Thomas Cahill writes on the great catastrophe that became known as the Famine. The mass exodus of people during and following this period would forever change the course of Irish and American history. The potato blight that arrived in Europe in the summer of 1845 was, like the potato itself, an American export. The fungus that caused the blight was a microscopic organism … [Read more...] about Why Famine Came To Ireland
Poetry
The Book SHELF: A sampling of the latest Irish books on offer
Fiction He may not have been nominated for this year's Booker Prize, much to the surprise of many observers, but with A Star Called Henry, Roddy Doyle has written a book that, for my money, far surpasses Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, the work that won him the prestigious literary award in 1993. Henry Smart is the larger-than-life hero of Doyle's latest work, but it's his infamous … [Read more...] about The Book SHELF: A sampling of the latest Irish books on offer
A Look Back at the First Annual Tom Quinlan Lecture in Poetry
Saturday, September 25, 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of the annual Tom Quinlan Lecture in Poetry. Seamus Heaney himself inaugurated the first Tom Quinlan lecture in 2011 at Glucksman Ireland House NYU to endorse the importance of the first published book of poetry in a poet’s literary life. The lecture series, established by the Quinlan family, is named for Tom Quinlan … [Read more...] about A Look Back at the First Annual Tom Quinlan Lecture in Poetry
The Peculiar Adventures of Irish Poets in America
Dublin-born THOMAS MOORE (1779-1852) is still recognized as Ireland’s National Bard; he was once as famous a romantic poet as his best friend Lord Byron. While studying law in London in 1801 he published, anonymously, a book of naughty verses, The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Little. The author was “the most licentious of modern versifiers,” thundered The Edinburgh … [Read more...] about The Peculiar Adventures of Irish Poets in America
The Touch of The Poet
Five years ago this summer, a dream came true – but not quite the way the daydreamer envisioned it might. A decade earlier, I approached the poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, proposing a magazine profile of him and requesting an interview in Dublin. An enthusiastic admirer of his work, I’d just published an assessment of his translation of Beowulf – “a cross-cultural … [Read more...] about The Touch of The Poet