Mary Pat Kelly visits the nuns of her old novitiate to talk about the work they are doing and the Vatican investigation into their lives. With a green pen and a grateful smile I began to sign my book, Galway Bay, purchased by the woman who told me she was a nun. “To Sister Mary,” I wrote in the flowing hand I imagined authors used. “Stop,” she said. “You’re scribbling.” Ah – … [Read more...] about What’s The Story With the Nuns?
Mary Pat Kelly
Touring Irish America
Mary Pat Kelly writes about encountering Irish America readers on her tour to promote her historical novel Galway Bay. If you are reading this, I’ll bet I’ve met you. Since I began the book tour for my novel Galway Bay one year ago, I’ve encountered you, readers of Irish America magazine, in bookstores and Irish cultural centers, in libraries and church halls, in academic … [Read more...] about Touring Irish America
The Triumph & the Tragedy
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
An Epic Story of The Famine Irish: Peter Quinn
A crowd of admirers awaited Peter Quinn when he came to Glucksman Ireland House, NYU on October 16th to launch Overlook Press’s new edition of his award winning novel, Banished Children of Eve, the tale of Irish-Americans in New York during the Civil War. Many had read the much praised novel that celebrated writer William Kennedy called “terrific ... an ebullient mingling of … [Read more...] about An Epic Story of The Famine Irish: Peter Quinn
Broadway’s Irish Colleen:
Kelli O’Hara
We all know the wonderful score of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific. The romantic ballads such as “Some Enchanted Evening” and “Younger Than Springtime,” the joyous numbers “Cock- Eyed Optimist” and “In Love with a Wonderful Guy,” the humorous songs “Nothing Like a Dame” and “Honey Bun,” and the insightful lyrics of “You Have to Be Carefully Taught” – these all play in … [Read more...] about Broadway’s Irish Colleen:
Kelli O’Hara




