|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
| |
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
Irish and Irish American Resources Online
|
|
|
|
|
Lesson
Plans . . . and more activities coming soon! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Brendan
Behan
(1923-1964)
Irish born author, Brendan Behan had many jobs, including one as a house painter,
before becoming a writer. Behan was arrested twice for invlovements with the
Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.) in Liverpool. Behan published many of his stories
and poems in The Irish Times and The Irish Press. Despite his
small number of works, Behan established a reputation through interviews and
acting a as a drunk in his own productions. After he died in 1964, Rene MacColl
of the Daily Express wrote "Too young to die, but too drunk to live."
He also wrote several short stories including "The Confirmation Suite,"
"Borstal Boy" and "The Hostage." Click
here for more information on Behan.
Sara
Berkeley (1967-
)
Born in Ireland, she lived there until she was 22 years old, then she moved
to London and emigrated to America. She has writen Penn, Raven Arts Press
(Dublin)/Thistledown Press (Saskatchewan), Home-Movie Nights, Raven/Thistledown,
The Swimmer in the Deep Blue Dream, Raven/Thistledown, Facts About Water, and
Bloodaxe Books (Newcastle-upon-Tyne)/New Island Books (Dublin)/Thistledown.
Maeve
Binchy
Born in Dalkey, Ireland, Binchy became a teacher after receiving her B.A. at
the Univerity College in Dublin. Her inspiration to become a writer came about
when her father sold one of her letters to The Irish Times for 18 pounds.
Binchy was a successful writer from the start. She wrote three volumes of short
stories, two plays and a teleplay winning three awards at the Prague Film Festival.
Her titles include several bestselling novels entitled Evening Class, The
Glass Lake, The Copper Beech, The Lilac Bus, Circle of Friends, Silver Wedding,
Firefly Summer, Echoes, and Light a Penny Candle. Click
here for more information on Binchy.
Nellie
Bly (1864-1922)
Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochrane, and later took on the name Nellie Bly.
She was a journalist and a pioneer of investigative reporting. She was the first
to "go behind the scenes" to discover the realities of society. Bly
institutionalized herself in order to study firsthand how the mentally ill were
treated; as a result, the caring for the mentally ill was reformed. Bly retired
from journalism upon her marriage to Robert Seaman in 1895. Ten years later,
after Seaman died, Bly took over her husband's dying industries and introduced
the steel barrel to the distilling process in Ameria. She went on to run the
multimillion-dollar plants and advance the lives of her employees for almost
ten years. Nellie Bly was a model for women in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. Click here for a lesson
plan related to Nellie Bly.
Nellie Bly, College of Staten Island.
Catherine
Brady
Born into an Irish Catholic immigrant family in Chicago, Brady incorporates
her knowledge of the Irish in her writings. She graduated from Northwestern
University and received her M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Brady has written several stories appearing in Redbook, The Kenyon Review,
The Missouri Review, Folio, Witness, and other magazines and anthologies.
Brady received the Redbook Young Writers Award and was nominated for
the Pushcart Prize. She teaches at the University of San Francisco in the M.A.
in Writing Program. Among her great works is the short story, "The
End of the Class War."
Lelia
Hardin Bugg
Bugg wrote The Correct Thing for Catholics (1981), The
People of Our Parish (1900), and other works.
Mary
Teresa Austin Carroll
(1842- )
Carroll wrote Bettering Ourselves (1899), The Christian Gentlewoman
and the Social Apostolate (1904), Questions of Honor in everday Life
(1896), and The Way of the World and Other Ways (1900).
William
Carleton (1794-1869)
Born in County Tyrone and raised on a farm, Carleton was an author during pre-famine
Ireland. Carleton was educated in a local hedgeschool and began work as a journalist
for the Christian Examiner. His writings, Fardarougha the Miser (1839)
and Valentine McClutchy (1845), depict Ireland as it was divided by language
and colonization. He had a descriptive and impressive grip on Irish dialogue
as well as an understanding of the English language.
Thomas
Davis (1814-1845)
He is best known as a journalist and supporter of politics. Born in Mallow,
Ireland, and educated at Trinity College in Dublin, Davis formed a group with
John Dillon and Charles Gavin Duffy called Young Ireland. Young Ireland influenced
Irish politics through articles in The Nation and Davis' own writings.
