Mary Pat Kelly’s new novel Galway Bay captures the essence of the Great Starvation and the 19th-century Irish-American experience. Ireland has a terrible history. As a kid in school reading about that history I was always afraid to turn the page; what seemed like a hopeful turn of events always was undone by a traitor or some clever English piece of skulduggery – the Indians … [Read more...] about The Triumph & the Tragedy
Interviews
Becoming Billy Elliot
Sitting in the audience watching dancers from The Pirate Queen at Irish America’s Top 100 Gala in 2006, honoree Trent Kowalik never imagined that in just two years it would be him up on a Broadway stage. Even Trent’s mother, Lauretta, has trouble believing that her son has gone from Irish dancing to a starring role in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot. “Who would’ve … [Read more...] about Becoming Billy Elliot
Murder She Wrote: Martina Cole
Martina Cole is famous, and quite pleased about it. Her books are notorious for being the most requested in the prison libraries in the UK, and she is consistently referred to as England’s bestselling adult fiction writer. “When I wrote Dangerous Lady, the first book,” she says in a voice that is as full of grit and glamour as her epic six-hundred-page crime dramas, “I never … [Read more...] about Murder She Wrote: Martina Cole
The Irish Oil Man: Dave O’Reilly
The highest- ranked Irish-born CEO in the U.S., and the longest- reigning CEO of an oil company, Chevron’s DAVE O’REILLY talks to Patricia Harty. Dave O’Reilly loves oil. It is why he became a chemical engineer. He doesn’t know how exactly this love came about – he wasn’t influenced by any American westerns featuring Texas wild-catters that populated the fledgling Irish … [Read more...] about The Irish Oil Man: Dave O’Reilly
Stalking Irish Madness: Patrick Tracey
Patrick Tracey’s first book, Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family’s Schizophrenia, is a memoir, a research document, a medical ethnography, and certainly a page-turner. As Tracey says, “There’s many, many ways to write a book about schizophrenia. But I had my story to tell and to tell it this certain way.” The story Tracey has to tell is one that begins … [Read more...] about Stalking Irish Madness: Patrick Tracey