Updating Oscar Wilde and ‘Being Earnest’ in the Swinging Sixties

By R.J. Donovan, Special to the BIR
September 28, 2018
R.J. Donovan, Special to the BIR

In today’s world of Facebook, dating apps, and rampant catfishing, it’s hardly a surprise when someone creates a fake profile online.
What may be surprising is that the practice isn’t all that new. In Oscar Wilde’s 1895 play “The Importance of Being Earnest,” the Irish playwright detailed the sticky Victorian situation experienced when a pillar of the community creates a fictional persona as an excuse to live a double life and circumvent tiresome social obligations.

October CD Reviews

By Sean Smith, Special to the BIR
September 28, 2018
Sean Smith, Special to the BIR

The High Seas, “The High Seas” • One of the more captivating albums of recent years, not just for its content but also its context: Young performers hitting that sweet spot in presenting Irish music with skill, and respect for the tradition, and showing some imagination in the process. The musicians in question are Caitlín Nic Gabhann (concertina, step dance), her husband Ciarán Ó Maonaigh (fiddle) and Cathal Ó Curráin (vocals, bouzouki, fiddle).

Doing ‘research’ shopping in Ireland’s jewelry stores a delight: Culture rules in so many excellent shops

By Ed Forry
September 28, 2018

There is so much to enjoy when visiting Ireland and it’s always nice to remember your trip with a souvenir or two. But as seasoned travelers know, there is limited space and weight allowed in homebound suitcases and that could curb your urge to spend. I’ve found that handmade cards, jewelry, and small knitwear pieces – like scarves, gloves and hats – are lightweight, pack easily, travel well, and are fun to have at home.

AIDAN BREEN

September CD Reviews

By Sean Smith, Special to the BIR
September 7, 2018
Sean Smith, Special to the BIR

Dan Gurney, “Ignorance Is Bliss” • A native of New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, Gurney is a cross-platform app developer, co-founder of the live web-broadcasting site Concert Window, and not so incidentally, one of the country’s finest traditional Irish accordion players. “I like knowing how things work – finding answers,” he writes in the sleeve notes of this album, his second solo release.

First-time author delves into Boston’s racial divide

By Daniel Sheehan
September 1, 2018
Daniel Sheehan

BY DAN SHEEHAN
REPORTER STAFF
Michael Patrick Murphy knows that history is cyclical. The South Shore native spent the formative part of his adolescence in South Boston and Dorchester, attending Boston College High School and UMass Boston. At that time, running from the late ‘80s through the early ‘90s, racial tension was at a high level. Although the desegregation of the city’s public schools had been happening since the mid-1970s, it was just starting to take place at private and parochial schools, which at that point were almost exclusively white.

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