A volume of his most famous poems and essays were published shortly after his
death and became anthems of the movement for Irish independence.
Dorothy
Day (1897-1980)
Born in Brooklyn but raised in Chicago, Day was known as a journalist, peace
activist, and founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Day attended the University
of Illinois, but never completed her degree to graduate. In 1916, she moved
with her family to New York to pusue a career as a revolutionary journalist,
soon becoming a correspondent for the Call and the New Masses.
Day was involved in hot issues such as women's rights, free love, and birth
control. In 1917, she was sentenced to serve thirty days in the workhouse at
Occoquan for picketing in front of the White House. After having a child that
she was determined to baptize and raise Catholic, Day started publishing the
Catholic Worker in 1933. In addition to the paper, she opened a "House
of Hospitality" in New York to make theory a reality—she housed the
homeless and fed the hungry. By the 1960's Day was acclaimed the "grand
old lady of pacifism."
Dorothy Day, 1968, Milwakee Journal. Click here for more information on Day.
Eilís
Dillon (1920-1994)
She was born in Galway in the West of Ireland and got her education
at the Ursuline Convent in Sligo. She married
Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, Professor of Irish at University College Cork, in 1940.
Eilis strengthened her writing skills while she was raising three children and
running a student hostel for the university. Her works, translated in to fourteen
languages, include children's books, novels, poetry, and detective stories.
Eilis retired early to move to Rome with her ill husband, who died ten years
later in 1970. She married a professor of English from the University of Colorado,
Vivian Mercier in 1974 and moved to California where they spent their winters.
They spent their springs and summers in Ireland. She served on councils with
the Arts Council, International Commission for English in the Liturgy, Irish
Writers' Union and Irish Writers' Centre. Her health took a plunge after the
death of her husband (1989) and daughter (1990), but she continued to write
until the last months of her life. The Eilís Dillon Award is awarded each year
as part of the Bisto Book Awards. Dillon's book The Island of Ghosts
won the main Bisto Book Award in 1989.
Portrait above is Eilis Dillon, The Eilís Dillon Irish Writing Pages. Click here for more information on Dillon.
Anna
Dorsey
Anna Dorsey is one of the three most prolific writers of novels in the nineteenth
century. Dorsey wrote over fifty novels creating a survey of Catholic life in
America. She wrote The Flemmings (1870), Nora ady's Vow (1869),
Palms (1887), The Student of Blenheim Forest (1867), and more.
Roddy
Doyle (1958- )
This Irish born author received his B.A. from University College in Dublin.
Doyle became one of Ireland's premiere voices after pursuing a career as a teacher.
He has six famous novels filled with wit and honesty. Among his titles are The
woman who walked into doors, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and The Commitments,
winning the Booker Prize.
Roddy Doyle, photo by Amelia Stein. Click here for more information on Doyle.
Paul
Durcan (b.1944)
Paul was born in Dublin to two professional lawyers. He graduated from University
College Cork with studies in archeology and medieval history. In the 1960's
he started his career writing poetry and finished his first book, "Endsville,"
in 1967 with help from Brian Lynch. Some of his famous works include "O Westport
in the Light of Asia Minor," "Ark of the North," "The Selected Paul Durcan,"
"The Berlin Wall Café," and "Daddy, Daddy." He has been awarded many
award including the Patrick Kavanagh Award in 1974, the Irish American Cultural
Institute Poetry Award, the Whitbread Poetry Award, and the Heinemann Bequest,
1995.
Picture: Paul Durcan, I AM DOWN ON MY KNEES AT THE WIRELESS KNOBS. Click here for more information on Durcan.
F.
Scott Fitzgerald
(1896-1940)
Fitzgerald entered Princeton in the class of 1917 with a literary apprenticeship
that he soon neglected for writing scripts and lyrics for the Princeton Triangle
Club musicals. In 1917, he was put on accademic probation. Knoing that graduation
was improbable, he joined the army. With a fear of dying in the war, Fitzgerald
hastily wrote his first novel, The Romantic Egotist, that was not accepted
until 1919 when he rewrote it as This Side of Paradise. Fitzgerald's
work on novels was interrupted by writing popular fiction. The publication of
This Side of Paradise on March 26, 1920, made Fitzgerald famous almost
overnight. Seeking tranquillity for his work, Fitzgerald went to France in 1924
and began writing The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald experienced a short-lived
glipse of Hollywood screen writing. He was not one of the highest-paid writers
of his time, therefore a large portion of his income came from his 160 magazine
stories.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1937, Portrait by Van Vechten, Library of Congress, American
Memory. Click here for
more information on Fitzgerald.
