Category Archives: Arts & Culture

Three postcards from Ireland, summer 2026

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I am traveling and working on several projects. New posts will be infrequent through the summer. I’m happy to be in Ireland at the moment. Three postcards below. MH

Looking northeast from the 10th floor of the Central Plaza building in Temple Bar, Dublin: construction cranes at left; the Ha’penny pedestrain bridge over the tree-lined north side of the River Liffey, center left; the Spire of Dublin on O’Connell Street, near the historic General Post Office, and top portion of Croke Park, center horizon; and the 17-story Liberty Hall, once the tallest building in Ireland, at far right. View through glass panel.Round towers at the Glendalough monastic ruins in County Wicklow.The Waterford Greenway, right, looking southwest about 6K outside Dungarvan, County Waterford. Not a drop of rain fell during my cycle.

An American journalist’s connection to Ireland and Egypt

HIATIUS: I am traveling and working on other projects. New posts will be infrequent through the spring and summer. I can be reached via contact form on the “About Me” page. Thanks, MH

What does a 3,500-year-old Egyptian red granite obelisk in New York City’s Central Park have to do with Ireland or Irish America? Nothing. But there are indirect connections.

Hurlbert

William Henry Hurlbert, a late-nineteenth century editor of the New York World, determined the city should match London’s acquisition of a similar object. His campaign resulted in the June 1880 arrival of the seven-story (69 feet) obelisk, seen below. It was raised in February 1881 on a small hill behind the Metrololitian Museum of Art, which opened about the same time. The MET holds one of the world’s largest Egyptian collections under its roof, in addition to the so-called “Cleopatra’s Needle” in the park.

The link to Ireland comes through Hurlbert, who traveled throughout the island in early 1888. Later that year he published the book, Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American. The conservative Hurlbert was pro-landlord and anti-home rule. Read about his work in my 2018 blog series: “Ireland Under Coercion, Revisited.”

I have visited numerous places in Ireland that Hurlbert described in his book. I was pleased to remember his connection to the obelisk as I walked through Central Park on my way to the American Irish Historical Society. Founded in Boston in 1897 (Hurlbert died two years earlier), the Society since 1940 has been located at 991 Fifth Avenue, directly across from the MET, barely a five-minute walk from the granite tower.

American journalist William Henry Hurlbert led an 1880 campaign to bring this Egyptian obelisk to Central Park in New York City. Eight years later he wrote a book about Ireland.

Fact-checking St. Patrick’s desnaking of Ireland

Those dang fact-checkers; always deflating a good political talking point or ruining a cherished legend. And so with St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland. An online search of “St. Patrick” and “snakes” today returns this AI overview:

The legend of St. Patrick driving snakes out of Ireland is a popular myth symbolizing his eradication of paganism, not a factual event. Scientifically, snakes never inhabited post-glacial Ireland due to cold temperatures and surrounding oceans. The story first appeared in literature centuries after his life.

But the popular press of a century ago also fact-checked the legend. The clipping below is from the March 17, 1926, edition of the Washington Evening Star. William Montana Mann (1886-1960) was director of the National Zoo from 1925 until 1956. As an entemologist, he specialized in ants, not snakes. William Shepard Walsh (1854–1919) was an American folklorist and author. Walsh died seven years before the Evening Star quoted from his 1897 book, Curiosities of Popular Customs and of rites, ceremonies, observations, and miscellaneous antiquities. See page 790.

Washington Evening Star, March 17, 1926.

The Washington Post of a century ago gave a softer, cartoon treatment to the legend of St. Patrick, sans snakes, in addition to news coverage of the day’s festivities in the US capital. The graphic says Patrick baptized “over 12,000 people.” AI says “over 100,000, up to 130,000.”

Who really knows about such things?

Capital Irish Film Festival screens today’s Ireland

The 20th annual Capital Irish Film Festival (CIFF) runs February 26-March 1. The event is presented and produced by Solas Nua, a Washington, D.C.-based contemporary Irish arts organization, in partnership with the American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre & Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. See the full program, several individual films are linked below. Last year, a record €544 million was invested in the Irish economy across film, television, documentary, and animation projects, a 26 percent increase from 2024, according to Screen Ireland.

