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
Patricia Harty
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
The First Word: A Tide of Hope
I’m flying from New York to San Francisco in a window seat looking out over the great expanse that is America. It’s my favorite route to fly. As always I’m struck by the majesty of the countryside – the mountains and lakes and rivers and the tiny dots of houses that hunker down into the landscape like covered wagons. Invariably, the words to “God Bless America” … [Read more...] about The First Word: A Tide of Hope
A Talk with Fionnula
Patricia Harty talks to the enormously talented Fionnula Flanagan. It’s 8 a.m. and Fionnula Flanagan arrives for breakfast looking fresh as a daisy in a crisp white shirt. Her thick white hair swept back, not a lick of make-up. She looks beautiful; her once flame-red hair is now a luscious pearl. Antique earrings she picked up for 10 cents at a yard sale adorn her ears. Molly … [Read more...] about A Talk with Fionnula
The First Word: Sharing the American Dream
This issue is a feast of Irish-Americana. There’s something to suit every taste and even the pickiest reader. Some history, some humor, some of who we are today. There’s the inspirational songbird Kelli O’Hara, whose Irish ancestors settled in Oklahoma during the Land Rushes, and Bill Maher who was born in New York to an Irish father and a Jewish mother. There’s even a salute … [Read more...] about The First Word: Sharing the American Dream