About Jeanne Rooney

Jeanne Rooney is the Editor in Chief for South Boston Online.
6 09, 2017

Opening the Gate for Celtic Culture

2017-09-06T17:35:11-04:00September 6th, 2017|Categories: Editorial|Comments Off on Opening the Gate for Celtic Culture

By Richard Campbell It has been well over a year (June 2016) since the developer Oranmore Enterprises dropped the deal with the Archdiocese of Boston to develop the Gate of Heaven School, presumably in favor of some group renting the space for educational or community purposes. In absence of deep pockets or imagination, local groups definitely need some help untangling an intractable situation. This is a building that should find a hybrid purpose in order to engage significant philanthropic support. For that to happen, nostalgic aspirations must be supplanted by a clear institutional mission. The Gate of Heaven School presents so many opportunities for a creative architect, if only the stakeholders can find a real mission for the property. Instead of it viewing it as [...]

6 09, 2017

Countdown to Kindergarten #18

2017-09-06T17:41:53-04:00September 6th, 2017|Categories: Happenings, News|Comments Off on Countdown to Kindergarten #18

by Rick Winterson To say the least, it was a festive and crowded occasion. Called “Countdown to Kindergarten”, it was the 18th Annual celebration of Boston’s young children, who were about to embark on their school years by entering kindergarten. And it was held at South Boston’s Children’s Museum on Tuesday, August 29. Perhaps as many as 1,200 kindergarten kids showed up, along with their families. It was quite a crowd. The exhibits inside the Museum were mobbed. The shows and activities put on by the Staff at Children’s Museum were non-stop and excellent. Best of all, they were informative, so that the kids could get a feel for their upcoming kindergarten adventure in a low-key, fun-filled way. Mayor Walsh was the guest of honor. [...]

6 09, 2017

Gypsy: Big Time Nostalgia at the Lyric

2017-09-06T19:08:36-04:00September 6th, 2017|Categories: Happenings, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Gypsy: Big Time Nostalgia at the Lyric

By Richard Campbell In the history of musical theatre, Arthur Laurent’s book for Gypsy looms large over every writer in the genre, not merely because of Stephen Sondheim’s excellent pairing with time tested tunes by Jule Styne, but for the show’s multifaceted cast of characters and its tricky switch from fabulous farce to light pathos. Based in part on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the show originally premiered in 1959, a pretty different time in musical theater. Gypsy looked back upon the Vaudeville and Burlesque past from the post war vantage point, for audiences then were only a few generations removed from the nineteen twenties and thirties. The appreciation for innocent campiness that made it a cathartic release then, works almost as well to [...]

30 08, 2017

The Safe Operation of Ships

2017-08-30T16:03:00-04:00August 30th, 2017|Categories: Editorial|Comments Off on The Safe Operation of Ships

by Donald Moskowitz As a former Navy Enlisted (1950s) and Naval Officer (Navigator and Officer of the Deck, 1960s), I am quite concerned with the recent collisions by our warships in Asian waters.  We lost seven sailors in the collision of the USS Fitzgerald and another ten sailors in the collision of the USS John S. McCain.  Two guided missile destroyers are out of service and need extensive repairs. There are many factors that could contribute to collisions between ships, including enemy acts, weather, fatigue, missed or erroneous ship handling commands, and equipment malfunctions, but the one overriding factor leading to collisions is typically inattention to surrounding circumstances while operating in close proximity to other ships and relying solely on technology to keep them safe. Many ships employ the [...]

30 08, 2017

Innovations at Boston Public Schools Get Full Test This Fall

2018-11-27T13:06:35-05:00August 30th, 2017|Categories: Happenings, News|Comments Off on Innovations at Boston Public Schools Get Full Test This Fall

By Richard Campbell   This past July the Boston Public Schools signed a contract with nationally known Revolution Foods to provide school breakfast and lunches, in the hopes of significantly boosting nutrition and taste for meals consumed by Boston school students. Given the past reputation of the food at BPS that this writer saw in online forums, the move could not have come sooner. It was heralded in major media as a slam-dunk achievement for school superintendent Tommy Chang, who has faced other more intractable problems than finding better nutrition. In the official press release Mr. Chang said: “For many students, the meals they receive at school are their most nutritious of the day, Revolution Foods embraces our nationally-recognized efforts of making sure every student [...]