Maedhbh McCullagh became director of CIFF in 2022. The County Cavan native has worked as a multidisciplinary cultural producer, arts programmer, and creative consultant on both sides of the Atlantic. The transcript below is edited from our Feb. 18 Zoom call and email exchanges. MH

Maedhbh McCullagh

MH: Tell us a little about the history of the film festival and how it serves the mission of Solas Nua.

M. McCullagh: Solas Nua means new light in Irish. It’s a multidisciplinary arts organization that is dedicated to bringing the best of contemporary Irish arts to the Washington, D.C. area. It’s a nomadic organization presenting work in different parts of the city and is renowned for its innovative programming; commissioning, producing and presenting thought-provoking work throughout the year. And so, I suppose one could say that it’s an ambassador for Irish arts in D.C. and beyond.

The organization was founded in 2005 by Linda Murray who wanted to see work directly from Ireland being presented in D.C. She wanted to make people aware of Ireland as it is now. That was the seed of Solas Nua and the first film program was presented in 2006. The work reflects contemporary Ireland, not a nostalgic view of  Ireland of a bygone era that maybe wasn’t necessarily making its way to DC at that time. And so I think that set it apart. And that’s where the mission of Solas Nua grew from.

MH: Are audiences really still clinging to nostalgic views of Ireland?

M. McCullagh: Nostalgia is something we all feel but I’ve never heard of any CIFF patron complaining about a lack of films that depict Ireland in a traditional “Quiet Man” kind of way. Solas Nua is a presenter of contemporary Irish arts and this program is on a mission in that regard. But the thing about these films is they are neither one thing or another, they are a reflection of a diverse, pluralist, modern Irish society that is multilayered and complex, with an ever-evolving set of identities. This is what the Irish people do. We hold a multitude of things at once. We are the essence of contrasts, darkness and light, contemporary and yet steeped in tradition with these deep ties to the land, to our history, to our understanding of what our history is, and it’s continuously changing.

And in saying this, one of the through lines of this year’s program is the fact that several films use rare archival footage to great effect, evoking nostalgia for historical moments and events. Our opening night film, the East premiere gala screening of Lisa Barros D’sa and Glenn Leyburn’s “Saipan,” is a nail-biting, darkly comic drama recount​ing one of the most fractious falling-outs in the history of sport! The film explores the explosive clash between international soccer star Roy Keane (Éanna Hardwicke) and manager Mick McCarthy (Steve Coogan) on the island of Saipan just days before the Irish national football team competed in the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The directors use some historic footage, including news reports of the time, which roots the film in the period, and brings the viewer right back to that time.

MH: This year’s festival includes films by 15 women directors and 17 women writers. Tell us about how women’s contributions to Irish film have evolved over the last 20 years?

M. McCullagh: Over the last 20 years, the contribution of Irish women in film has gone from being quietly overlooked to being recognized and openly celebrated and getting the recognition it deserves. Back in the mid‑2000s, women were doing the work — writing, producing, shooting documentaries, keeping indie film alive — but rarely getting the credit, funding, or visibility. Over the past ten years, thanks to women-centered social movements, the determined work of academics and journalists, and the ongoing activism and advocacy of women professionals across the AV sector, critical focus and attention have illuminated and reflected the truth of women’s experiences and the lack of parity in pay and opportunities in the industry. Studies from groups such as Women in Film and Television Ireland and the National Women’s Council and publications such as Dr. Susan Liddy’s Women in Irish Film: Stories and Storytellers showed that women have driven innovation in screenwriting, documentary filmmaking, editing, and producing, often pushing Irish cinema toward more socially conscious and community‑rooted storytelling.  They’re driving some of the most exciting writing, directing, and documentary work, despite pervasive systemic barriers and an ongoing lack of representation.

Some of the 42 films being shown at the 20th Capital Irish Film Festival in DC.

MH: What else do you want people to know about this year’s festival?

M. McCullagh: First-off, with 42 films across 22 screenings, the program has something to offer everyone! Expect gripping dramas, Irish-language thrillers (BÁITE,AONTAS), music documentaries (CELTIC UTOPIA, BP FALLON ROCK’N’ROLL WIZARD VOL. 1, IN TIME: DONAL LUNNY), profiles of political leaders who lead with peace (GERRY ADAMS: A BALLYMUPRHY MAN, DANIEL O’CONNELL: THE EMANCIPATOR), and women fighting for justice (TESTIMONY).

