Irish-American Books

although for many readers who are not from Ireland this story may seem quite primitive and even questionable in its content, for those of us Irish people it is like many stories told to us when we were younger by our grandparents. This real life story of a young country girl raised in rural Ireland in the decades after the great famine is one that will appeal to the hearts of young and old throughout the world.We follow Sissy through the highs and lows of life and learn what was really important to the people of nineteenth century Ireland. The ongoing trials of nationalism, Respectablity, religion and poverty are brought to life for us by Sissy and her family. A thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening book which I would recommend to anyone looking for light read; or anyone interested in what it really was to be Irish.

A loving family story about Catholic life on an Irish farm in the mid 1800's. This is the story of my family and Mary Carbery has done a splendid job of capturing the time and events and wrapping the lives of the O'Brien family around them. Educational and soothing easy reading.

She's not only a great writer, Alex Finlayson is also really cute and surfs good.

These two plays by American playwright Alex Finlayson premiered at the Royal Exchange Theater, Manchester England directed by Gregory Hersov. Winner of the prestigious Mobil Oil (UK)Playwrighting Prize, WINDING THE BALL is a black comedy about a charming mass murderer who terrorizes (and amuses) a small town in the Appalachian mountains. "The writing is splendidly self-assured, with wit and perception that bespeak a major talent." (Financial Times) "Gripping, luridly funny." (Sunday Times)"Devastating piece of writing" (Sunday Observer) "Brilliantly imagined" (The Times) MISFITS is an epic 22scene, 17 character play about the making of the 1961 movie, "The Misfits", starring Marilyn Monroe, Clark GAble, Monty Clift. . .and written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston. Miller called the film "his valentine for Marilyn" but it was anything but. MISFITS goes on location in the Nevada desert to show the brea! kup of their marriage. Although Arthur Miller and Magnum photographer Eve Arnold did protest, MISFITS premiered May 1996 with Lisa Eichhorn as Marilyn. "At the end, the audience clapped a long time." (The Times) "This is a great play." (Sunday Independent)

This anthology is a must for any lover of poetry and/or clever turns.
I managed to find a copy at a library, so despair ye not.
Features poems by Dorothy Parker, Ogden Nash, E.B. White, as well as many other fantastic talents.

More than 450 poems ranging from the 17th century to the present; emphasis on the present. Over a third of the poems have never before appeared in any anthology. This is the only big illustrated book of light verse, and the illustrations are delectable. Some are by the poets themselves; Lear, Bab Gilbert, Oliver Herford, G K Chesterton, Nicholas Bentley, and Walt Kelly. The Great masters are here too; Ring Lardner and Mark Twain; Nabokov, Houseman, Wodehouse, Lewis Carroll, Ed Lear, Ogden Nash, Morris Bishop, John Updike, A B Frost, and so many more. This one outclasses every other anthology of its kind in (or out of) print!

A funny, heart-warming, masterpiece. Shea has done it again

Sheer genius. Is there anyone in this genre better than Shea

My great grandfather was one of the Famine Irish who immigrated to the United States in the mid-19th century. He came from County Cork with his parents and little brother to the Port of New York. After living in Pennsylvania for several years they found their way to the rich farmlands of southern Minnesota. To learn more about his life and times, I recently began doing some family research. During the course of that work I came across Bridget Connelly's wonderful book.

Not only did I find Forgetting Ireland well written and fascinating, it also helped me to unravel my own family's story. While reading her book I found myself spending time in county courthouses, small town libraries, church graveyards, and at the Minnesota Historical Society. I poured over old township maps, land patents, census records, death certificates, and tombstones in order to piece together my great grandfather's life in Minnesota. Reading Bridget Connelly's book while doing my research was like taking two parallel journeys through Minnesota's Irish immigrant past. It was great fun; like being one of the History Detectives on PBS.

The next step for me is to contact the genealogy societies in Cork to see if they can locate the town and parish where my ancestors came from. If they're successful, then I would like to travel to Ireland like Bridget Connelly did and look for our relatives.

Anyone interested in oral histories, 19th century Irish immigration, or the development of Minnesota's prairies should read this great family story.

The book arrived Friday and I couldn't put it down. It is an absolutely fascinating account of the early settlement of Minnesota by the Irish. I grew up in Graceville but had no idea of the rich and controversial history of the area. It's a great book but difficult to categorize. It's one person's search for understanding of her family, a historical account of an controversial incident in the history of Minnesota and the Catholic Church and an example of the difficulty we face in understanding our history. Was John Ireland "worse than Jesse James"?

