Tom Deignan looks at the rich and diverse influence of the Irish in the South
Statistics regarding the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Savannah, Georgia, are well known. When the 2006 festivities kicked off on March 17 at Abercorn Street, not far from Forsyth Park, it was the 182nd time the Irish in and around Savannah celebrated their heritage. “This parade has been named the second largest Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the United States and rates as the largest annual single day celebration in the Southeastern United States,” parade chairman Jay Burke noted, adding that attendance to the parade has swelled to 400,000 in recent years.
Outdoor Easter trail on the streets of Ennis
April 1, 2021
A PILGRIM trail through the streets of Ennis has been created to reflect on the suffering caused by the pandemic and to mark the feast of Easter. Representing the stations of the cross, a number of art works and images have been installed in windows from the monastery of the Poor Clares, through Abbey Street, The Square and into O’Connell Street.
Director of Youth Ministry for the Killaloe Diocese Joanne O’Brien said the aim is to help people to reflect on the meaning of Easter as well as on the struggles of the last year.
Dubliners are learning that the front entrance to Trinity, and many other architectural landmarks, were built with money from tobacco and other slave-related revenues. There have been calls to replace a statue of John Mitchel, a nationalist hero who supported US slavery, and a plaque to Major Richard Dowling, a Galway-born officer in the Confederate army. Dublin’s Shelbourne hotel removed four statues believed to depict slaves, only to reinstate them when the figures were revealed to not be slaves.
It is all part of a wider reckoning sparked by Ireland’s increasingly diverse population, the BLM movement and new books – academic and fiction – about historical figures.
By Jim Scott
Feb 4, 2021 6:00 AM
THE CHAMPIONSHIPS:Â The 97th Annual Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Boys Swimming and Diving Championships will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 5-6, at Waukesha South High School in Waukesha, Wis. Ticket prices for the meet are $11 per session and only available to competing schools.
MEET INFORMATION:Â The Division 2 championships will be held Friday, with the Division 1 championships to follow on Saturday. The Division 2 diving competition begins Friday at 1:30 p.m., and the swimming finals will follow at 6 p.m. The Division 1 diving competition will begin Saturday at 10 a.m., with the swimming events scheduled for 2:30 p.m. The swimming events will run consecutively following the first eventâs starting time on the respective days. Here is the order of events (all events in yards):