Our program lifts up marginalized voices, with stories featuring trans relationships (GIRLS & BOYS, PUREBRED), the deaf community (A QUIET LOVE), and Ireland’s Traveller community (TRAVELLING BACK).

CIFF presents two 2026 Oscar entries, SANATORIUM (Ireland’s official entry for Best International Feature Film) and RETIREMENT PLAN (Nominee, Best Animated Short), and BAFTA-nominated A WANT IN HER (Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer)

The festival opens with the East Coast premiere of SAIPAN, described above. The 5th annual Norman Houston Award will be presented as part of a double-billing of THREE KEENINGS and the third-ever screening of NO ORDINARY HEIST, with a reception sponsored by the Northern Ireland Bureau. The festival closes with Brandan Canty’s phenomenal feature directorial debut, the internationally renowned CHRISTY, a powerful, big-hearted coming-of-age story that won the Grand Prix at the 2025 Berlinale and just this week won Best Film and Best Director at the Irish IFTA Academy Awards.

It’s a fantastic four-day celebration of creativity and community, where you will see a rich and diverse program of world-class Irish films about Ireland or by Irish filmmakers. It’s an incredibly sociable and welcoming environment where you’ll meet like minded people who also love film, love Iearning about Ireland and discovering Irish talent, all in one space. There’s plenty of opportunity to meet up in between the screenings and in the evenings at our receptions and parties and our partner venue McGinty’s next door to the venue. I hope these films will inspire, uplift, spark dialogue, and cultivate an appreciation for the amazing craft of filmmaking and the value of seeing these artists’ work on the big screen.  Right now, more than ever before we need these diverse stories and perspectives to help foster a more inclusive, united, and engaged society. Pease join us February 26 – March 1.

‘America and Ireland at 250’ focus of Feb. 4 Georgetown conference

Georgetown University’s Global Irish Studies program and other partners will explore 250 years of US-Irish relations during the 7th annual “Bridging the Atlantic” conference. I will live blog the Feb. 4 event from the university’s Capitol Campus in Washington, D.C.

Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Helen McEntee, TD, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address. Panel discussions include “America 250: American Lives, Irish Legacies”, “Revolutionary Routes Across the Atlantic: 1776 and Beyond”, “The New Worlds of 21st Century Irish-America”, and “Re-imagining the ‘Green Wave’: Cultural Visions of Ireland in America.”

Panel participant rosters and registration found here.

Georgetown’s conference partners include the BMW Center for German and European Studies, in association with the Embassy of Ireland, the Clinton Institute at University College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, and the Northern Ireland Bureau.

One of the panels at last year’s Bridging the Atlantic VI conference.

Massive prehistoric settlement in Co. Wicklow detailed

Archeologists from Queens University Belfast have described an area in County Wicklow as “the largest nucleated settlement identified in prehistoric Ireland and Britain.” Their findings are reshaping the established understanding of Bronze Age and Iron Age social organization in ancient Ireland and challenging assumptions about settlement patterns in prehistoric Europe.

Antiquity magazine first reported the discovery in a Nov. 18, 2025, article. Since the first of the year other scientific journals and the popular press have featured additional stories.

The study area at the south-western edge of the Wicklow Mountains is about 45 miles south of Dublin city. It is known as the Baltinglass hillfort cluster. It includes up to 13 large hilltop enclosures which contain up to 600 suspected house platforms. The site shows signs of continuous settlement from the Early Neolithic through to the Bronze Age, between 3700 to 800 BC.

Fáilte Ireland (the National Tourism Development Authority) in 2015 launched the “Ireland’s Ancient East” tourism initiative to promote “over 5,000 years of history hidden amidst these lush landscapes, winding rivers and glorious gardens” of the region. This finding should add to the mystique.

Aerial photograph with indication of test-trench locations in County Wicklow.            Cambridge University Press.

Best of the Blog, 2025

My thirteenth year of producing this blog was productive and rewarding. Highlights included the publication of several freelance pieces in scholarly journals or the popular press. The University of Galway accepted my family’s letters between the U.S. and Ireland from the 1920s through the 1980s for their digital immigrant archives. I was interviewed for a St. Patrick’s Day television program and gave a presentation about Michael J. O’Brien, my 2024 entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography. I made my thirteenth visit to Ireland in 25 years.

