Category Archives: Journalism

Old news: Sectarian tensions return to Northern Ireland

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UPDATE 2:

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has issued interview letters to nationalist politicians who joined Catholic residents in blocking the unionist Orange Order parade, which was legally permitted. The residents have asked the Court of Appeals to reconsider that permission. For now, the disput has moved off the streets and into legal and political venues. That’s progress.

UPDATE 1:

Both sides of the sectarian standoff in Portadown are set to hold counter demonstrations this weekend (Oct. 3-4) as the impasse enters its second week. Thousands have already gathered on behalf of the Catholic residents.

“The political and social consequences of the revived dispute for the North will reveal themselves over time,” writes Irish Times columnist Pat Leahy. “For the prospect of a united Ireland, however, they are already discernible and damaging – among both northern and southern voters.”

ORIGINAL POST:

A decision to allow the Protestant Orange Order to march through a predominantly Catholic neighborhood has renewed sectarian tension in Northern Ireland. The standoff in Portadown, County Armagh, about 25 miles southwest of Belfast, flared during the last weekend of September. At risk is a return to Troubles-era bloodshed and collapse of the power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly.

The Drumcree  conflict has its own Wikipedia page, which provides the necessary background. “Orangemen” have been prohibited from marching through the Catholic Garvaghy Road since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. In August, however, a court ruled the Northern Ireland Parades Commission had made procedural errors in reaching its decision. The Commission subsequently approved a scaled-down march of the Protestant group, but local Catholics turned out to block their path.

Talks between the Portadown Orange Order, the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition (GRRC), and Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant appeared far from resolving the disput as of late October 1. This is a developing story; the post will be updated as necessary.

This 1998 Boston Globe story reads as if it could be from this week’s news coverage from Portadown, Northern Ireland. So far the latest iteration of the conflict has avoided violence.

USA press freedom, democracy lags behind Ireland

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Irish journalists have more press freedom and safer working conditions than American news professionals, according to three global indexes. The rankings emerged this spring, before US President Donald Trump’s latest tantrum to bar three media outlets from the White House.

The 25th World Press Freedom Index, produced by Reporters Without Boaders (RSF), ranked Ireland seventh among 180 nations with a score of 85.93. “The overall climate for press freedom in Ireland is positive, with journalists able to work freely and without interference,” RSF said in its April release. “Concerns remain, however, about the future funding of the media, including public service broadcaster RTÉ.”

The USA  ranked 64th, with a score of 62.61. “After a century of gradual expansion of press rights in the United States, the country is experiencing a significant and prolonged decline in press freedom, with Donald Trump’s return to the presidency greatly exacerbating the situation,” RSF said.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) has also detailed the erosion of press freedom in America. And the V-Dem Institute of Sweden in March ranked Ireland sixth highest on its democracy index, while the USA lagged behind at 51. The New York Times cited all three of these indexes in a Sept. 12 article on how the Trump administration has curtained press freedom in America.

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden (listed alphabetically) ranked ahead of Ireland in different orders in the RSF and V-Dem indexes. The United States lost ground in both indexes from the previous year.

“Irish journalists have reported that their safety has been threatened by criminal groups, but no significant cases have been reported in recent years,” RSF writes. “There are some concerns about attacks on journalists on social media.”

Citing FPF data, RSF said there were more than 170 attacks on journalists in the US during 2025, nearly double the previous year. Much of the violence against journalists came while covering protests and law enforcement activity.

The Committee to Protect Journalists fights for press freedom worldwide. My wife and I are regular contriburors. Consider making a donation.

For an historical perspective about how the British trampled on Irish press freedom in the early 20th century, see my 2020 piece for The Irish Story:  ‘Likely to cause disaffection to His Majesty’, the Seizure of Irish newspapers.

‘Trinity’ @ 50 article draws letter to editor

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The 1976 bestseller.

A Trinty College Dublin professor suggests my article on the 50th anniversary of Leon Uris’s nonfiction Ireland: a terrible beauty and popular novel, Trinity, underestimated how popular the American author’s work was among contemporary Irish republicans. My piece appeared in the July/August issue of History Ireland.

In a letter to the magazine, Dr. Brian Hanley says that Trinity was a favourite of republican hunger striker Bobby Sands, who memorized and recited passages of the novel to his comrades on the H-Blocks. Hanley notes other examples. Read his full letter.

***

I want to note the passing of Irish Times journalist Frank McDonald, who covered the environment and urban planning for nearly four decades. I met McDonald during my 2001 German Marshall Fund journalism fellowship in Ireland. His death is a great loss to the profession.

Trump “would love to see” Irish reunification

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FINAL UPDATE:

Trump eneded his visit to Ireland with the surprise announcement that he would remove the 10 percent US tariff on Irish whiskey. Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Irish Open winner Shane Lowry each claimed to have raised the issue with Trump during the whirlwind weekend.

The announcement is “a tangible gain” for Martin, who “has now emerged largely unscathed from three encounters with the unpredictable US president,” RTÉ reported. The other two encounters with Trump were St. Patrick’s Day meetings in Washington.

But an Irish Times editorial before Trump’s arrival seems to have summed up the view of many Irish people, certainly the thousands who protested his visit:

Trump is a bully and a braggart, a self-confessed sexual predator and a purveyor of racial slurs. He is probably the worst president Americans have ever elected. Most people would not welcome such a man into their home, and the majority of Irish people will not welcome this visit.

