Irish-American Books

Tom Meager is not what you would expect as a typical war hero. He was of Irish decent and exiled from his country to the island known as Van Diemen's Land. After getting to America, Meager soon came to prominence in the Irish community around New York. Having a hard time making money, Tom resorted to motivational speaking around the New England area up until the time where he joined the Union as the head of the Irish brigade. Despite Meager's men being led to their slaughter, Meager continued to win respect as a man and general in the Union army.
The Exile is an interesting tale of an Irishman in an American war. It tells what the outside groupd was thinking rather than the normal American white soldier story did. I liked the whole lead into the story about Meager and his exile, but the focus of the story wasn't what the title might lead one to think. The more interesting story line was the leadership in the Civil War itself by Meager. The way he handled himself for a cause that was not truly his was the reason he is a hero. This story would be good for people who enjoy western books and is fairly good at the actual combat in the book.

Richard Wheeler's The Exile is an exciting fast-paced historical novel chronicling the life of the Irish-American patriot, Thomas Francis Meagher. Tom Meagher arrives in New York City in 1852 after the British convicted him of being a leader of the Irish rebellion in 1848. The British send Meagher to the Australian penal colony where he eventually escapes to America.
Although the book is a novel, Richard Wheeler did extensive research to ensure his historical facts are correct. The only fiction in this book are the thoughts of the characters and the possible end of Meagher's life.
Richard Wheeler takes us from the shores of Australia to the sights and sounds of old New York. He relates what it must have been like for early immigrants who just reached this country and their trials and pitfalls in trying to make it here. Richard probes the loves of Meagher's life whether it is his love of Ireland or that of his first and second wives. We follow Tom Meagher as he develops a love for America and his complicated reasons for wanting to form the Irish Brigade during the Civil War. We follow Meagher into war and the intense fights at Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.
Tom Meagher heads west to Montana Territory as acting Governor and is instrumental in establishing a territorial government for the people and by the people. Richard Wheeler brings us to Meagher's death and the strange circumstances and mystery surrounding his end.
Richard Wheeler tells Meagher's story in the first person and does a convincing job giving us Meagher's viewpoint, right or wrong, on the circumstances and ideas that helped form this country. I highly recommend this entertaining and enlightening book. As you read the story imagine yourself sitting at a table in a saloon with a pint of ale before you, a fiddle plays an Irish tune as Tom Meagher lights his pipe and begins to tell you his life story. This is what it is like to read The Exile.

This book reads like a ballad, each chapter an Irish lament for a brave man doomed by fate and history. The language scans like poetry, with an Irish lilt.

Irish rebels were a tough lot because they had to be, resisting oppression and starvation with few resources except will and spirit. Thomas Francis Meagher made enough trouble to be transported to the penal colonies in Australia but they didn't hold him long. The book begins as he escapes.

Meagher -- son of a gentleman, Lord Mayor of Waterford, M.P. -- lands in Boston and Washington where the signs say "no Irish need apply." Unable to find either a job or a political "position," he makes his living by lecturing until the Civil War gobbles him up.

It is as much a story of the Irish as of Meagher. Starved into leaving their green home, they came grieving to the new country to be rejected, crowded out, treated like beasts, and used as cannon fodder. The Green Brigade with its green flag, embroidered with a golden harp, went first into the worst of the battles. When their flag was shot to bits, Meagher taught them to wear a sprig of green boxwood in their hats, but often it was the soldiers who were also shot to bits.

Afterwards Meagher ends up in a place that in those days was not much more hospitable than Australia: Montana territory where he was acting governor in the days of gold strikes, vigilantes, and Indian massacres. Before he could find his footing, he was lost overboard in the night from a steamship tied up on the Missouri at Fort Benton. His body was never found. Killed by enemies or betrayed by friends? Or simply too drunk to keep from falling overboard?

Meagher of the Sword, they called him, and his statue today stands in front of the Montana capitol building where he sits a horse and brandishes a sword overhead. (The sculptor's name was Mulligan, don't ye know?) Is it a mistaken monument or was the man a deserving patriot? This book won't tell you, but it will give you plenty of evidence to turn over in your mind.