This website was on pace for record all-time traffic, then rocketed over the top by a mid-November surge of AI content-scraping bots. Or maybe thousands of readers in China have suddenly become interested in Irish news and history. I object to the unauthorized grab of my intellectual property, but I’m happy if it eventually contributes to global knowledge, especially my work about American journalists in Ireland.

More details and links to some of this year’s best content follow below each of the photos:

The gate between the Museum of Literature Ireland courtyard and the Iveagh Gardens. “MoLI replaced the former Dublin Writer’s Museum.

Freelance pieces

The former London and North Western Hotel seen in April 2025. A group of American journalists watched from the top floor as Irish rebels and British forces fired on each other during the 1916 Rising. The dark glass building at right is part of the Salesforce Tower, which renovated the former hotel as office and meeting space. The red brick structure at left is the former railway and steam packet terminal operated by the L&NW hotel company. It was vacant during my visit. The building faces the River Liffey.

Two blog series:

Revisiting William Brayden’s 1925 ‘survey’ of Ireland

The Irish-born journalist wrote a summer 1925 series for the Chicago Daily News about the state of Ireland on both sides of the partition. His series, later compiled as a book, and follow up reporting about the end of the Irish Boundary Commission served as the conclusion to American newspaper coverage of Ireland’s decade-long revolutionary period.

Leon and Jill Uris in Ireland

The American husband and wife team, author and photographer, respectively, made several visits during the 1970s. They produced photobooks and a bestselling novel that perpetuated notions of “romantic Ireland” before the Republic’s economic modernization and the Good Friday Agreement at the end of the 20th century.

Family letters

Nearly 60 of my family’s letters to and from Ireland were accessioned and digitized in the Imirce (Irish for migration, emigration) project at the University of Galway. The searchable Joan Diggin Collection is named after my aunt, who either authored or was the recipient of most of the letters. The collection also includes a digitized copy of my 2013 book, His Last Trip, about Joan’s father, my grandfather. The letter manuscripts and a print copy of the book may be consulted in the Archives and Special Collections Reading Room.

This February 25, 1953, note from Ireland before St. Patrick’s Day is part of the Imirce collection. I kept the shamrocks, which also were included in several other letters.

Television interview

Watch my St. Patrick’s Day interview with FOX 8’s “News Now” in Johnstown, Pa. The conversation covers my Irish ancestry and historical research. Each segment is 5 minutes:

My remote St. Patrick’s Day television appearance for FOX 8 in Johnstown, Pa., included the obligatory bookcase in the background. But they are real books that I’ve actually read and use.

Thanks archivists, librarians, and others

This year’s research included multiple visits to the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, and Catholic University of America here in Washington, D.C. I also spent time at the National Library of Ireland, Dublin, New York Public Library, and the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh Archives and Records Center. I received remote help from the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Catholic Diocese of Gaylord, Mich., and the Paulist Archives in New York City. As always, I am grateful to the professionals at these institutions who assisted my work. … I was delighted to contribute some research and materials to “The Irish Revolution in the African American Press” exhibition at University College Cork. It focused on how the US black press covered De Valera’s tour of America (1919–20), MacSwiney’s hunger strike death (1920), and the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921-22). Dr. Jemima Hodgkinson, a Research Ireland postdoctoral fellow, curated the exhibit. … I enjoyed watching excellent presentations by Irish historians (and friends) Daniel Carey and John Dorney at the “Navigating War and Violence in Twentieth-Century Ireland” conference at Dublin City University in April. … On the same trip I was welcomed to Dungloe, County Donegal, by Patrick J. Dunleavy, chairman of the The Cope’s board of directors, who gave me a detailed driving tour of the Rosses region, and by Mark Sharkey and Emma McGarvey, Cope CEO and business support manager, respectively.

I hope to return to Ireland in 2026, and to visit two new domestic archives I’ve eyed for some time. Meanwhile, happy holidays to the site’s human readers, especially my loyal email subscribers. Sláinte!

Low tide twilight at Dungloe, County Donegal. The pier at left replaced the one constructed during the revolutionary period and detailed in 1922 by American journalist Redfern Mason.

