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Tom Phelan looks back on his Irish life Church, of course, was dominant in Ireland for all that time.” Walsh pointed out that while Tom Phelan, a longtime Freeport resident, was sched- most members of the organizauled to speak on Wednesday at tion are Irish-American, Phelthe Garden City Casino, after an was born in Ireland. “So his the Herald went to press. The background is more solid than ours,” Walsh said. presentation, spon“Our organizasored by the viltion is not loaded lage’s Irish Culturwith writers,” he a l S o c i e t y, w a s added. “But he’s titled “My Irish our guy.” Boyhood,” and was At 84, Phelan based on Phelan’s continues to share memoir, “We Were stories of his Irish Rich and We Didn’t boyhood in the Know It,” which town of Mountmelwas published in lick, drawing from 2019 by Simon and a life steeped in the Schuster. rich traditions of Phelan’s memoir rural Ireland and offers an intimate his jour ney to look at his upbringbecoming an ing on a small famiauthor. ly farm in County Life on the farm, L a o i s , I r e l a n d , ToM PHElAN author as he describes it, where he was born was both idyllic in 1940. and challenging, His talk was to focus on “When Ireland was and contrasted starkly with the more of a different nation,” lives of most of his readers. “Small farms in Ireland are John Walsh, former president of the cultural society, said. “At really family enter prises,” that time, (Ireland) was much Phelan explained to the Herald. more agricultural than it is “Everybody’s involved in taktoday. It was more religious ing care of it, and helping with than it is today … the Catholic Continued on page 7
By MoHAMMAD RAFIQ
mrafiq@liherald.com
Melissa Baptiste/Herald
long Island Cares opens new food pantry Lourdes Taglialatela, program center coordinator, and Nichole Rojas, program associate, for the West Nassau Center for Food Assistance & Community Support Valley Stream beam with pride at the opening of the new pantry facility, which will help off-load the demand placed on the Nassau Center for Collaborative Assistance in Freeport. Story, more photos, Page 3.
Proposed Freeport charter school withdraws application By MoHAMMAD RAFIQ mrafiq@liherald.com
Plans for the Maven Academy Charter School in Freeport have been put on hold after its application was temporarily withdrawn — with the intention of once again applying at a future time after attempting to build more community support. According to Craig Mercado, the head and prospective principal of Maven Academy, the decision to pull the application is a necessary step to ensure broader community backing for the proposed charter school.
“We felt we needed more groundswell support,” Mercado said of the decision, with he and his team having withdrawn the application on Thursday, Aug. 21, the day before Freeport Public Schools had a public hearing scheduled to discuss the proposed charter school. The hearing was subsequently cancelled. The withdrawal comes after the Maven Academy team recognized the need for more robust outreach efforts. “We need to do a better job at getting the people excited about a charter school,” he said. “We always anticipated the need for more outreach… Continued on page 5
S
ome people would say that I had a wonderful childhood — the freedom of the farm — but times were very difficult, too.