Brian
Friel (1929- )
Friel was an Irish playwright and short-story writer. Friel was born in Northern
Ireland, and became a strong follower of the Catholic tradition. He went on
to study in London to be a priest until 1950 when he changed his mind to become
a teacher, receiving his bachelor of arts degree from Saint Patrick's College
in 1948. At the age of 21, Friel was contracted to write short stories for the
New Yorker magazine. In 1960, he became a full-time writer. He wrote
books including Philadelphia here I come and Dancing at Lughnasa,
and short stories such as A Mans World, A Saucer of Larks (1962),
and The Gold in the Sea (1966). It is his plays that brought him fame
and acclaim. Click
here for more information on Friel.
William
Randolph Hearst (1863-1951)
Founder, editor and publisher of the largest newspaper chain in America. Hearst
was born to George and Phoebe Apperson Hearst, a self-made multimillionaire
miner and a Missouri school teacher. In 1880, Hearst's father received the San
Francisco Examiner newspaper as payment for a gambling debt. Having little interest
in the newspaper business, George Hearst granted permission for his son, in
Harvard at the time, to become the "Proprietor" of the Examiner. William
Randolph Hearst acquired and launced many publications (newspapers, magazines,
and journals) including the New York Journal, the Chicago American, the Hearst
Corporation, Motor, and King Features Syndicate. His career includes work as
a newspaper and magazine publisher, and a film and broadcasting pioneer. In
addition to his work, he was a member of Congress. Hearst is responsible for
making American journalism what it is today.
William Randolph Hearst, The Hearst Corporation. Click here for more information on Hearst.
James
Joyce (1882-1941)
Born in Dublin and raised in the Roman Catholic faith, Joyce got his education
at Jesuit schools and the University College in Dublin. He married a chambermaid,
Nora Barnacle, had two children and supported the family working as a language
instructor and receiving patron gifts. His first published works were completed
during his undergraduate studies. He gained international fame with his novel
Ulysses (1922) with themes based on Homer's Odyssey. His greatest
works combine realism, natualism, and symbolism.
Picture James Joyce, portrait by Local Ireland. Click here for more on Joyce.
John
B. Keane
One of the best known contemporary Irish writers. Keane enjoys using Irish humor,
rooted in realtiy, as a tool for his writings. His works appeal to audiences
through characters that people recognise and relate with. Keane is known as
the master of people-watching and eavesdropping. John B. Keane was born in Listowel
to a family of nine children. Along with the rest of the Keane children, John
B. read all of Dickens and the majority of Shakespeare works by the age of 13.
In 1952, he emigrated ot England to work and write his first novel. Keane returned
to Ireland in 1954 where he worked as a chemist's assistant. His career as a
writer commenced in the late fifties with the play 'Sive'. After thirty-four
years of rejection by the Abbey theatre, they finally asked to stage a performance
of Sive. Keane wrote several dramas including The Field and The
Crazy Wall.
John B. Keane, Celtic Theatre Company. Click here for more information on Keane.
Martin
McDonagh
Robert Brustein, artistic director of Cambridge's prestigious American Repertory
Theater, has written that McDonagh is "destined to be one of the theatrical
luminaries of the 21st century." McDonagh's first play, The Beauty Queen
of Leenane, was premiered in Dublin in 1996. From there, the play went to
London's Royal Court Theatre and Broadway, winning four Tony awards. The
Beauty Queen of Leenane is the first play in McDonagh's Connemara Trilogy.
Martin McDonagh, Harvard
University. Click
here for more on McDonagh.