More on Jill and Leon Uris in Ireland

I’m keeping my promise to follow up an earlier post, When Jill and Leon Uris went to Ireland. The couple first visited both sides of the partitioned island from May 1972 to January 1973, then published Ireland: A Terrible Beauty in November 1975. The book featured nearly 400 photographs by Jill and text by Leon, an established author.

Leon released his Irish novel, Trinity, in 1976. It became a best-seller. The couple returned to Ireland at least five more times over the next few years. Jill photographed places that represented the fictional locations in Trinity. She did a piece for the Ladies’ Home Journal magazine headlined “Connor and Shelly,” which illustrated the novel’s main characters. Jill and Leon traveled the River Shannon on a houseboat, “a lovely second honeymoon,” she recalled in a second book of photos, Ireland Revisited, published in 1982.[1]Jill Uris, Ireland Revisited. [Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1982], 1-2.

Of her half dozen trips to Ireland, Jill enthused:

I always arrive with anticipation, wanting to be haunted by her mysteries and teased by her fantasies. I travel through her tortured landscape wondering what it is about this place that entices me so. Is it ancient ruins, wild seascapes, the hundred shades of green? Or is it the verbal jousting and continual singsong of stories in a language that is something beyond English …yet not quite foreign? It is all of these and more; it is a people whose goal is only to be themselves, whose spirit retains a dignity which is rare in today’s world. It is the Irish refusal to be servants to anyone but their own minds.[2]Ibid.

The Irish Independent published this advert on Dec. 8, 1982. The image appeared on the book jacket and on an inside page. Titled “Man of Aran,” the figure was Dara Beag Ó Fátharta, the “Bard of Inishmaan,” who died in 2012 at the age of 92.

Revisited received mostly tepid reviews. John M. McGown of Gannett News Service noted the Uris’s first photo book had become “a staple on the shelves of Irish Americans” and the second was “likely to become a companion piece.”[3]”Two authors write varying views of Irish”, St. Cloud (Minn.) Times, Dec. 2, 1982, and other papers. But Doug Wells of the Des Moines (Iowa) Register compared paging through Revisited to sitting through a neighbor’s vacation slides as he rhapsodized about how much he “just loved Ireland.”  Wells continued:

To be sure Jill Uris is a much better photographer than the man next door. Most of her photographs are well done. … She has concentrated on the rural, older Ireland, the romantic image most Americans have of the country. … But just as your neighbor babbles on and on about how beautiful it all was, so Uris carries on about Ireland. Her dullish prose, combined with snips and scraps from Irish writers and poets, upset what flow and balance the pictures provide.[4]”Too much, too little”, Des Moines (Iowa) Register, Oct. 17, 1982.

In Ireland, Frank Miller of the Sunday Press described Revisited as “a headless horse of a book, a book of photographs based on an unreality, lost and wandering somewhere between the myths and mists of romantic Ireland.” He also complained that Dara Beag Ó Fátharta (image above) appeared “no less than four times through the book.”[5]”Lost between myths and mists of romantic Ireland”, Sunday Press, (Dublin), Dec. 5, 1982.

Historical context

Ireland Revisited appeared a decade after Bloody Sunday in Derry, Northern Ireland. As copies reached American bookshops in autumn 1982, the Troubles’ death toll climbed to 1,794 by year’s end. This turned out to be roughly half the total of number of people killed in the conflict.[6]”Year of the death” in Malcolm Sutton’s Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland, found at cain.ulster.ac.uk. Sutton’s index ranges from 1969 to 2001, three years after … Continue reading

Jill Uris wrote that after each of her trips to Ireland “the headlines from the North became more piercing. The people in the Republic wish the ‘troubles’ would just drift away. After all, they are finally building their own country and who needs the continuing hostility and fanaticism of Ulster?”

In fact, the Republic in the mid-1980s was “crippled by political violence, mass emigration, mass unemployment, political paralysis and a sense of hopelessness,” Michael McDowell, an independent member of Seanad Éireann, wrote at the start of 2025. It would take another decade or so before the Republic began the economic modernization known as the “Celtic Tiger” and citizens confronted abuses by the Catholic Church that resulted in today’s militant secularism. More then 40 years after Ireland Revisited, Ireland faces “very real” new challenges, McDowell concluded, “but very different from the dark past we left behind.”

So, too, “Romantic Ireland’s dead and gone. It’s with O’Leary in the grave.”[7]”September 1913” by William Butler Yeats.

