Review - Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly

I want to thank Hachette Books for allowing me to read, review and join in on the tour for this marvelous book, Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly. Since I have Irish running through my veins, I was especially excited about this opportunity - needless to say, I was not let down in the least!
For those looking for a winsome, epic story, be sure to read on!

Galway Bay

by: Mary Pat Kelly

Hardcover: 576 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (February 9, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446579009
ISBN-13: 978-0446579001
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.9 inches

I found Galway Bay to be a story of passion, determination, loyalty and perseverance. Once the reader opens the cover of this lovely book, they will be instantly transported back to a time and place where hardships overcame many, yet many were able to grow stronger. In my mind, Ireland has always been a beautiful place - a place shining of emerald green as far as the eye can see, the melodic brogue of the people and the wisdom of history. Never before have I been awakened to the tragedies and hardships these innocent people had to endure, as I was while reading Galway Bay.

Mary Pat Kelly has a talent that shines easily through the pages of Galway Bay. She brings the story of Honora and Michael to life - as she brings the history of the Great Starvation to life. Ms. Kelly not only captures the early times of Galway Bay, but also early Chicago, as the Irish emigrate to America to find a better life, albeit even further struggles and hardships.

I honestly feel that this is a story that will appeal to many - men and women alike. Galway Bay is not a light read, but it is one that will remain with the reader long after the last page has been turned. This is also a story that reads quickly - not allowing the reader to sit it aside for long, before beckoning their return. I highly recommend Galway Bay to anyone searching for an excellent and engrossing story - particularly within the Historical Fiction genre.

As one last comment, I wanted to mention how much I love the cover of this book. It is absolutely beautiful and truly captures the story within!

*overall rating 4.5/5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About Galway Bay:

Here at last is one Irish family's epic journey, capturing the tragedy and triumph of the Irish-American experience. In a rousing tale that echoes the myths and legends of Ireland herself, young Honora Keeley and Michael Kelly wed and start a family, inhabiting a hidden Ireland where fishermen and tenant farmers find solace in their ancient faith, songs, stories, and communal celebrations. Selling both their catch--and their crops--to survive, these people subsist on the potato crop--their only staple food. But when blight destroys the potatoes three times in four years, a callous government and uncaring landlords turn a natural disaster into The Great Starvation that will kill one million. Honora and Michael vow their children will live. The family joins two million other Irish refugees in one of the greatest rescues in human history: the Irish Emigration to America. Danger and hardship await them there. Honora and her unconventional sister Maire watch their seven sons as they transform Chicago from a frontier town to the "City of the Century", fight the Civil War, and enlist in the cause of Ireland's freedom. The Kelly clan is victorious. This heroic story sheds brilliant light on the ancestors of today's 44 million Irish Americans.

In the author's colorful and eclectic life, she has written and directed award-winning documentaries on Irish subjects, as well as the dramatic feature Proud. She's been an associate producer on Good Morning America and Saturday Night Live, written books on Martin Scorsese, World War II, and Bosnia, and a novel based on her experiences as a former nun - Special Intentions. She is a frequent contributor to Irish America Magazine and has a PhD in English and Irish literature.

Be sure to visit the author's blog (by clicking here) and website (by clicking here)

(click here) to read an excerpt

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About Mary Pat Kelly:

As an author and filmmaker, Mary Pat Kelly has told various stories connected to Ireland. Her award-winning PBS documentaries and accompanying books include To Live for Ireland, a portrait of Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume and the political party he led; Home Away from Home: The Yanks in Ireland, a history of U.S. forces in Northern Ireland during World War II; and Proudly We Served: The Men of the USS Mason, a portrayal of the only African-American sailors to take a World War II warship into combat, whose first foreign port was Belfast. She wrote and directed the dramatic feature film Proud, starring Ossie Davis and Stephen Rea, based on the USS Mason story.

She’s written Martin Scorsese: The First Decade and Martin Scorsese: A Journey; Good to Go: The Rescue of Scott O’Grady from Bosnia; and a novel, Special Intentions. She is a frequent contributor to Irish America Magazine.

Mary Pat Kelly worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter for Paramount and Columbia Pictures and in New York City as an associate producer with Good Morning America and Saturday Night Live, and wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Abby’s Song. She received her PhD from the City University of New York.

Born and raised in Chicago, she lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her husband, Web designer Martin Sheerin from County Tyrone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A letter by Mary Pat Kelly.

This can be found at Hachette Book Group (click here) and I found it particularly important to add this to my post, for the simple fact that it really brings the story of Galway Bay to light, with the fact that Mary Pat put so much time and research into the writing of this book, as well as telling a wonderful and detailed story of what life was truly like for the Irish people during this long ago time.