Mary
Therese McCarthy (1912-1989)
Born in Seattle and orphaned at the age of six, McCarthy was raised in an abusive
home until her grandparents took her. She earned her education through Vassar
College. McCarthy got her start on writing in New York writing literary and
dramatic criticisms for periodicals. It was not until her husband, Edmund Wilson
suggested it that McCarthy wrote fiction. Her views on the Vietnam War and Watergate
Scandal displeased many people and caused several arguments. McCarthy wrote
a number of novels, books and essays. Her most famous book is The Group,
and other titles include The Groves of Academe (1952), Venice
Observed (1956), Vietnam (1967), How I Grew (1987), and others.
Frank
McCourt (1931-
)
Though he was born in Brooklyn, New York he grew up in Limerick, Ireland and
eventually returned to America in 1949. McCourt was a teacher in New York City
high schools for thirty years. He continues to reside in New York. McCourt has
written and published Angela's Ashes, a book about the social history
of the Limerick, and 'Tis.
John
O'Hara (1905-1970)
The works of this Pottsville, Pennsylvania born novelist and short-story writer
are highly regarded in American Literature. In 1928, O'Hara began writing for
The New Yorker, selling some 225 stories to the magazine. Many of his
stories were realistic, but fictional Pennsylvania towns. O'Hara's library of
works include Appointment in Samarra (1935), A Rage to Live (1949),
Butterfield 8 and From the Terrace.
John O'Hara, Coal Region Eterprises. Click here for more on O'Hara.
Edna
O'Brien (1936-
)
Born in a small Catholic town in Ireland, O'Brien grew up on a farm. She received
her education attending a convent and Pharmaceutical College in Dublin. In 1952,
she married and moved to London and raised two sons. O'Brien became a teacher
of creative writing at the City University of New York in 1986. Her own writings
include several titles, stories for juveniles, plays and magazine articles/stories.
Her works are noted for portraying women with descriptive and sexual candor.
She wrote The Country Girls and others. Click
here for more on O'Brien.
Flannery
O'Connor (1925-1964)
Born in Savannah, Georgia, she earned a B.A. in Social Science at Georgia State
College for Women in 1945. Her first story, The Geranium was published
only a year after graduating. O'Connor was a novelist and short-story writer.
During her lifetime, she wrote 32 short stories and two novels, and received
three First Prize honors from the O. Henry Memorial. Her style of writing was
expressive and sensative to Souther dialect. Some of her writings include A
Good Man is Hard to Find and The Complete Short Stories.
Picture of Flannery O'Connor, by University of North Carolina. Click here for more on O'Connor.
Liam
O'Flaherty (1896-1984)
After recieving an education at various schools, including Rockwell College
and University College Dublin, O'Flaherty served in the Irish Guards until he
was discharged in 1917. A year after joining the Communist Party, he establishes
the Communist Party of Ireland in 1921. It was not until 1922 that Liam O'Flaherty's
first novel, Thy Neighbour's Wife, was published and he began his career
as a writer. In 1940, he moves to the United States for six years, then returning
to Europe. Other publications by Liam O'Flaherty include The Reaping Race,
The Informer and Famine, The Life of Tim Healy, The Assasin, Famine,
Two Lovely Beasts, and Insurrection. Click
here for more information on O'Flaherty.
John
O'Hara (1905-1970)
O'Hara was a Pottsville born author of plays, stories, and novels. He set five
novels and more than fifty short stories in what he called "my Pennsylvania
Protectorate." His novel Appointment in Samarra, written when O'Hara
was still in his twenties, is considered one of the best American novels of
his time.
Picture of John O'Hara in his original study, portrait by Martin d'Arcy. Click here for more on O'Hara.
Eugene
O'Neill (1888-1953)
Son of a matinee idol best known for his portrayal of the Count of Monte Cristo,
O'Neill attended Princeton briefly, then fled his immigrant family and its lace-curtain
respectability. For 6 years he wandered, making his home in waterfront bars
and brothels. A bout of tuberculosis in 1912 brought his reckless living to
an end, and in the solitude of a hospital, O'Neill began writing plays. Within
a decade, he had won a Pulitzer and a reputation as the one-time down-and-outer
who created works of high art. He became a cultural hero, an American success.
And yet he wondered if it was all worthwhile. After winning the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1936 (the first American playwright to do so), O'Neill turned
his back on Broadway; he turned instead to the past, to his family's passage
from Irish peasant to Nobel laureate. It is during these years that he wrote
the Irish masterpieces, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey Into Night, and
Moon for the Misbegotten, the work for which he would be remembered. In 1944,
he put his pencil down and never wrote again.
