READ THIS: Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly Our Coverage Sponsored by Maine Woolens
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What a story! What a tale! What a book to hug tight to your heart and then pass on to your friends, not just if they happen to be Irish, but to any fair-minded person who has heard of injustice and personal victory.
And so it began, with an innocent young strip of a girl drying her mane of bright chestnut hair in the sun on a rock by Galway Bay… A novel that bisects decades and the hardship of the Kellys and their voyage to…well, you’ll just have to read it to find out where. From the vision that young girl, Honora, made as she sat on her rock, to the young man emerging from the sea who courted and won her heart, all the way to the Chicago World’s Fair, this is a powerful and engrossing story. Mary Pat Kelly takes us all on a journey that 35 years of research has forged. A marvelous tale of a family’s persistence, faith , courage and love drives the historical aspect of this recounting of myths magical and true of the Kellys, ancestors of the author. You’ll weep all through the years of the great potato famine, hardening your heart and testing your own mettle through mistreatment and disrespect by their overlords along with all the finely honed characters in this epic. Ms. Kelly does not rely upon mere emotion, or just the recounting of facts, but chisels her characters to a crystallized perfection, so that we know all of the Kellys and live every moment of their travels and tribulations and joys with them. You’ll find yourself seduced by the lyric strains of the piper. You’ll weep with relief when their young men come home from war. And you’ll suffer with Honora and her sister Maire who steeled themselves against all odds and made it through, blazing a trail with their men, their heroes and their children. Never has there been such a tale, based on one intertwined clan’s often painful struggle to survive. It’s a name now familiar to many of us, is Kelly, having met a Kelly, or befriended by a Kelly, or seen the names in headlines. With this novel, beautifully crafted and published by the visionaries at Grand Central Publishing, we can all be Kellys now. For surely there’s a spark of the Kelly in us all. Page after page filled with adventure, story after story capture the imagination and pride of any American for this is a novel that tells of where we all come from, and how we made this country of ours happen. For the Celtic scholars, there are stories galore of ancient saints and Queens, fairies and the like that live in the heart of any Irishman. With a glossary to define the Irish terminology used throughout the telling of this tale, Galway Bay becomes not just the recounting of a family history, but an educational tool to use to spark curiosity in a culture older that we know. Sit back and be Irish for a while, live and dance with the clan Kelly, and may every blessing be on you as you do.
Once in a great while, a book comes along that is so captivating, so touching, and so endearing, I find myself devastated to reach the end of it. Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly is just such a book. Chronicling the story of Honora Keeley from the year 1839, when she is a fifteen-year-old girl in Ireland, through her later years in life, when she attends the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893 with her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren,Galway Bay is 551 pages of pure magic. I can't remember a book that has brought me to tears so many times, yet been hopeful and uplifting enough to keep me eagerly flipping page after page. The book begins with the young Honora, who is planning to become a nun, meeting the man who will become her husband, Michael Kelly. It's love at first sight for the both of them, and through some very good fortune, they are able to marry and begin their life together. They, like countless others in Ireland, rely on the potatoes they farm for food and income, and when a blight destroys the potato crops three times in four years, in a period known as the Great Starvation, the Kellys, like all other farmers in the area, are devastated. Honora and Michael do everything in their power to ensure that their children do not starve to death, although along the way, Honora delivers a stillborn son and Michael, overworked and underfed for too many years, succumbs to fever, leaving Honora with their young children to raise on her own. Honora and her sister Maire, along with Maire's children, emigrate to America in order to save themselves and their children. After settling in the Chicago area, the women struggle to establish themselves and keep food on the table, but ultimately become an integral part of the Irish-American community that helped to build Chicago into the city it is. Through the ups and downs of Honora's life - the Great Starvation, friends and family dying, the dangerous journey to the America, her sons and nephews fighting in the Civil War - a vivid and intimate portrait of a typical Irish-American who emigrated during that time period is painted. The struggles faced by these brave souls in scary and uncertain times is brought to life in fascinating detail, providing a fantastic history lesson in the context of a thoroughly engrossing novel. Highly recommended by this panelist!
Take a trip to beautiful Galway Bay! The morning of her sister’s wedding, convent-bound Honora Keeley meets the charming and uninhibited Michael Kelly by the seaside, and quickly falls in love. The book tells the story of Honor and Michael’s family, extended families and offspring, their trials and triumphs. Woven through the book (and integral to the story) are historically-accurate details of the sobering hardships of daily survival in Ireland in the mid-1800’s and the resilience of these hearty people. Through violence and oppression, famine and emigration, the numerous heroes and heroines in this book do everything in their power to survive and overcome. The book is also full of Irish folklore and legends that I heard and read about while growing up. The story and the history are riveting, but I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention Mary Pat Kelly’s wonderful writing style. It sounds just like my uncles in Ireland telling a tale! Pick up Galway Bay… you won’t be able to put it down.
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One family’s epic journey captures both the tragedy and triumph of the Irish-American experience—and echoes the myths and legends of Ireland herself …
In a hidden Ireland where fishermen and tenant farmers find solace in their ancient faith, songs, stories, and communal celebrations, young Honora Keeley and Michael Kelly wed and start a family. Because they and their countrymen must sell both their catch and their crops to pay exorbitant rents, potatoes have become 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—victims saving themselves—in the emigration from Ireland.
Danger and hardship await them in America. Honora, her unconventional sister Máire, and their children help transform Chicago from a frontier town to the “City of the Century.” The boys go on to fight in the Civil War and enlist in the cause of Ireland’s freedom.
Spanning six generations and filled with joy, sadness, and heroism, GALWAY BAY sheds brilliant light on the ancestors of today’s forty-four million Irish Americans—and is a universal story you will never forget.