It's a story to be told by someone who can make the battles clear and sketch out the lines of contention among a dozen tangled parties. Wheeler can do this. The book is far beyond being a genre historical novel. Wheeler has done five-finger exercies long enough -- they pay off in this concerto.

this book was very helpful and wonderful, i really enjoyed this boo

Any collection of plays has to be judged by the quality of the individual pieces that it has chosen. By that measure, Kozelka has done a good job of bringing together a group of American one-act plays that manages to be diverse and qualitative.

We get the plays from a variety of genres and levels of fame; the most famous are Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," Lucille Fletcher's "Sorry, Wrong Number," and Stephen Vincent Benet's "The Devil and Daniel Webster."

Each play begins with a short (two or three paragraph) biography of the playwright, which is a nice way to give some context to the selections. If you are looking to put on a one-act play, this is a great set from which to choose; alternatively, if you just like to read plays, the shortness of these fine selections makes this a good shopping stop for small tastes of different authors.

I loved this book. i Have one of the original copies that I happened to stubmle across at a library book sell. I loved it so much that I've recomended it to my friends and given it as a gift. Whether you're interested in drama or not the plays in here are hilarious.I especially recommend Impromptu. YOu will get a kick out of winifred's snide comments. Not too mention the famous one act plays of The Man WHo Died at TWelve Oclock and THe Devil and Daniel webster are in here. It is a must read for anyone who appreciates theater and/or the antics of life.

University presses, presses period, unfortunately shy away from essay collections, which is what this volume essentially is. They claim such books do poorly on the market; if that's so then the contemporary American readership--at least those with an interest in the American-Irish interface--needs to wake up and smell the coffee at the Sin-e cafe. Every chapter here is, like they say, worth the price of admission. This is a book of poet's essays--Wall has published three extraordinary collections of poems--so if you are devoted exclusively to "unified," thesis-driven works, its wide-ranging, eclectic energy might be off-putting. The book is travel, research, investigation--think Herodotus, but with a drawling Wexford accent. From the Sin-e Cafe to the Black Hills is a work of calm intelligence, good humor, and acute literary cultural observation.

University presses, presses period, unfortunately shy away from essay collections, which is what this volume essentially is. They claim such books do poorly on the market; if that's so then the contemporary American readership--at least those with an interest in the American-Irish interface--needs to wake up and smell the coffee at the Sin-e cafe. Every chapter here is, like they say, worth the price of admission. This is a book of poet's essays--Wall has published three extraordinary collections of poems--so if you are devoted exclusively to "unified," thesis-driven works, its wide-ranging, eclectic energy might be off-putting. The book is travel, research, investigation--think Herodotus, but with a drawling Wexford accent. From the Sin-e Cafe to the Black Hills is a work of calm intelligence, good humor, and acute literary cultural observation.

University Press books are most often expensive, somewhat boring, and serve a relatively small audience. Not this one. From the Sin e is not only affordable, it's quite readable too. Wall's work is spare yet clear, and he informs us well, not overbearingly. The book is a bit of a conundrum - part remembrance, part criticism, part travelogue, part creative exposition, yet all of it quite interesting. Wall understands the psyche of the nascent "Irish-American" identity. It's made to be read in pieces, which some might consider a flaw, as there's no real cohesion to the parts.

This book moves at a fast pace right through. It is a light read though containing all the important historical facts. The author uses dialogue where possible to push the action forward. He includes many anecdotes to capture and maintain the reader's attention. The book details the close friendship between Harry Boland and Michael Collins and how this bond was shattered by later events. There is much variety in the narrative - sporting highlights of Boland's early G.A.A career, the armed and political struggle for Irish independence which brought Boland to Great Britain to rescue deValera from Lincoln Prison and later to America as Special Envoy of the Irish Republic. Conflicting events occur such as rivalry between Boland and Collins for the hand of Kitty Kiernan and the Treaty settlement between Ireland and Great Britain. This agreement split the Irish people and ended with Collins supporting the pro-Treaty side and Boland taking an anti-treaty stance. Much emphasis is placed on the efforts of Boland to prevent Civil War by becoming the architect of the Collins-deValera Pact. Boland and Collins fought on opposite sides in the inevitable war of brothers and were both killed within three weeks of each other. This book correctly captured the character of Boland - warts and all. The book is thoroughly researched and is a joy to read.

