| Letters 
Edna O’Brien
Thank you, for the quality interview with Edna O’Brien (Feb./Mar.
issue). I hope you do more interviews of similar luminaries as you have
great touch and they are quite substantive. Walter O’Hara, Jr.
New York, New York
I love Edna O’Brien. I’ve been a fan since I read The Country
Girls back in the ’60s. Thank you for a great interview. She’s
the most eloquent of speakers, as I learned not just from your question
and answer interview, but from hearing her speak at the F. Scott Fitzgerald
Theater in St. Paul, last year. I was delighted to learn that University
College Dublin had recently honored her. She has always been under-appreciated
in her own country.
Mary Sullivan Brooks
Received by E-mail
What About Conor?
In Liam Moriarty’s “Roots” article on the O’Brien
clan (Feb./Mar. issue), I noticed that Conor Cruise O’Brien’s
name was missing. Cruise O’Brien’s contributions to the
history of Ireland are numerous – from his public service as an
Irish Government minister and elected public official, to the many
books and articles he has written. Cruise O’Brien has done it all
— from academic to editor to politician to statesman to writer,
and he has done it with zest.
Cruise O’Brien, for his generation, is one of “the greatest
living Irishman,” John English, of the University of Waterloo, has
written, and I totally concur and I add that he is my favorite anomalous iconoclast.
Jim Lavelle
Levittown, Pennsylvania
The Dempsey Dilemma
Being a proud native of the Great State of Maine who lives in exile in
Virginia, I noticed that in your Feb./Mar. issue you state that Patrick
Dempsey grew up “in nearby Buckfield and graduated from Buckfield
High School.” I have read elsewhere that he grew up in Turner and
attended St. Dominic’s Regional High School in Lewiston/Auburn.
St. Dom’s was started as a high school for French Canadian Catholics,
and has won 25 state hockey championships. Buckfield is closer to Bangor
than it is to Lewiston. Small detail, but in the small city of 35,000
they have tremendous pride in their Catholic high school. Patrick
“Pat” Soule
Hampton, Virginia
Editor’s Note: Patrick Dempsey grew up in Buckfield and attended
Buckfield High School. He subsequently transferred to St. Dominic’s
Regional High School for the academic year 1982-83.
Gifted Tour Guide
I was delighted to see the photo of Lorenzo Daly with a tour group in
the February/March issue. Lorenzo was my guide on a CIE tour of Ireland
a bit back. He was a great guide/friend on the journey. I hope to have
him again on another trip. Thanks for a great magazine,Mary-Ann McCauley
Shaffer
Rocky River, Ohio
270307.jpg) St. Patrick
and Katrina
On St. Patrick’s Day my daughter Kathleen will fly in from Dallas
and we will bar hop together. We will head to the Irish Channel and mingle
with other Emerald Society members, all of us kilted with our Emerald
Society shirts and badges, way before the parade begins.
It’s a special time of year here in New Orleans, but we are saddened
at the unbelievably slow pace of rebuilding in the aftermath of Katrina.
With all the help this country of ours gives others, New Orleans is now
the city that care forgot. It is hard to understand. Our West Bank (Algiers,
Gretna, Harvey, Marrero) has absorbed the crime element, and now we live
with murder and dope on our streets. The New Orleans District Attorney
is a joke when it comes to prosecutions, and right now several members
of the New Orleans Police Department are facing trial. God knows when
or how this will all end. It is hard to remember that this is our America.
George Brennan, USN Ret.
Master Chief Gunners Mate
Gretna, Louisiana
Crossword
You made a clever puzzle! I’m probably late getting this entry in,
but I’ll be on the lookout for more puzzles in the months ahead.
Worthwhile magazine, too – I read it from cover to cover. Kevin
Kehan
Columbus, Ohio
Editor’s Note: Readers, don’t forget to send in your completed
crossword puzzles and enter a chance to win a free subscription!
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