30 08, 2017

Sunday at the Seaport

2017-08-30T15:58:02-04:00August 30th, 2017|Categories: Happenings, News|Comments Off on Sunday at the Seaport

by Rick Winterson Last Sunday afternoon, August 26, was memorable, in part because of the 2017 Jazz Fest in South Boston’s Maritime Park, in part because of how varied the South Boston Seaport vista has become, and in part due to Mother Nature’s gift of incredible weather.  It was an afternoon to walk leisurely from east to west in the Seaport District. The most prominent happening was the 2017 Jazz Fest, which took place in the South Boston Maritime Park at the northern end of D Street.  After resolving a few moisture-related problems, six groups played for seven hours – noon till 7 p.m.  Each one performed a full set of original works.  South Boston Online has space to review only one of those groups [...]

30 08, 2017

First Places for Yacht Club’s Junior Sailors

2017-08-30T15:52:18-04:00August 30th, 2017|Categories: Sports|Comments Off on First Places for Yacht Club’s Junior Sailors

South Boston Yacht Club sailors  (from left): Owen (Instructor), Mary, Erin, Matt (instructor), Jacob, Bill (Junior Sailing Committee), Dylan, Sinead (holding the winner’s cup), Ernie (SBYC Commodore), Tommy, Kiera, Jack, Jaelyn, Eddy (standing), Maeve, and Isabel. Not present: Sean (Instructor), Lydia, Colin, Duncan, Lily, and Ian. In the recent set of two races between the young sailors from the Harry McDonough Sailing Center and those from the South Boston Yacht Club Junior Sail, the South Boston Yacht Club (the SBYC) won both.  An SBYC boat also garnered a third place finish -  SBYC junior sailors ruled.  These races were held in Pleasure Bay, inside the arc formed by the Sugar Bowl and the Causeway.  Much thanks goes to SBYC Commodore Ernie Myrvang and to Bill [...]

30 08, 2017

Back to School: Sage Ideas for Academic Development

2017-08-30T19:39:27-04:00August 30th, 2017|Categories: Lifestyle|Comments Off on Back to School: Sage Ideas for Academic Development

Students: Academic Links for this story are at the bottom of the page. By Richard Campbell Summer is over. Where did it go, you might ask? Now you are ready for school.  Right. And the Celtics are going to win the championship this year too! All kidding aside, many student’s find research and writing skills to be the most difficult things to learn- especially for students who get bored with dry details.  What follows here is a global view of the skills new high school students need to learn, written out in plain English. Yes, Freshman: this article is aimed squarely at your cerebellums. Awareness: No One is Average. It is hardly an overstatement to say that the pressure to perform well academically increases upon entering [...]

26 08, 2017

Mayor Walsh Visits West Broadway Unity Day

2017-08-26T19:43:50-04:00August 26th, 2017|Categories: News|Comments Off on Mayor Walsh Visits West Broadway Unity Day

  by Rick Winterson      It was very much to his credit that Mayor Martin J. Walsh dropped in at last Saturday’s West Broadway Unity Day celebration. Last Saturday was the day of the so-called “Boston Free Speech” Rally on Boston Common.  A permit allowing such a gathering was issued – fittingly so, because the Common (within hailing distance of the legendary “Liberty Tree”) has historically been the location of so many other examples of the free speech we enjoy in America.  The Rally itself drew only a few hundred participants.  However, a very large number of protesters – 50,000 or more – marched from Roxbury to the Common, including some members of Antifa. But wisely, the Mayor stuck to his pre-established schedule, arriving [...]

26 08, 2017

A History of Dissent: Boston Common

2017-08-26T20:44:20-04:00August 26th, 2017|Categories: Featured, Lifestyle|Comments Off on A History of Dissent: Boston Common

  By Richard Campbell The long history of the Boston Common may be obscured to contemporary visitors who wade at the Frog Pond, take merry-go-round rides, or picnic on the lawn- but it has a history as a place of dissent that continues to echo down to this day.  What is America’s oldest park began as a 42-acre private cow pasture, owned by a hermit English Clergyman William Blackstone (Blaxton) who received a patent for the property three years after the arrival of the Pilgrims, in 1623.  Blackstone suggested to original settlers in Charlestown’s fetid swamp- who were suffering from a shortage of potable water- that they should cross what was then the peninsula of Shawmut to settle on the Boston side. Shawmut in Indian [...]

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