This book documents for the first time the life of Harry Boland and the role he played in Ireland's quest for independence. Long time friend of Michael Collins, this book charts their close relationship, begun through mutual dedication towards the achievement of an Irish Republic. The friendship suffers the difficulty of shared admiration for a woman from Co. Longford which ends in victory for Collins. They choose different sides in the Irish Civil War and die within three weeks of each other in enemy camps. Both "served their country in the way they knew best". This book is easy to read and captures much of the drama, suspence and romance usually associated with a good novel. It describes in great detail the period from 1919-1921. It is to be recommended to students of Irish history as well as those readers in search of a tragedy, romance and suspence.

Jim Maher has done a wonderful job of bringing to life this tragic and romantic figure of the Irish War of Independence (1916-1921). Harry Boland was a soldier and politician, and was a third part of a doomed love triangle with the beauty Kitty Kiernan and Harry's comrade in arms and gigantic figure of the time, Michael Collins. Their friendship was ruptured by the shameful Irish civil war which cast a long shadow over Irish politics and history for the rest of the twentieth century. Boland was a diplomat, fund-raiser and soldier, ahead of his time, a very modern hero, but ultimately he was destroyed by the bitterness and violence which engulfed the fledgling Irish State. This book is a fitting tribute to a man whose hard work and sacrifice shaped the Ireland of today.

It seems every time you turn around someone's writing a biography of another Confederate general from the Civil War. Somehow, there's not quite the enthusiasm for biographies of Union soldiers that there is for the Confederates. This current book examines the interesting life of one of the more unusual characters from the Union Army in the Civil War era: Thomas Francis Meagher. Meagher is famous as the Union general who led the Irish Brigade, a hard-fighting unit which was famous for its opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation, and also famous for its ability to consume large amounts of whiskey. Meagher himself supposedly drank to excess, though whether he did so on the battlefield or not is a matter of debate.

Wylie's account of Meagher's life is a full one, following the man through life, beginning with his childhood in Ireland, involvement in the Irish uprising in 1848 (which was very small and never had much chance of success). He then recounts his exile in Tasmania and escape. Meagher made his way to America, became a citizen, earned a law degree, and did the lecture tour circuit in order to make money. When the Civil War started, Meagher was at first sympathetic to the Confederates, but changed his mind and wound up raising troops for the Union. These troops were formed into a regiment which he wound up serving in. After First Bull Run, Meagher raised more troops and wound up leading the resulting brigade, fighting through all of the crucial campaigns up through Chancellorsville. By this time the Irish Brigade was down to a few hundred men, and Meagher felt they'd earned a rest and a period to recuperate, but the high command disagreed, and he resigned during the dispute. He did later get himself reinstated, but didn't fight again for the remainder of the war, and primarily distinguished himself with a very poor performance trying to move a body of troops from Tennessee to North Carolina, which almost led to his removal from command. He then, at the end of the war, accepted a post as secretary of the Territory of Montana, and served as the interim governor while the office was vacant or the governor absent. He died in a bizarre accident two years after the end of the war, falling off of a steamboat into the river, his body never being found.

Wylie is a judicious and intelligent biographer, and this is a careful, well-written biography. The author contends that Meagher's drinking certainly had an effect on his life, but also notes that it might have been exaggerated by enemies, of whom Meagher had many. One of those enemies was William T. Sherman, who recounted the famous incident where Meagher complained to President Lincoln about Sherman's rather draconian attitude towards discipline, and Lincoln's rather comical response. This is, frankly, and intelligent and well-written biography, and I think a valuable addition to any Civil War library.

Wylie's book is very well researched and well written. I not only learned about the very rich and flawed life of an infamous Irish general and rebel, but I also learned a good deal about the historical struggles in Ireland that inspired him. I learned much about the Civil War, as well as how communication and politics worked around the war. I learned still more about early Western history as it applied to newly developing territories. If you have any interest in Montana history at all, this book is a must read. The author provides a colorful and detailed, very human picture of what Montana was like when it was first forming. This includes some history of the sociopolitical struggles between the settlers and the Native Americans as well. Meagher was certainly a very colorful and very human character who suffered many ups and downs and wore quite a few important hats in his day. Even Meagher's death is well researched. "The Irish General" is a real page-turner overall.