An Honor

It was an honor to write Galway Bay because through the process I met my great-great-grandmother, who kept her children alive in the most horrific circumstances and got them to America. How did she do it?

Her family faced the Great Starvation in Ireland of 1845-1849. One million died. Yes, a natural calamity destroyed the potato, the people’s food, but it was the policies of the British government that allowed the famine to happen.

The more I learned, the more impossible it seemed that anyone from the devastated West of Ireland had survived. But they did. They escaped to America in one of the greatest rescues in human history. The victims saved each other. I was alive because of the courage of this woman, yet I had no notion of the story until I started to read Irish literature in the 1970s. And even then, the famine was a kind of black hole - not spoken about.

Certainly, growing up in Chicago, I had never realized that my ancestors had suffered. I was Irish and delighted to be, but I didn’t connect that with the actual country of Ireland, nor did most Irish-Americans. We’d created an identity and prospered but I don’t think we understood how much they had to leave behind - a language spoken for two thousand years, stories that informed their lives and shaped their consciousness and because of that surely had some influence on who we were - all gone or diminished.

I only started to touch the truth in conversations with my father’s cousin, a nun who lived to be a hundred and seven and who knew my great-great-grandmother Honora in the 1880s. For twenty-five years I’ve been researching here and in Ireland and trying to imagine this young couple, Honora and Michael Kelly – married at eighteen and nineteen years old - with three little children when the blight struck. I knew Honora had a sister and I know how sisters support each other. I learned Michael Kelly was a piper, evicted from his land. I saw that in spite of all the persecution, injustice and suffering, the Irish spirit was not broken.

“We wouldn’t die, and that annoyed them.” Yes, the English had been trying to rid Ireland of the Irish for centuries, but inexplicably they held on, nourished by songs and stories and a faith much deeper than the institutional Church. Only the Great Famine defeated them, and even then they escaped and triumphed - they built America, fought the civil war and survived.

Discovering the details of the Irish story brought me closer to every immigrant’s story, and all the strong women who have somehow survived and kept their children alive.
I’m grateful for this sense of connection.

-Mary Pat Kelly

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please be sure to check out these other great blogs, also participating on this tour!

http://2kidsandtiredbooks.blogspot.com/

http://athomewithbooks.blogspot.com/

http://book-thirty.blogspot.com/

http://readersrespite.blogspot.com/

http://www.myfriendamysblog.com/

http://bermudaonion.wordpress.com/
http://www.acircleofbooks.blogspot.com/

http://www.corinnesbookreviews.blogspot.com/

http://lorisbookden.blogspot.com/

http://www.bookthoughtsbylisa.blogspot.com/

http://teddyrose.blogspot.com/

http://libraryqueue.blogspot.com/

http://allisonsatticblog.blogspot.com/

http://cherylsbooknook.blogspot.com/

http://luanne-abookwormsworld.blogspot.com/

http://bookingmama.blogspot.com/

http://enroutetolife.blogspot.com/

http://thetometraveller.blogspot.com/

http://www.marjoleinbookblog.blogspot.com/

http://peekingbetweenthepages.blogspot.com/

http://cafeofdreams.blogspot.com/

http://jennsbookshelf.blogspot.com/

http://thebookczar.blogspot.com/

http://www.writeforareader.edublogs.org/

http://linussblanket.com/

http://booksbytjbaff.blogspot.com/

http://www.caribousmom.com/

http://hiddenplace.wordpress.com/

http://www.chikune.com/blog

http://librarygirlreads.blogspot.com/

http://diaryofaneccentric.blogspot.com/

http://savvyverseandwit.blogspot.com/

http://www.kayespenguinposts.blogspot.com/

http://writebyfaith.blogspot.com/

http://www.frommipov.blogspot.com/

http://booksiesblog.blogspot.com/

http://www.bookbargainsandpreviews.com/reviews/history/galwaybay.htm

http://wendisbookcorner.blogspot.com/

http://www.thisbookforfree.com/

http://abookbloggersdiary.blogspot.com/

Galway Bay

written and composed by Arthur Colahan

If maybe someday I'll go back to Ireland, Be it only at the closing of my day, To see again the moonlight over Claddagh, And watch the sun go down on Galway Bay.

To see again the ripple of a trout stream, The women in the meadows baling hay. Just to sit beside a turf fire in a cabin, And watch the barefoot gosoons at their play.

The winds that blow across the bogs from Ireland Are perfumed by the heather as they blow And the women in the uplands digging praties Speak a language that the English do not know.

And yet they come and try to teach us their way. They blame us just for being what we are. But they might as well go try and catch a moonbeam, Or light a penny candle from a star.

And if there's going to be a life hereafter, And somehow I feel sure there's going to be, I will ask my God to let me make my heaven, In that dear land across the Irish Sea.