Picture of Eugene O'Neill, 1933, potrait by Carl Van Vechten, Library of Congress, American Memory. Click here for details on O'Neill.
Mary
Anne Sadlier (1820-1903)
An Irish-American immigrant, she wrote domestic novels, historical romances
and children's catechisms that are an important part of American literary history.
She was one of the first fiction writers to address the Irish Famine and the
tans-Atlantic voyage west. Her works include sixty volumes of work.
Mary Anne Sadlier, The Mary Anne Sadlier Archive. Click here for details on Sadlier.
G. Bernard
Shaw (1856-1950)
Born in Dublin, he experienced his family breaking apart as his mother left
her husband to live in London. A few years later, Shaw left home to move in
with his mother and pursue a career in journalism and writing. After completing
five novels, he soaked up time reading in the library, where he discovered interest
in progressive politics. He founded the Fabian Society with Beatrice and Sidney
Webb, dedicating it to transforming Britain into a socialist state by systematic
progressive legislation. He also contnued his journalism career working as an
art, music, and theatre critic. He started a new career as a playwriter and
director for Harley Granville Barker, which brought him great success and wealth.
Evidence of the family and political events in Shaw's life can be found in his
writings.
Bram
Stoker (1847-1912)
Stoker was the third born child of seven to his parents in Dubin, Ireland. After
attending Trinity College Dublin, Stoker followed his father's footsteps as
a clerk in the Civil Service in 1870. His passion for the arts made a place
when Henry Irving appointed him as business manager at London's Lyceum Theatre.
Stoker wrote the famed Dracula and it was published in 1897.
Bram Stoker, University of Toronto. Click here for more information on Stoker.
Jonathan
Swift (1667-1745)
He was an Irish-born author known for his sharp-witted satire. Born in Dublin,
Ireland to a widowed mother, Swift was raised by his three uncles. After receiving
a degree in 1686 "by special favor" from Trinity College, he spent
ten years in England as a secretary to Sir William Temple. In England, Swift
fed his intellect with unlimited access to Temple's vast library. Swift began
work on his most famous work, Gulliver's Travels, around 1721 and completed
it in 1725. Gulliver's Travels is a book that follows a character named
Lemuel Gulliver and journeys through imaginary lands. Some of his other satires
include A Modest Proposal, and The Battle of the Books. Click
here for more information.
Johnathan
'Isaac Bickerstaff' Swift
(1667-1745)
The only son of Jonathan Swift and Abigaile Erick Swift, born after the death
of his father in Dublin. His education was arranged by other relatives. He graduated
from Trinity College in Dublin and moved to England to work for Sir William
Temple, an important statesman of the day. During his stay in England, Swift
began to pave his way as a satiric writer. Swift's first major writing, Gulliver's
Travels was published in 1726 and is seen today as an applaudible childrens
book. Swift earned a reputation as the first famous Irish writer in the English
language. Even after his death, his work continues to attrack as attention as
ever.
Oscar
Wilde (1854-1900)
He attended Trinity College in Dublin and Magdalen College in Oxford on scholarships.
He was greatly influenced by John Ruskin, Walter Pater and Cardinal Newman.
He was established as a poet after winning the Newdigate Prize in 1878 with
his poem Ravenna. He married Constance Lloyd, the daughter of a barrister,
in 1884 and had two children, Cyril and Vyvyan with her. He began a literary
career in 1884 that brought him toward great success with The Happy Prince
(1888) and other later works. He wrote and published most of his major works
in the final decade of his life. His greatest successes were his society comedies.
- Serenade cover page , Oscar Wilde, 1882, music by Oscar Wilde, Library of Congress, American Memory. Click here for details on this image. The sheet music is also available.
William
Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist, and leader of the early 20th century Irish
Literary Renaissance. His passion for mysticism and the Occult Sciences are
evident in his poems and writings. He was born into a family of religious conflict.
His grandfather was a deeply Orthodox Rector and his father was a disbeliever.
Yeats was fascinated with the disciplines of religion, science, and philosophy.
He earned the Nobel Prize for literature in 1924.
Virtual Exhibits || Storytelling || Lesson Plans || Music Exchange || Online Resources
a special
project of