This is the best book on General Meagher that is available today. The research is prodicious and the writing is excellant. It is a fair view to a complicated man. Dont miss out on a excellant book if you are a fan of General Meagher, the Irish Brigade, the Civil War, or Montana History. The photographs are also excellant.The bibliography is also excellant.

I loved this book and immediatly tried to find a second one by her.
She has written one other, but it's an ebook. Hope she has it made into a hard copy. It was easy reading for someone like me who hadn't had time to read in a few years. Got me reading again.

Bought this book because it was on sale, a stab in the dark, and very much enjoyed it. Readers of Irish heritage will especially enjoy the wonderful characters. The story is told from varying points of view which keeps it interesting--read it all in one day. Very memorable people, these Malloys from Troy.

I would definetly like to write a review about this book, because I was a friend and classmate of this author through grade & high school. We lived five minutes away from each other. We lost contact after school and went our seperate ways, but I never forgot her. When I learned that she had written a book,I read it and felt like I was in the book. It was written during our teenage years, and the home town we grow up in. It brought back so many memories. I enjoyed the book very much. I was really surprised when I read it, to remember everything the way it use to be.

I hope this review is ok for the contest. It was a great experience. I am looking forward to reading more of her books. Thank you

Deborah Tall, professor of English and Comparative Literature, died on October 19 at age 55 after two years of resisting inflammatory breast cancer, a rare, aggressive form of the disease. She had lived in Ithaca, N.Y., since 1990 with her husband of 27 years, David Weiss, and their daughters, Zoe and Clea Weiss.

Since 1982, Tall taught at Hobart and William Smith where she was named The John Milton Potter Professor of Humanities and won the 2001 Faculty Scholarship Award, as well as numerous faculty research grants. She was editor of the literary journal Seneca Review.

"Deborah was deeply admired throughout our community and far beyond," said President Mark D. Gearan. "She inspired us with her original talent as a writer and her dedication to literature, teaching, her family and her friends. Those close to her will be able to share their memories in a public celebration of her life to be held on campus this fall."

Both a poet and nonfiction writer, she was published widely and gave readings and talks around the world. Her books include Summons, which was selected by Charles Simic for the Katherine A. Morton Poetry Prize in 1999; The Island of the White Cow; From Where We Stand: Recovering a Sense of Place; and The Poet's Notebook, which she co-edited with Hobart alumnus Stephen Kuusisto and Hobart and William Smith Professor of English David Weiss. A memoir, A Family of Strangers, has just come out this fall from Sarabande Books.

Born in Washington, D.C., she grew up in the Philadelphia area and spent five formative years on Inishbofin, off the west coast of Ireland. She earned a B.S. in English from the University of Michigan and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Goddard College.

This memoir describes the time period from 1972 to 1977. It is both a book about Ireland, and a book about college-educated Americans. As a book about Ireland, it is a beautifully written memoir of five years on the small island of Inishbofin. We learn much about the islanders and their hopes and frustrations. Although the book talks much about their struggles with isolation, drink, joblessness, family troubles and jealousies, the overall effect is more uplifting than depressing.

The book is also a record of the way that young, educated Americans encountered the world in the sixties and seventies -- through travel, study, the Peace Corps and many other ways. In the wake of the Sixties, many were seeking new ideas for living and new models of community relations. Some, such as Deborah Tall, hoped to find inspiration for art or writing in their pilgrimages to remote and isolated places. At the time, the far corners of Europe were still quite primitive, and part of Deborah Tall's experience was coping without electricity and running water. Now, of course, Inishbofin has telephones and websites and one would have to go much further afield for as exotic a cultural experience.

The writing in the book is very finely crafted, and its words are carefully chosen. Occasionally the author's prose becomes slightly mannered, but overall she is a pleasure to read and the book merits a continued audience.

