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Less than 24 hours after Major Anderson had surrendered Fort Sumter, Massachusetts Adjutant General William Schouler sent Colonel Edward Jones, the commander of the Sixth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the following instructions: “Col. Jones: Sir, I am directed by His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief, to order you to muster your regiment…
Read More »Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration as 16th president of the United States on March 4, 1861, came and went without a shot being fired and the dire predictions of imminent hostilities from earlier in the year appeared to many to have been an overreaction. In Massachusetts, business owners criticized Governor Andrew, who…
Read More »As Trasna continues to celebrate National Poetry Month, we also note that this week marked the one-hundred and ninth anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The ship was constructed by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and its last port of call was Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland.…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The April 9, 2010 cover of Time Magazine still shocks. Eighteen-year-old Aisha, her nose cut off, was an all-too-common example of why we were told then that the United States should not leave Afghanistan. After Aisha had run away from…
Read More »City Walk: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Market Basket By George Chigas A funny thing happened during my city walk a week ago Sunday. It started off like any another day during Covid. After several chilly days of rain, the temps had warmed up and the…
Read More »Poet Anthony Febo did his best work in Lowell for a long time, but has moved on with a family and new goals as a teacher and writer. Kudos to “Febo” for publishing his first book, “Becoming an Island” (Game Over Books, 2021). Please consider ordering a copy. He may…
Read More »Eddy Silva’s Wake By Mark Cote Eddy Silva died last Tuesday. Heart attack. 68 years old. Looked 82. Untethered by circumstances he lived the life of a drifter. Two wives, five kids and countless jobs on his scorecard. Beaten down. Neither women nor job could keep him in one place…
Read More »Tom Brady By Sean Casey If you are from New England, you might have a question: Who is Tom Brady? In society today, a lot depends on Tom Brady. It’s Tom Brady this, Tom Brady that, but few New Englanders know just who or what Tom Brady is. You can’t…
Read More »Fifty years ago this week Congressman F. Bradford Morse wrote the following letter to Lowell Mayor Richard P. Howe (my father) urging the city to begin planning for the 150th anniversary of the grant of the charter for Lowell which coincided with the 200th anniversary of the United States. This…
Read More »Whether a reader concurs with Chaucer’s view of Aprille as inspirational or agrees with Eliot’s claim that it “is the cruelest month,” April is National Poetry Month in the USA and April 29, 2021, is National Poetry Day in Ireland. This week we introduce four poems by Kerry Hardie, from…
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