Book Review

"The Decline and Fall of the Dukes of Leinster, 1872–1948

by Terrence Dooley

304 pages with colour…

Geneticists at Trinity College, Dublin have recently discovered that the Irish gene pool is the least diluted in all of Europe if not indeed, the world. They have also discovered that the Irish traveling people (tinkers) are purely…

Most weekends, I get up at ungodly hours and go to the local flea market to look for interesting books. I usually arrive at 7:00 a.m. or so when they are still unpacking. The dealers there bid on storage units and end up with all sorts of miscellaneous stock, among which are the books I…

"The Loneliest Boy In The World"

Gearóid Cheaist Ó Catháin with Patricia Ahern (Collins Press, 2014)

Review by Felicity Hayes-McCoy.

At the westernmost end of Ireland’s Dingle peninsula,…

Oh! to return to that time, place and space of yesterday's papers. Back when I was young, undaunted and sure of nothing, stronger than an oak, spellbound in innocence. Back when being seventeen was wide-eyed and ‘rarin to go, driven by the magical, heady arrogance of youth. Back to that time of transitional transmissions when the curtain was torn down, rent…

Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (1888 – 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. Born in a Broadway hotel room in Longacre Square (now Times Square), in the Barrett Hotel. He was the son of Irish immigrant actor James O'Neill, Rosbercon, County…

I wrote this poem after months of studying Yeats' work and life for my undergrad thesis. One night, I found a BBC recording of him reading "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." I finally got to hear the voice I had been reading for so long and the moment took my breath away. This poem resulted from that experience.…

Stone Journey

What is it, Anu?

This water pouring across the plain

 Of Desmond to the sea.

Down the limestone steps of karsted hills.

Through furrowed fields and into the wild Atlantic’s…

My writing has always been deeply influenced by the Irish writers whose inspiration prompted me to pick up the quill and follow in their footsteps.  This is my humble tribute to William Butler Yeats ...

I went down to the cool, dark woods,

when night owls were on the wing.

On earthly ghosts and raging floods

embraced my lonely…

"A writer is not interested in explaining reality. He’s only interested in capturing it.” ~ Brendan Kennelly.

 Inside my father's bones lie a million secrets.

 Secrets passed down the long chain from…

The Great Shame: And the Triumph of the Irish In the English-Speaking World

By Thomas Keneally (of "Schindler’s List" fame)

Reviewed by John Edward (Ed) Murphy

Overall a good book and a very scholarly work. Great Shame covers significant historical events in 19th century Ireland,…

The Healy family is an interesting Irish-American and and African-American family.  I did the following book review a couple of years back:

Passing for White: Race, Religion, and the Healy Family, 1820-1920

by James M. O’Toole

Reviewed by John Edward “Ed” Murphy

I first learned of the Healy family in January 1959, when I paged…

In "Machine Made: Tammany Hall and The Creation of Modern American Politics," author Terry Golway doesn’t sugar-coat the negative aspects of a New York institution that flourished for about 100 years. What he does is swing the pendulum back from a crazy imbalance caused by…

Two years ago if you asked me what magic realism was I would have confidently told you that it was “a creative device where magic elements appear within an otherwise realistic environment.” I was sure I understood the concept. After all I had read Allende, García Marquez…

Editorial Coordinator for The Wild Geese, Ryan O'Rourke, recently had the opportunity to chat with Irish-American author…

Fiction can often describe reality more fully than any number of newspaper articles or TV…

One glorious July morning, I was on my way to help John Joe Maher make hay, when I noticed a crowd of strangers in the town square. A film crew, so I strayed from my path and went to see what they were at.…

The Irish Cultural Society’s 2014 writing contest centered on James Joyce’s “A Painful Case” from Dubliners resulted in a happy Society which received 425 entries and a happy group of 36 high school students from Nassau County who won prizes for their…

The following is a transcript of the LIVE members' chat hosted here at TheWildGeese.com on Friday, May 9, 2014 with James O'Brien, an Irishman living…

by Patrick Bonar

Frances Browne was born at Upper Main Street, Stranorlar…