"I worried that the day I would lose my accent would be the day that my identity would be taken away from me. I worried that I wouldn’t be accepted as being Irish anymore when I went home to visit. I worried how much I would assimilate into American culture."
Suddenly it is the middle of June. We advance sharply towards the longest day of our year. In the west, close to the serene Shannon and the silvery expanses of Lough Derg it is almost too beautiful to be true.
After all the excitement about the election of Leo Varadkar as our new taoiseach last week, it has to be said that his first week in office turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.
There’s only so many times you can hear jokes about how many pints you drink and how many potatoes you eat before it becomes not just irritating but plain boring.
"Connecting our national flag directly with the outcome of what to many of us are ugly brawls... is likely to reinforce an ancient prejudice against us."
Mott Street. Manhattan. 1936. These were tough times in a tough place. One might go so far as to say that things back then were even tougher than they are now.
The Fine Gaeler is not your ordinary Irish politician. At just 38 years of age he is ascending to the highest office in Ireland, a remarkable achievement in itself.
The election of Leo Varadkar as the new leader of Fine Gael and therefore our next taoiseach marks a minor revolution in Irish politics -- with the emphasis on the word minor.
