I’m celebrating new membership in The Wild Geese. Recently I read Colm Herron’s A Maiden So Bewitching and asked him if I might post a comment. Having read other of his books and essays, how could I help but notice right away that this is something different – totally different – from his earlier…

I’m about to embark on a grand adventure, and I feel almost like one of my own romance novel heroines!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my Wild West Irish Tour…

26 Common Irish Sayings

The following is a compiled list of 26 common Irish sayings with their translations below written by The Irish Store.

You may find these useful to save confusion & hassle when crossing paths with an Irish person.…

Trading Fate

Fourteen-year-old Patricia Walsh, her mother, father, and six siblings, scratched out a living in the stone fields of County Galway, Ireland. Colum Walsh supported the family as a stonemason building estate structures and repairing the fences of an…

When one writer encounters another that blindsides them with staggering awe, the inclination is to rush out and spread the joy with those who love the written word. I feel this way about Billy O'Callaghan and extend deepest gratitude to Gerry Regan and Joe Gannon for allowing me to share this…

When I was asked to write a series of poems for an art exhibition in Australia earlier this year, I embarked on a dark voyage of discovery into the lives of Irish immigrant children 150 years ago.

Image: 'Image Above: Falling' by Jane Theau (2017)

There is a special brand of human misery so steeped…

When at 18 or 20, or in my case 24, you fly away on the adventure of a lifetime, you aren't thinking of your future self. When I first winged my way to Australia, I had no inkling where it would lead. Or all the losses it would lead to. For me. For my future husband. For our future children. For our…

I am surely not the first Irish emigrant to have heard these words from their heartbroken mother. Guilt at the impact of my decision to leave Ireland and grief at the loss of my beloved mother are central themes in my poetry collection…

Because I once lived in a small town in Connemara, at the gateway of the Irish-speaking area called the Gaeltacht, I look for those novels that depict the region as it is, for once one has spent significant time there, its ways and means register in the soul with perpetual resonance, leaving one forever nostalgic for…

In April 2004 I was launching my first novel at the Irish cultural centre in Hammersmith, London, when a lady came over to me and shook my hand.

“I think I may be your cousin,” she said. “My name is Ethna Herron. You look a bit like my people and I thought I just had to say.” She…

NOW RANKED #1 NEW RELEASE ON AMAZON’S IRISH MEMOIRS!!

REVIEW RATING OF 5-STARS!!

LAUGHTER, TEARS &…

I’ve spent a lot of time this past year talking about guilt, about exile and return, and about mammies, and about the guilt mammies can instil in their offspring when said offspring return from self-imposed exile, which was usually to escape said mammy’s guilt trip in the first place. But I suppose it was to be…

A clean “Memory Slate,” brought to this earth,

Shining and new on the day of our birth.

A special place to chronicle and store,

Experiences formative, new and enticing.

Many of them significant to ourselves alone.

The bantam, downy and…

Because I once lived on the western coast of Ireland, and because author Lisa Carey moved to the island of Inishbofin, off Ireland's west coast to research her first book, I've been following her career for many years. I've loved each of her four Irish-themed novels, and eagerly awaited the February 7th release of her latest, "The…

Ships, Real and Imaginary

It’s a piece of rock with a wonderful beginning.

A cause for marvelling in a right of its own.

Formed deep in the magma of earth.

Mainly composed of quartz, the colour of light

And feldspar carrying the…

IRISH SOCIETY WRITING CONTEST

The Irish Cultural Society announces its annual writing contest for students in the 9^th through 12^th grades in the Nassau County high schools.  The materials describing the contest, named the Martin J. Kelly…

'Christmas is coming; the goose is getting fat.

Please put a penny in the old mans’ hat.

If you haven’t got a penny, a ha’penny will…

Anna Margaret Ross (née McKittrick; 8 December 1860–2 February 1939), was an Irish writer,  who used the nom de plume Amanda McKittrick Ros. She was born in Drumaness, County Down, on December 8, 1860.  She holds the dubious distinction of being called by critics "one of the world's worst poets" due…

For Part 2 in my series on research sites for my book, The Prince of Glencurragh, I find that my content does not show up well in this application. I invite readers to view the latest instalment by following the link below:…