References

References
↑1 Jill Uris, Ireland Revisited. [Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1982], 1-2.
↑2 Ibid.
↑3 ”Two authors write varying views of Irish”, St. Cloud (Minn.) Times, Dec. 2, 1982, and other papers.
↑4 ”Too much, too little”, Des Moines (Iowa) Register, Oct. 17, 1982.
↑5 ”Lost between myths and mists of romantic Ireland”, Sunday Press, (Dublin), Dec. 5, 1982.
↑6 ”Year of the death” in Malcolm Sutton’s Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland, found at cain.ulster.ac.uk. Sutton’s index ranges from 1969 to 2001, three years after the Good Friday Agreement.
↑7 ”September 1913” by William Butler Yeats.

When Jill and Leon Uris went to Ireland

Fifty years ago this month the American book publisher Doubleday released Ireland: A Terrible Beauty, by Jill and Leon Uris. The couple had traveled on both sides of the partitioned island from May 1972 (four months after Bloody Sunday) to January 1973.

Original dusk jacket.

Leon, an established author, conducted research for a new novel, Trinity, which became a best seller when it was released in 1976. Jill, his third wife, 23 years younger, photographed nearly 400 images of thatched cottages, mist-shrouded countryside, and gritty scenes of urban violence; in color, and in black and white.

Their Preface says:

“We were lured there by an intriguing people, their sometimes magnificent, sometimes harsh land, and, mostly, their poignant history. Our aim was to find the keys to that story which would clarify so much of the mystery and puzzlement of recent events and simultaneously photograph everyone and everything wherever the search took us. …

“Ireland is too vast and complex in its story for two people to cover it comprehensively in less than a decade. We made no pretense at attempting to.

“What we do have here is a social, historical, and political commentary on what we consider to be the guts of the matter of a unique people and their lovely but sorrowed island. This is our point of view on the “troubles” that have plagued Ireland for the fatter part of a millennium.”[1]Leon Uris and Jill Uris, Ireland: A Terrible Beauty. The Story  of Ireland Today (With 388 Photographs, Including 108 in Full Color). [Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975]. … Continue reading

The couple covered 10,000 miles, mostly by auto, “on some decent and some indecent roads.” Their journey and their book recalled American photographer and antiquarian Wallace Nutting, who estimated he and his wife covered 700 miles in all 32 counties 50 years earlier, during the summer of 1925. Nutting’s book, Ireland Beautiful, was published in time for that year’s Christmas gift-giving. It featured 304 half-tone engravings of Irish landscapes—only six images show people—and his text in support of the title.

From his studio near Boston, Nutting wrote:

“This volume pretends to no place as a guide book, nor is its text intended to cover with precision or fullness any part of Ireland. It is merely a record of impression of beauty or quaintness, observed in a land which for romance and pathos, strange history and legend, for witching grace and mystery, is probably unsurpassed.”[2]Wallace Nutting, Ireland Beautiful. [Norwood, Mass.: The Plimpton Press, 1925]. 302 pp. Quoted from Foreword.

Though he began his career as a Congregationalist minister, Nutting insisted his book had “nothing whatever to do with political and religious matters.” He noted the work of the Boundary Commission, which later in 1925 fixed the partition line in place, and made sweeping, uncontroversial generalizations: “The people of Ulster were as insistent on remaining in the empire as South Ireland was on withdrawing from the empire.”[3]Ibid., 286.

For more on Nutting, see my August 2025 piece for History Ireland, “Ireland Beautiful–How A 1925 American Photobook Boosted Irish Tourism.”

More opinionated

Leon Uris was more opinionated in his analysis of an Ireland then descending deeper into sectarian strife, rather than the island emerging from the war of independence and civil war at Nutting’s visit. During the Uris’s nine-month stay, more than 400 people were killed and thousands of others were injured in shootings and bombings. More than 500 people were charged with terrorist offences. “Their visit coincided with one of the most violent years of the Troubles,” wrote biographer Ira B. Nadel.[4]Ira B. Nadel, Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller. [Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010], See Chapter 9, “Ireland,” 209-232.

