Galway, Ireland 2026

I was determined to visit Galway, which is described as Ireland’s “bohemian cultural heart, famous for its vibrant street music, medieval history, and lively pub scene,” and because the Galway races take place during the last week in July, I chose to go the week before. Now that we knew our way around Cork, it took only a few minutes to reach the bus stop for a three hour trip that was fairly scenic.

Arms of the Martin family, one of the Tribes of Galway (1641)

Common Ground (A Pictorial Review)

When David C. Scheper, former Harvard center turned attorney, was in Boston recently, he told me Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas, was one of his favorite books, and asked me to describe how the Boston neighborhoods depicted in that book geographically relate to the parts of Boston with which he is more familiar.  Common Ground, a Turbulent Decade in theLives of Three American Families, won the Pulitzer in 1986 for its memorable depiction of three Boston families from very different backgrounds experiencing Boston school desegregation in the 1960s and 1970s.   My father, having worked with legendary judge W. Arthur Garrity in the U.S. Attorney’s Office (who later issued the decision that mandated school busing), was one of the first people Tony Lukas interviewed for the book, and I am very familiar with it.

Christmas 2011

How sad it is to take down the tree, which I just (belatedly) began tonight! However, it looked very pretty in my newly painted living room.

This year's Betsy-Tacy ornament exchange was a lovely glass basketball from Tib's friends at Browner Academy in Milwaukee, but very suitable for me, given my love of hoop.

The blue chair in the corner is old and shabby but beloved by my father because Cardinal Cushing, Boston's most beloved cardinal in the 20th century, sat it in when he came to visit my Aunt Lillian and administer the last rites, shortly before she died.