Heads of state and political leaders must make a different calculation. Whatever the qualities of the man, the office deserves respect as part of the deep bonds between Ireland and the US. Trump’s term will end, and it is to be hoped his country finds a way to erase the stain he leaves behind. The US remains a great nation, and its many friends, in Ireland and beyond, can only wish it a swift return to its better self.

A letter to the editor since Trump’s departure suggested the American president should focus more on creating a united United States rather than a united Ireland.

UPDATE 4:

Best quote reacting to Trump’s pro-Irish reunification comments: “Turns out he’s not as orange as he looks.” — Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Claire Hanna, an allusion to the pro-unionist Orange Order, as well as Trump’s shade of makeup. Hanna’s SDLP favors Irish reunification.

UPDATE 3:

Trump has reached his golf resort at Doonbeg, County Clare. On Sunday he is expected to present the trophy to the winner of the Irish Open. Thousands of people have protested against Trump in several parts of Ireland.

UPDATE 2:

Irish President Catherine Connolly received US President Donald Trump in Áras an Uachtaráin. The two have very different political views but each behaved themselves. (Tony Maxwell)

Irish President Catherine Connolly has received Trump. She emphasized “the strong commitment which the Irish people have to international relations, to the importance of the United Nations,” according to an official statement.

UPDATE 1:

Trump expressed support for Irish unity during remarks at a press conference in Dublin.

I’d love to see it unified. It is going to happen eventually. You have the right man over here to get it moving. (Gesturing to Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin.) I think it would be a fantastic thing, I think the UK would have something to say about it but I think it would be a great thing. How could it be bad?

Trump sighed when a reporter asked about reunification. “I don’t want to cause any problems,” he said. “I have friends on both sides.”

Unionist politicians, unsurpisingly, have reacted angrily and accused Irish republicans of hypocracy: “For years we have been told this president is beyond the pale: his character, his conduct, his position on Gaza. Some of those now cheering him boycotted the White House over it,” said Robbie Butler of the Ulster Unionist Party.

This being Trump, his words should be taken with a grain of salt. Beyond the headline-making sound bite, it is doubful whether he knows the history of partition or could detail the challenges of reunification.

ORIGINAL POST:

US President Donald Trump is set to arrive in Ireland on Saturday, September 12. He will meet with Irish officials in Dublin, but the main focus of the trip is to attend the Irish Open golf tournament at the links and hotel he owns in Doonbeg, County Clare.

Anti-Trump protestors are expected in both locations, but Irish and US security forces will keep the demonstrators far from the American leader. An earlier proposal to close Dublin city center so Trump could visit the site of a new U.S. embassy building has been scratched. Still, as Politico reports, “nails are being bitten” over Trump’s meeting with Irish President Catherine Connolly, a socialist who has denounced him in the past. Trump mistakenly described Connolly as a man.

Trump is not being given the opportunity to address the Irish parliament, honors enjoyed by former US presidents John F. Kennedy (1963); Ronald Reagan (1984); Bill Clinton (1995); and Joe Biden (2023). Trump visited Doonbeg in June 2019, during his first term in office. Here are two recent news stories about his efforts to build a ballroom at the Clare property (sound familiar?) and the town’s relationship with its famous owner:

This post will be updated through early next week. Email subscribers should check the website for the latest details. MH

The entrance of Trump’s Doonbeg golf course in County Clare during my July 2016 visit.

Leon Uris’s ‘Trinity’ at 50

I am traveling and working on several projects this summer. New posts will be infrequent. The piece linked below appears in the July/August issue of the Dublin-based History Ireland magazine. MH

American author Leon Uris released his eighth novel, Trinity, shortly before St Patrick’s Day 1976 and the deadliest years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In promotional interviews Uris emphasized that readers would ‘better understand the headlines coming out of Ireland today, because the past of Ireland is being constantly repeated’. This was a paraphrase of his novel’s soon-to-be-famous last sentence, that ‘in Ireland there is no future, only the past happening over and over’, which modified a line from Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten.

Read ‘When Irish History, And News, Became Best-Selling Fiction’ at History Ireland.

 

TCD offers Davitt exhibit onsite & online through June

Davitt

“Michael Davitt was a prolific writer, keeping diaries of his ideas and impressions while working as a freelance journalist for most of his career. Many of his articles took the form of letters to the press, which were later published as pamphlets. Through his journalism, Davitt practiced a form of activism, using his writing to highlight the struggles of society’s most marginalised and advocate for reforms and support.”

The quote is from the Character is better than wealth: The enduring legacy of Michael Davitt exhibition at Trinity College Dublin. It was curated by Ciara Daly, a project archivist at TCD, which holds some 7,000 items from Davitt’s lifetime, 1846-1906. He visited the United States six times between 1878 and 1901.

I spent a few days in February 2018 reviewing a portion of the Davitt archive, and visiting the Michael Davitt Musuem in Straide, County Mayo, where he was born and buried. The research related to my “Ireland Under Coercion, Revisited” project, mentioned in the previous post. See the posts Meeting Davitt and More Davitt. My piece “1888: An American Journalist In Ireland Meets Michael Davitt & Arthur Balfour” also published on The Irish Story later that year.

Davitt’s grave, Straide, County Mayo, February 2018.

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

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?

‘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.

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.