The April 1998 issue
April 1998, the month of the Good Friday Agreement. The issue is heavy with history: a long survey of the Celts, the origin of the Scots, the Highland Clearances. Alongside it, Black 47 and Celtic rock, Martin Dillon on the paramilitaries and Irish dance after Riverdance.
An observation on Northern Ireland: What the troubles have brought
A 1996 Belfast interview with Sinn Féin councillor Bobby Lavery, whose brother and son were shot dead by loyalists, published days before the Good Friday Agreement.
Black 47 ... and the roots of Celtic rock in America
Larry Kirwan of Black 47 on Paddy Reilly's, Michael Collins, Bobby Sands and why St. Patrick's Day shows in America have to be all ages.
Celtic Music: A blend of old and new
Producer Brian Keane explains in 1998 why Celtic music was suddenly big business on both sides of the Atlantic, and who was carrying the tradition forward.
Irish dance phenomenon
Before Riverdance there was Trinity: Chicago's Mark Howard and his world-champion dancers on 'progressive Irish dance', the Mollies and turning down Flatley's rivals.
MacBride passes in House: expected to pass in Senate
March 1998: the House votes the MacBride fair-employment principles into a foreign affairs bill, and Father Sean McManus wonders whether President Clinton will sign.
Martin Dillon: Intimate of terrorists
Weeks before the Good Friday Agreement, the Belfast author of The Shankill Butchers and God and the Gun talked to us about killers, clergy and the coming deal.
New cuisine born in Ireland: Chefs meld world flavors into modern taste; Recipes brought to American tables
In 1998 a Cork chef from a Michelin-starred family was selling 'new Irish cuisine' to America, one salmon-potato cake at a time.
Nine who counted: Would they do it all again?
Tommy Symons retold the pub-wall tale of nine Irish rebels condemned in 1848 who rose to high office abroad. We checked it against the record.
Project Children benefits youth and host families alike
In 1998 American volunteers described taking Catholic and Protestant children from Northern Ireland into their homes for six summer weeks away from the marching season.
Reflections on seeking peace
Three weeks before Good Friday 1998, a columnist watches Clinton fail to get Trimble and Adams to shake hands, then turns to a death in his own family.
Scotland's blackest days: The Clearances
From Culloden to the Year of the Burning: a 1998 account of how the Highland chiefs traded their people for sheep, and where the emptied glens sent them.
Symons Says: What say we let the Irish go on holiday?
Tommy Symons makes the case for a national St. Patrick's Day holiday, then reports from the parades, pubs and step-dance stages of the Pennsylvania coal region.
The Celts: The people history forgot
A long, opinionated 1998 tour of Celtic Europe, from the sack of Rome and the Druids to Hadrian's Wall and Ireland, the one place Rome never reached.
The origin of the Scots: Lost in the mists of time
Were the Scots really Irishmen who never went home? Alex Campbell weighed the Dál Riata tradition against the sceptics, from Scota and Fergus Mór to Kenneth MacAlpin.