In this book, Deborah Tall describes life on Inishbofind, 'Island of the White Cow', a remote island off the coast of western Ireland. An American herself, she meets an Irish writer who gives a lecture at her university. They fall in love and she follows him to the island, far away from the distractions of bustling city life, where they both try to make a living as writers. She describes her stay as if it were one year, divided into four seasons. In actuality, Deborah Tall lived on the island for five years.

I loved this book. Having lived in Ireland for a number of years, this made for a great read. The descriptions of the beauty and harsh life on this barren island, always open to the western winds, were very recognisable. Life feels different on these small islands. Even though it is only a few miles to the mainland, it seems infinitely far removed, and people don't even consider themselves part of Ireland. Life on the island is like living in the past. Inishbofind does not have a doctor. It has no dentist (one comes over periodically to pull teeth - nothing fancy like plaque removal here). There is no secondary education. It has only one telephone. There is no running water.
What it does have is charm, some very interesting people and, above all, quiet.

The islanders are much like the island itself: rugged on one hand, charming on the other. They are always up for a story, always good for a song, always in for a drink, always ready for a new audience. As the book goes on, and once Deborah Tall and 'Owen' are more accepted by the locals, one gets glimpses of the real emotions of the people on Inishbofind, an island slowly losing more and more people - mostly young ones - to the main land.
On one hand, people are helpful, friendly and interested in the new arrivals. On the other hand, there is bitterness, resignation, resentfulness, frustration, desperation and jealousy. And always, there is pride.

This book describes life as it really is on an island - not a tourist experience. If you are looking for a book on how wonderful everything about Ireland is, you may want to read a travel guide. If you are looking to read about Ireland, this is definitely a good choice.

This is the first book of a 3(so far)-book series. It's one of those "feel good" books. I LOVED IT! In fact, I've read all three and hope that there are more to come.

Guy meets girl. They have a developing relationship with some wrinkles and conflicts along the way. Dani's parents died when she was 18. She dropped out of school to work so she could support and take care of her two younger brothers. As a result, there is a wonderfully warm family relationship among Dani and her brothers. I prefer a little more suspense, mystery or humor. Nothing surprised or delighted me. But, it was nicely done if you're looking for a simple romance story. Story brief: Very rich self-made man sells his business after surviving an auto accident. He now manages his own investments and moves to Jamesville for a few months to decide what to do with his future. He meets and falls for Dani, who is very different from the sophisticated city women he is used to being with. She wants to be a virgin until her wedding night. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: two. Setting: current day small town Jamesville (5,000 people) in U.S. Copyright: 2006. Genre: contemporary romance.

The first time Dani O'Rourke meets Burke Black he thinks she is a man. The second time, he thinks she is a thief. Will the third time be the charm?

Burke Black is a man in need of change. Having spent the last few months recovering from an automobile accident, he reluctantly realizes that he has no one who really cares about him and that bothers him. After much debating and planning, he decides to pull up roots, sell his business, and head to a small town to think things over. What he doesn't know is that when he is supposed to be thinking, he is going to be falling in love.

Dani O'Rourke has spent the last eight years raising her younger brothers after the unexpected death of their parents. She has scrimped and saved and, at times, disregarded her own happiness to keep the family together. She doesn't regret a moment of it. However, when Dani sees Burke Black, she is a bit intimidated because she does not know anything about dating or being with a man. She is attracted to Burke and wants to date him; she just doesn't want to sleep with him until she is ready, much to the disappointment of Burke.

I was unsure of Burke at the beginning of Discovering Dani. He was so used to having women drop at his feet that I thought there would be no earthly way that he would wait for Dani to be sure about their relationship. That he was willing to wait for her, even though he didn't like it, shows that he had morals and I like that in a hero. As for Dani, the gal had guts and I am proud of her for waiting until she was totally sure before giving herself to Burke. It made their coming together and making love for the first time that much sweeter.

During the course of Discovering Dani, I found myself wanting the characters to make love because the intensity was so great. I had to keep reminding myself, however, that this book wasn't about coming together sexually. In my opinion, it was about discovering each other through trial and tribulations. N.J. Walters has penned a sweet romance with Discovering Dani. This book is just remarkable. The characters flow, the scenes are smooth, and I just liked it. It goes without saying that N. J. Walters is an author I look forward to reading over and over again.