Rachel Guido deVries' new book of poetry, Gambler's Daughter, reminds me of the serenity & the multi colors of nature: spring gardens, summer lakes, autumn trees. Yet all the while a Northern New York State winter is building for an old-time knock down, drag out, momentous lake-effect storm. But as a metaphor, that is life everywhere. Loss, gain & many changes fill life & deVries' poetry.

The poet yearns for silence, is aware of life's solitariness & longs for belonging. deVries sees life as it is, grieves for her losses & is buoyed by the spirit of nature & love. She celebrates life by loving with charming panache: "purple overalls, rounded eggplants/ and plums." (Lover in the Garden)

deVries' word-pictures are stunning. The imagery contains an almost Zen-like Haiku feeling. The image of the crow diving down in "Prayer" endures because the rest of the poem gives it a wonderful home to live in. It belongs & so does this book.

Some poets leave little room for doubt as to what they mean to create. Others like Ms. Devries prefer a more abstract approach - composing in a way that leaves the reader to add his or her own interpretation of thoughts only hinted at. Reading these authors can be difficult at first. It takes an absorbing of the whole before the meaning in each individual piece is extractable - as well as the understanding that in this form the art is not in what is said, but rather in what is left unsaid.
Does that confuse you? Me too, a little. Being male, I admit a natural preference for the former approach, but poets such as Ms. Devries do occasionally touch that other side of me. During my first reading I traveled this little volume in small doses, a page or two a day. I found the volume fit the scheme well; the pieces are short, rarely more than a dozen or two lines, there's a neat bookmarker photo featuring the author wearing a pensive expression - just the kind that makes you wonder, "what is she thinking?"
On the second read-through, around page fifty if I recall, a few lines appeared that set me to reflecting on my own condition. After that there began to be others, and although this work is aimed at women (collectively, there are enough references to the author's lifestyle to make clear where her attention is centered), I will continue reading until I've found them all. We are the products of our childhoods, and it seems to me I've spent most of my adult life trying to throw off some of the things pounded into me as I came up. Eventually, male or female, we either reach equilibrium or we don't. I think Gambler's Daughter is the author saying she's reached hers, and in reading her, I'm thinking I might even be closer now myself.
Art Tirrell - author of The Secret Ever Keeps, ISBN978-1-60164-004-8, coming April 2007.

This is one of the best collections that I have ever read. As one who reads simply for pleasure, I enjoy books that are weighty in matter but easy in reading. The poems in this collection are in this category. Some of the poems are also sung as hymns. When these poems stand apart from the music, their poetic qualities shine even more radiantly in the symmetry of rhyme and contents.

I would like to commend on the introduction written by the editor as well. It begins with a striking presentation of salvation.

On the condition of man: (quoted from the introduction) "Two themes, two polarities as it were, define the condition of man in a fallen world: that of the misery in which he is abjectly sunk and that of the grandeur to which he is nevertheless called. Gravity and grace. The downward pull of the one; the upward surge of the other. On one side, an impacted oppression of sin, depravity, and death; on the other, an exhilaration of grace, glory, and God. There, amid so many splendid, unending collisions, is a man's life to be found. And only in death does one at last arrive at such resolution as befits a being not meant for this world: indeed, a creature the total trajectory of whose being is intended to carry him breathcatchingly beyond this world."

On the all sufficiency of Divine Grace: (again quoted from the introduction) "Yet we have it on faith that no shadow exists---no wound of sin so deep, nor the scar tissue of accumulated corruption so thick---to overmaster the power of the mercy of Christ.

...for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins"

To rephrase Regis Martin, man's daily wrestle on this intriguing matter between God and himself heightens his spirit and deepens his soul. Poetry becomes the sublime language through which he express himself as man.

Dr. Martin's own introduction is just as beautiful as any of the poems found inside. I highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent resource for both advanced beginners and experienced reseachers. Well organized, conversational, and very factual. Specific strategies for solving a variety of research challenges are developed and illustrated. The authors want the researcher to be able to locate the specific piece of Irish soil where the ancestor lived.

Betit and Radford do not attempt to address every record type or resource, nor does this work replace the standard reference works of Mitchell, Ryan, etc. It is not Irish county specific, nor is Argentine emigration addressed. What they have done very well is present the material in such a way that can enable the serious researcher, whatever the experience level, to get arms around a complex subject.

