TOURING EXHIBITIONS
 To Love Two Countries:
Ireland's Greatest Generation in America
Photographs by John Minihan
Commissioned and presented by the Irish Arts Center and the Consulate of Ireland
Opening in April at the Aisling Irish Community Center, Yonkers
New York
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern opened To Love Two Countries in February
2009 at The Irish American Society of Nassau, Suffolk and Queens in Mineola,
New York |
We are thrilled to announce that acclaimed photographer John Minihan will
return to the United States this spring to expand our acclaimed To Love Two Countries
exhibit to New England. This moving tribute to the Irish who came to the
United States in the early twentieth century will again be presented in partnership
with leading community organizations, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and
the Consulate of Ireland in Boston.
Starting this spring, you can visit To Love Two Countries online,
enjoy the images of the men and women on whose shoulders we stand, and hear their
stories in their own words. Participate in this living exhibition by visiting
our associated Facebook ® page -- and share your own family’s immigration
story.
His Excellency Michael Collins, Ambassador to the United States from Ireland,
opened the exhibit at the Commodore Barry Irish Center in Philadelphia in July
2009 |
Stay tuned -- the launch of To Love Two Countries online will be
announced before St. Patrick’s Day.
Meanwhile, our original exhibition continues to travel to the communities
represented. In April, To Love Two Countries will open at the
Aisling Irish Community Center in Yonkers, New York.
Aisling Irish Community Center
990 McLean Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10704
914.237.5121 www.aislingcenter.org
John Minihan’s photographs of such luminaries as Samuel
Beckett, Edna O’Brien, Gloria Swanson, Ray Charles, Al
Pacino, and Diana Spencer have established him as one of
the finest portrait photographers of his generation.
The subjects in To Love Two Countries are real people –
untouched by “celebrity” – who emigrated from Ireland to
America in the early decades of the twentieth century.
They stand at the end of a line receding into 400 years of
New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Minihan visited
his subjects in their homes, in their church, and in their
local Irish centers.
“The generation of Irish women and men represented in these photos
are owed a debt of gratitude that
can never be fully repaid.”
Taoiseach Brian Cowen,
Prime Minister of Ireland |
John Minihan’s portraits of Samuel Beckett have become a
part of the way we remember Beckett. The portraits in this
exhibition will help define how we remember this – our
greatest generation.
"John Minihan’s famous pictures of the famous — Samuel Beckett, Edna
O’Brien, Gloria Swanson, Ray Charles, Al Pacino, Diana Spencer, the list is
endless — have established him as one of the finest portrait photographers of his generation. These American photographs, taken in the course of two weeks in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, are concerned with real people untouched by 'celebrity.'"
--from Derek Mahon’s forward to the companion book To Love Two Countries: Ireland’s Greatest Generation in America, published in July 2008 by the Irish Arts Center.
To Love Two Countries was developed with generous support from the Department of
Foreign Affairs, Ireland, and Ambassador Niall Burgess,
Consul General of Ireland.
Click here for Visual Archive |