Talia
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Any book subtitled "An Irish Farce" is worth a thorough reading, and Killoyle was no disappointment. The story alternates between despair and hilarity - this is Ireland, after all - as it follows the lives of the inhabitants of Killoyle. Among many other folks, there is the aging editor of a glamour magazine, a waiter who is something of a poet, and the resident nutcase who likes making prank phone calls as much as he likes books by or about God. Of course, being a novel about Ireland, there are the requisite problems: drinking, sex, God, and Ireland itself.

The real genius of the novel is the footnotes, including gems like this one: "This round-buying will be the death of the Irish nation, you mark my words. Once I was conned into buying eleven rounds in the space of a single wet lunch, with no one else in the bar!" The persona of the footnotes provides comic relief, criticism, rude comments, and seemingly random filler throughout the text. However, from driving directions to snappy comebacks, the footnotes provide, as they should, the details that flesh out the story.

Besides being just plain fun to read, Killoyle is worth a look because Boylan rose to the challenge of doing something 'new' with the novel. I applaud him and his witty footnotes, and I highly recommend Killoyle if you are in the mood for a good yarn.

Brava, Mr. Boylan! It has been a long time since I read a book that made me laugh out loud, not just a titter here and there but frequent and hearty chuckles, chortles, and out and out belly laughs. Even rarer is the book that engages both your chortling mechanism and your mind. Killoyle does both. Slapstick and sophisticated simultaneously.

Killoyle is a book to be savored -- if you try to rush through it, I don't think you'll enjoy it. Roger Boylan's style demands a thoughtful, reflective pace of reading.

I think of Boylan as an Irish Nabokov. Like Nabokov, he is a virtuoso of language who apparently writes for the pure pleasure of doing so. And what fun he seems to have! His unpredictable, spontaneous flashes of merriment keep the reader entertained throughout.

I found the uniquely Irish charm of Killoyle so delightful that I have gone on an Irish literature binge since reading it: Joyce, Beckett, and Flann O'Brien. I can't thank Roger Boylan enough!

Although, I haven't actually read the play, I did just see it performed in Stratford, Ontario, at their annual Stratford Festival, with Amanda Plummer in the starring role. I can only say it was gripping and extremely well done, and Amanda Plummer (along with other Canadian big actor Martha Henry) was excellent. The playwright may be writing about a 15th Century young woman, but watching it on stage in today's political and historical circumstances, it sheds a whole different light. I encourage any reader of the play to consider various other historical periods and how they might apply to the themes of this play. This play, to me, uses Joan of Arc, as the storyline, but it is more about man's contradictory nature (among other themes). This Stratford director also set the costumes/set design during WWII, and watching it w/the Nazi/Concentration Camp overtones really made us think. It made for great dialogue with other theater-goers after the show. Definitely a must-see!

I saw this play many, many years ago on television, of all things! This was when TV was fairly new, and they really did know how to present fine drama to a fare-thee-well back then. I believe this presentation of Jean Anouilh's THE LARK was live, although I'm not sure. It starred Julie Harris. I'll never forget it. I was very small, and what I didn't understand my family explained to me.

I say I'll never forget it, but, now in my 50s, I can't remember a lot of the details. What I can't forget is how terribly powerful the play was, how gripping, how beautifully written, and what a spectacular performance Julie Harris gave. I don't think anyone can out-do her Joan of Arc (or her Nora of A DOLL'S HOUSE, for that matter--also performed on TV). To the best of my recollection, the play focuses on the trial of Joan of Arc for heresy, and the final verdict, and her execution.

What a rare and special treat that was, even to a small child. and a few years later, as I mentioned above, the rendition of A DOLL'S HOUSE, with Julie Harris's incomparable performance, as well as Christopher Plummer's--I have not forgotten that, either.

Do read Jean Anouilh's THE LARK.

I did my very first monologue from this play, when I took drama lessons as an adult. I am very attached to it, and this telling of the life of Joan of Arc is my favorite.