As you may surmise, I definitely recommend this book. Good luck and have fun.

A Genealogist's Guide To Discovering Your Irish Ancestors was specifically designed and written for the aspiring genealogist seeking guidelines for determining an Irish ancestor's place of origin. Dwight Radford and Kyle Betit effectively collaborate to present sound advice for researching Irish records both domestically and overseas; basic strategies essential to successful Irish research; special advice about tracing Scots-Irish ancestors; practical advice for accessing Irish cemeteries, land, church, estate, census, and military records; how to access civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths, as well as emigration lists; sources and strategies for researching Irish ancestors who settled in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Wales, and the Caribbean, as well as timely information on Internet resources and favorite sites on the World Wide Web. Highly recommended for personal and community library genealogical research reference collections, A Genealogist's Guide To Discovering Your Irish Ancestors offers both the novice and the experienced genealogist with everything necessary to trace and record their family's Irish history.

This book offers a fascinating look into the world of 1830s-era
Philadelphia and its environs. There is interesting material
here on the history of immigration, the Irish in America, railroad construction, epidemiology, ghosts and folklore. The core of the book is a story about Irish railroad workers in Chester County that was largely unknown until the authors began studying it (they obtained a historical marker for it from the Commonwealth's Historical Commission in 2004). In addition, there are interesting ghost stories that will make for better than average Halloween reading.

This remarkable new book is a must read for Irish-American history. A reconstruction of the fate of an immigrant Irish work crew who died of cholera (and possible violence) while building the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in rural Chester County in 1832 is the main focus. The story of the tragic deaths of 57 young Irish immigrants is combined with much fascinating detail concerning Irish and Irish-American history of the time. The much neglected history of the P and C Railroad is handled very well as is the discussion of the pandemic of Asiatic Cholera in North America. There is even a evocatively described ghost story. Readable, yet scholarly, this is an incredible book.

I won't be writing a long review since it is absolutely unnecessary. The book is mastefully written, by a skilled researcher. Inspiring, entertaining and remarkably easy to read. Great bibliography and very useful! Clear structure, well-presented arguments, quotes are to the point and from a wide variety of texts. Am simply loving it :)

In a well-known scene of Gothic horror, Bram Stoker's Dracula "throws a moving, whimpering bag at the feet of his three wives." He offers it for their consumption in exchange for the man they have surrounded, the man he desires, Jonathan Harker. In the bag, of course, is a struggling child.

In this breathtaking study Margot Backus unties the strings binding that bag and makes visible the suffering and fear in that child's face when it realizes its fate. In the same Duke University Press series as Fredric Jameson's Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) and David Lloyd's Anomalous States: Irish Writing and the Post-colonial Moment (1993), this book matches the standard of complexity of its predecessors. It not only presents the first substantive materialist reading of the Gothic, providing a refreshing corrective to the long familiar, almost singularly psychoanalytic approaches that dominate organizations like the International Gothic Association. It also insists on the inseparability of materialist critique, psychoanalytic approaches, and anti-colonialist critical models. All three are Backus's starting points. And broadening her staging ground still further, a critique of heteronormativity is rigorously incorporated into the analyses throughout.

This makes for an ambitious project. But it is a project that largely keeps its promises through some of the most complex, occluded, and liminal terrain in Irish Cultural Studies. For this reason alone, it deserved the ACIS Durkan Prize for best first book in any field, which it has won this year.

At the heart of Backus's analysis is the problem of child sacrifice within the Anglo-Irish colonial order. Backus explains: "A relatively unmentioned fact of colonial and postcolonial politics is that colonial rule, particularly where colonialism has taken the form of mass settlement, requires the production of children" (2). Furthermore, to keep the system going, to legitimate and perpetuate settler rule, this class sacrifices its children.

For the violent colonial order into which settler children are born predates them, remains a priori to their consent, and will repeatedly interpellate them regardless of their assent or refusal. Constricting, turned inwards upon itself, the settler family cell becomes a chamber of horrors re-inflicting the violence of its traumatic origins and present entrenchment upon its children. Isolated and embattled, the settler class becomes autophagous and pedophagous, i.e., self and child-consuming (two key terms for Backus). The appropriation of children's sexuality through incest, for example, becomes one mode of pedophagy. Indeed incest, adult/child rape, and a range of violations echo throughout this class's domestic history. Crucially, however, it is a history that has been vigilantly silenced. But, as this book teaches us, it is a silence that can become audible if one knows where to listen.