February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
B.C. enjoys Yeats windfall
Boston College has had a windfall. The college’s John J. Burns Library of Rare books and Special Collections has just acquired a collection of 3,400 items related to dramatist George Bernard Shaw and a series of letters written and received by Samuel Beckett.
In addition, the library has purchased over 11,000 negatives by prominent Irish photographer Bobbie Hanvey. Most are of the major political and cultural figures of the Northern Ireland troubles over the last 30 years.
Boston College’s Burns Library is one of the world’s leading repositories of Irish historical and cultural documents and houses what is widely viewed as the most comprehensive W.B. Yeats collection outside Ireland.
Columbia University in New York, meanwhile, is set to award former senator George Mitchell and honorary degree at its upcoming commencement. The honor is being presented to Mitchell in part for his work for peace in Northern Ireland.
Mrs. O’Leary’s pig
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Stella O’Leary, who heads the lobby group Irish-American Democrats, might have given her namesake of Chicago fire fame a passing thought during a recent visit to Cleveland. O’Leary was presented with a porcine porcelain ornament.
The porcelain piece was a piggybank emblazoned with shamrocks that plays “When Irish Eye are Smiling” every time a coin is inserted.
Meanwhile, leaders of the rival lobby group Irish-American Republicans were in Ireland last week to meet with political and business leaders.
The IAR delegation met with members of the main political parties in the Republic before traveling to the north for discussions with representatives of the SDLP and Sinn FTin.
Brigade seminar in Pa.
Devotees of the Civil War exploits of the famed Irish Brigade are gathering in Chambersburg, Pa. for a three-day seminar entitled “In the Footsteps of the Irish Brigade, the Irish in the Civil War.”
The seminar is being held May 10-12 and some of the leading experts on the Civil War and the Irish role on both sides of that conflict are lined up to deliver a series of lectures.
Authors John Barnes, Joseph Bilby and James Gannon are but three of the speakers taking part.
The registration fee for three days at the Four Points Sheraton in Chambersburg is $375, while the fee per single day is $150. Special room rates are available.
The seminar, part of the Chambersburg Civil War Seminars series, is being organized by the Chambersburg Chamber of Commerce which can be contacted at (717) 264-7101 or by e-mail at chaden@chambersburg.org.
Bill boosts book
Former President Bill Clinton’s favorable plug is on the cover of Rep. Peter King’s new book, “Deliver Us From Evil.”
Clinton followed up his positive blurb when he turned up at a recent Washington, D.C., party to launch the Long Island congressman’s political thriller.
King’s novel was described by Clinton at the launch as a “rip-roaring good book,” according to a report in the New York Post.
Clinton, of course, appears in “Deliver Us from Evil” as himself.