Uris leveraged his identity as an American Jew, not an Irish-American of Catholic or Protestant faith, as well as his status as a celebrity author. He took particular aim at “the most diabolic by-product of three hundred and fifty years of the plantation of Ulster, a cancerous growth known as Paisleyism.” Grimly, he concluded: “The nightmare of Ulster has come about with Christian fighting Christian in one of the most advanced of Western societies. Continuation of this travesty with God can lead to the eclipse of civilization in that part of the world.”[5]Uris, Terrible Beauty, 128, 195.

The Troubles got much worse, of course, but not quite that bad.

By coincidence, Terrible Beauty’s November 1975 release was three months after the death of Éamon de Valera, the most consequential leader of twentieth century Ireland. The book says he “had the full measure of that detached, ruthless arrogance, political guile, persuasiveness, and total self-assurance that stamp greatness on a national leader. He was the rarest breed, the head of a small country that has achieved stature among the political giants of this century.”[6]Ibid., 162.

Photographing Ireland

Dev’s death ends the book’s 8-page chronology, which begins at 10,000 BC when the island emerged from the receding Ice Age. Naturally, the book included a map and, like the island itself, was divided into two sections: The Republic and Ulster.

“Photographing in the Republic was almost always a joy. Ulster was another story,” Jill Uris wrote. She described the difficulties of working as a woman and an outsider in the sectarian maelstrom of the North. Her “Photographing Ireland” in the Appendix also contains notes about the pre-digital camera equipment she used during the assignment.[7]Ibid., 209-212

Aside from the images of sectarian violence in the North, most of Jill’s photographs show a mid-twentieth century Ireland without much hint of the rapid modernization that emerged in the coming decades, and certainly since 2000. In this regard her images of the country are similar to those of American photographer Dorothea Lange, who arrived in County Clare in September 1954 on an assignment for Life magazine. See my September 2024 post, “Remembering Dorothea Lange’s ‘Irish Country People’“.

I’ll return to my exploration of the Uris’s visit and their work in future posts.

References

References
↑1 Leon Uris and Jill Uris, Ireland: A Terrible Beauty. The Story  of Ireland Today (With 388 Photographs, Including 108 in Full Color). [Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975]. 288 pp.
↑2 Wallace Nutting, Ireland Beautiful. [Norwood, Mass.: The Plimpton Press, 1925]. 302 pp. Quoted from Foreword.
↑3 Ibid., 286.
↑4 Ira B. Nadel, Leon Uris: Life of a Best Seller. [Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010], See Chapter 9, “Ireland,” 209-232.
↑5 Uris, Terrible Beauty, 128, 195.
↑6 Ibid., 162.
↑7 Ibid., 209-212

Irish Embassy USA changes location; loses charm, history

The Embassy of Ireland USA in Washington, D.C. has relocated from an historic early 20th century mansion to a recently renovated 1966 office building steps from the White House. The old location was the home of the Irish republic in the American capital for 75 years.

New home of the Embassy of Ireland USA.

“We begin to write the next chapter in the great story of Ireland-U.S. relations,” Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris said during the Sept. 25 ribbon cutting at the new  embassy offices at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

Known as The Mills Building, the 11-story building was renovated in 2022. It is across the street from Lafayette Park and the two-block portion of Pennsylvania Avenue closed to vehicle traffic, between 17th and 15th streets.

Access to the White House is highly restricted to guided tour groups, though Irish dignitaries are welcomed to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue every March. The grounds were officially closed by President Woodrow Wilson during the First World War. Fencing and other security measures began to appear during the 19th century.

The Munsey Building, shown in 1919, was demolished in 1980.

As many readers will know, the White House was designed by the Irish-born architect James Hoban. Fewer readers will know the first official offices of the Irish Free State in Washington were located in the Munsey Building, 1321 E. St. NW, between 13th and 14th streets, not too far from the new embassy. Timothy A. Smiddy represented the state until 1929. The Irish National Bureau produced the Friends of Irish Freedom’s weekly News Letter in the Munsey Building from 1919 to 1922. Éamon De Valera also kept an office there during his 1919-1920 tour of the United States.[1]See my November 2020 post, “Washington, D.C.’s Irish hot spots, 1919-1921“.

“This will be an excellent base from which to grow our vital political, economic and cultural ties with the US over the years ahead,” Harris said of the new Irish Embassy, according to an official statement. He emphasized that Ireland is the fifth largest source of foreign direct investment in the US, and that Irish companies have created more than 200,000 American jobs.

