Irish America
Irish America
John Banville's first book, Long Larkin, was published in 1970; his most recent novel, Ghosts, has just come out. In the intervening years he has produced nine novels and received many awards. In 1989 he won the Guinness Peat Aviation Award for The Book of Evidence, which was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In addition to being one of the most highly regarded writers … [Read more...] about In Pursuit of the Supernatural
Tim Pat Coogan, author of The IRA: A History, talks to Patricia Harty. "I really think the Irish-Americans are crucial to this. I'm historian enough to know there would be no independent Irish state without Irish-American pressure in the 1920s. The cabinet records are there and the ambassador's records are there to show how much Irish Americans were involved." However, "one … [Read more...] about The Long Shadow
The Irish of Albany, New York, have proved to be rich and fertile literary material for native son William Kennedy as is evident in Legs, Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, Ironweed, and Quinn's Book. Now a fifth novel, Very Old Bones joins the distinguished Albany Cycle. Patrick Farrelly talked to the Pulitizer Prize-winning author at his home. In his white clapboard house in … [Read more...] about Dark Secrets of the Heart: William Kennedy’s Irish Chronicles
In November 1991, shortly after making an abortive effort to replace Charles Haughey as head of Fianna Fail, the chances of Albert Reynolds ever becoming Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland looked bleak indeed. From being Minister for Finance, arguably the most important position in the cabinet, he had been dispatched by Haughey to the backbenches where he seemed likely to … [Read more...] about Taking It To The Top: An Interview with An Taoiseach Albert Reynolds
Thomas Keneally is widely-recognized for a wide body of work of a historical and political nature, including The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, which explores differences between the white and Aboriginal cultures. Confederates examined the consequences of the American Civil War on a group of individuals; Schindler's List looks at the Holocaust. And in To Asmara he focused on the … [Read more...] about The Irish Experience in Australia
