Search Results for 'Reagan'

“You’re a true believer, right?”

My first interaction with the American political and military machine came not long after my fifth birthday.

After the truce, the RIC handed over its barracks to the Irish Free State. One hundred years ago this month, the Government set up An Garda Síochána, an unarmed civic police force. Unfortunately, the first group of gardaí who arrived in Galway by train had no barracks to go to, the Eglinton Street headquarters having been destroyed in an arson attack. A search began for some place to house the 23 gardaí and that evening, they managed to find accommodation in the County Club. They stayed there for almost a year.

ANGELS IN America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Tony Kushner’s multi-award winning, two-part play, running in Britain's National Theatre, will be broadcast live to Galway

Fr Pat Connaughton, Bishop Casey’s secretary for a while, recalled a time when he and the bishop were going to a meeting in the archbishop’s house in Thurles. “Our car broke down. No matter. We were near Thurles. We left it on the side of the road, and walked the rest of the way, the bishop’s arms swinging by his side. We were passed by Bishop Kevin McNamara, in many ways the very antithesis of Casey. McNamara looked out the window, and remarked to his driver: ‘There goes Eamonn in drama again.’

It's hard to bate the smell of new paint you get with a visit from a distinguished visitor. Up and down the country for the last month, houses have been getting a once over for the aunts and uncles and the bouncy castle installers who descend on us all at Holy Communion time.