Leaving Embassy Row

The Irish Embassy was previously located at 2234 Massachusetts Avenue NW, on Sheridan Circle, part of the city’s historic “Embassy Row.” The semidetached limestone residence was designed by William Penn Cresson in the Louis XVI manner. Completed in 1909, it is known as the Henrietta M. Halliday House, after the widow of a wealthy businessman. It is unclear if she ever lived in the house, which was sold in 1911.[2]”Henrietta M. Halliday House (Irish Chancery)”, HABS No. DC-261, Historic American Buildings Survey, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, National Park Service, U.S. Department … Continue reading

The former Irish Embassy in October 1924, with Irish and EU flags at right, Ukrainian flag draped from balcony.

The Irish government purchased the property for $72,000 in August 1949. At the time, Ireland’s presence in Washington was still described as legation. Three months later Irish Minister to Washington Seán Nunan welcomed Irish Minister of Agriculture James Dillon, who was visiting the city for an international conference.[3]”Society News”, (Washington) Evening Star, Nov. 30, 1949. In March 1950, John Joseph Hearne became the first Irish ambassador to Washington.

The property is assessed at $6,548,040, according to DC tax records. It is being sold by the commercial real estate firm CBRE, which says it has not set an asking price. The adjoining 2232 Massachusetts Ave. is being co-marketed by residential real estate firm Compass for $2,995,000. See their Oct. 6 press release. (This paragraph was updated from the original post.)

In December 2023, the Irish government purchased the nine-bedroom mansion at 2221 30th Street NW as its official ambassadorial residence. The $12.25 million sale price shaved more than $4 million off the $16.5 million list price. The state began renting the 15,000 square-foot mansion as it sold its former ambassadorial residence at 2244 S Street NW, known as the Frederic Delano House, after an uncle of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That property sold for $8 million in March 2024.

Exempt & delinquent taxes

The new Irish ambassador’s residence had an outstanding District of Columbia tax bill of $33,502 as of Sept. 30. A notice of $153,910 in delinquent taxes and penalties was sent by the District to the Irish government in April. More than $30,000 in late fees and interest had been assessed since the property was purchase in December 2023. The most recent statement, dated Aug. 4, shows that no new assessments or penalties have been levied against the property, which suggests an exemption is now in place. The Irish Embassy could not be reached through its general telephone number.

Irish ambassador’s residence.

The former embassy property was exempt from taxes. More than 600 properties in the District owned by foreign governments accounted for $50.2 million in foregone tax revenue in 2019.[4]Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, May 2019, citing District of Columbia Office of the Chief Financial Officer 2018. The U.S. government owns some 2,800 properties exempt from District taxes, with an estimated market value of $52 billion, or $917.7 million in foregone property tax revenue annually. And then there are religious institutions, schools, and assorted non-profits, in addition to the District government’s own property, also exempt from taxes.

The Irish government’s tax-exempt status on other properties does not mean it automatically received a discount on a commercial lease, which I assume is the arrangement at The Mills Building. The U.S. State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions regulates such matters, which are more complicated than can be addressed here. Reciprocal treatment in the foreign country–in this case, the U.S. government in Ireland–is certainly a factor.

Personal note

On a personal note, I enjoyed visiting the former Irish Embassy on several occasions since I moved to Washington nearly 12 years ago. These opportunities came through my membership in Irish Network-DC, a professional and social group. The place certainly had the elegant feel of an earlier age, when the Society pages of DC dailies regularly reported the comings-and-goings of diplomats and other special guests. I visited the new ambassador’s residence once for an IN-DC event.

I live barely a five-minute walk from the now former embassy location. I enjoyed walking Irish visitors past the exterior, then continuing a few blocks further up Embassy Row to the small park centered by a statue of Robert Emmet.

At least Irish patriot remains in place.

References

References
↑1 See my November 2020 post, “Washington, D.C.’s Irish hot spots, 1919-1921“.
↑2 ”Henrietta M. Halliday House (Irish Chancery)”, HABS No. DC-261, Historic American Buildings Survey, Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1978.
↑3 ”Society News”, (Washington) Evening Star, Nov. 30, 1949.
↑4 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, May 2019, citing District of Columbia Office of the Chief Financial Officer 2018.