The July 1995 issue
Summer 1995. The IRA ceasefire was ten months old and fraying: the early release of Private Lee Clegg put Belfast back on the evening news. The same issue found Leon Uris talking about Redemption, re-enactors at Gettysburg and a last Mass in Centralia.
'Days Like This' reviewed: Van Morrison walks a familiar road
Colin Lacey found Van Morrison's 1995 album pleasant but familiar. Its title track went on to become the soundtrack of a peace process.
A fond farewell to a century of memories
Thomas Larkin, baptized in the parish, went home to Centralia, Pennsylvania, for the last Mass at St. Ignatius Loyola before the mine-fire town lost its church.
A gamble that paid off: 'Major' change averted in Britain
In July 1995 John Major dared his party to sack him, won, and reshuffled his cabinet. The victory bought him less than two years.
A talk with Uris: 'Trinity' was the seed, 'Redemption' was the unplanned progeny
Leon Uris, laid up with a bad back, told us by telephone why the Larkin family saga needed a second book, and where the Larkin name came from.
History repeats as another Casey enters Pennsylvania political life
In 1995 a 35-year-old Scranton lawyer set out to follow his father into Pennsylvania's auditor general's office. He went a good deal further.
Mary McSweeney's Ireland: Putting a land and people in perspective
In 1995 a Killarney-born painter working outside Chicago turned from cliffs and mountains to the old Irish kitchen, and found a new audience for it.
Northern Ireland can never return to its past
A July 1995 Celtic Mirror editorial weighed claims that the IRA was ready to go back to war, counted the dividends of peace, and bet on the ceasefire.
Prisoner release sparks riots in NI: Frustration spilled into the streets; Worst violence since cease-fire
The early release of Private Lee Clegg, jailed for killing a Belfast teenager, brought the worst rioting since the 1994 IRA ceasefire in July 1995.
Step back to the Civil War: Battle returns to Gettysburg
In July 1995, 1,500 reenactors, the director of the film Gettysburg and the men of a modern 116th Pennsylvania Irish Brigade company refought the battle.