insulted President Mary McAleese and the nation at Lansdowne Road, Johnson will be back in town again with an English rugby team. Captain in 2003 when he refused to move the England team down the red carpet and stood his ground in Dublin 4, Johnson will doubtless come in for stick from the home crowd this weekend.

Hillary a Popular Choice

SENATOR Hillary Clinton as secretary of state would be good news indeed for both Ireland and her Irish American backers.

The news that she was under consideration was a major surprise to her supporters in the Irish American community who raised over $3 million for her in the primary battle.

Indeed, she has an Irish fundraiser arranged for this weekend organized by Declan Kelly of FTI, the global business advisory firm.

The O'Sullivan Clan of Munster has produced fine military leaders, sporting heroes, politicians, movie stars, songwriters, and even a space walker, as the following history of one of the most popular Irish names illustrates. The O'Sullivans or Sullivans are one of the most populous of the Munster families

Unlike many Irish family names, the origin of the Kavanaghs or Cavanaghs can be traced back to one specific person. This was Donal, the son of Dermot McMorrough, a twelfth-century king of Leinster. This Dermot has an infamous place in Irish history since it was through his invitation that the Normans first came to Ireland, in 1169 AD.

Bruce Springsteen made a name for himself by writing rock and roll poetry about the working class of the Jersey Shore, and while there may not be much in common between The Boss and Boston's Dropkick Murphys on the surface, the themes of their songs are remarkably similar. This snarling punk rock outfit has just released its sixth full length CD, The Meanest of Times, and there are vivid photographs of the downtrodden lurking beneath the tide of angry punk energy.

They couldn't have picked a better title for the CD.

Roseland Ballroom hosted the biggest and baddest Irish party this past weekend as the Pogues settled in for a string of sold-out shows in midtown.

After 15 years in limbo, the lads have been doing annual pilgrimages to the States since 2002. While none of us thought they would ever reform, it is now incomprehensible to celebrate St.