Author Mary Pat Kelly weaves historical characters such as Maud Gonne, William Butler Yeats, Countess Markievicz, Michael Collins, and Eamon de Valera, as well as Gabrielle Chanel, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and Nora Barnacle, into her new novel Of Irish Blood, a vivid and compelling story inspired by the life of her great-aunt, and the sequel to her best-selling and … [Read more...] about What Are You Like? Mary Pat Kelly
Mary Pat Kelly
Kylemore Abbey: Arais Aris
Kylemore Abbey was founded in 1920 by Irish Benedictine nuns on the grounds of Kylemore Castle in Connemara after the nuns fled Belgium where they found refuge during penal times in Ireland during World War I. The nuns ran an international boarding school and established a day school for local girls, until they were forced to close the school in June 2010. In 2012, the … [Read more...] about Kylemore Abbey: Arais Aris
Songs for the Ancestors
Judy Collins on finding inspiration in the experience of her antecedents. Shortly before Judy Collins was inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame in New Ross, County Wexford, this magazine interviewed her. In the article entitled El Troubadour she cited her father as her inspiration. She said that Charles Thomas Collins was a great singer and musician who graduated summa … [Read more...] about Songs for the Ancestors
The Big Thrill
Anne Rice and Michael Connelly spoke to Mary Pat Kelly at the Ninth Annual Thriller Fest a gathering of writers, editors, publishers, literary agents and fans held this summer in New York. Anne O’Brien Rice, the mega-bestselling (a hundred million books) author who created a genre with her Interview with a Vampire has never been to Ireland but wants to go. Michael Connelly, … [Read more...] about The Big Thrill
Hospital Nuns: From the Civil War to Today
From the Civil War to Chicago’s Mercy Hospital, the extraordinary history of Irish nuns in health care. The Sisters of Mercy were the first women to go with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War in 1854. They worked with her to make nursing more effective and to improve sanitary conditions. In America, the Sisters of Mercy would make their impact on the battlefields in … [Read more...] about Hospital Nuns: From the Civil War to Today