Mary Pat Kelly Galway Bay Book

I was at another great Catholic University, Villanova with Professor James Murphy, head of the Irish Studies Program. We talked about the incredible achievements of the Irish Augustinians who founded Villanova in the 1840's. How did they do it? How did the Holy Cross Fathers at Notre Dame manage or the Sisters of Providence at St Mary-of-the Woods. Pioneers all and full of those who had escaped oppression and the Great Starvation and then had gone right on create these institutions. Such determination. I guess the hunger for education among the Irish immigrants, who'd been forbidden by law to go to school, was as strong as the need for food and shelter and work.

At Villanova I heard the students in Professor Murphy's class talk with passion about Queen Maeve and Sweeney, the Chieftain Seamus Heaney made so real in Sweeney Astray. The old stories in this new setting--alive. How happy our ancestors must be!

At my presentation we had a Galway Bay moment. I was talking about how a sister at the Presentation Convent in Galway had helped me and the odd coincidence that two of her aunts had left Donegal in the 1880's and joined the Sisters of Providence in Indiana, the community in which I had spent six years. A man raised his hand. "Was the name MacNaillis?" he asked." Yes!" He was a cousin and had heard the story though he didn't know Sister Maire in Galway. Made me think of connections and cousins I have discovered. Did I write about the astounding moment when I met cousins I had never known existed at a book signing at the parish I where I grew up-- Queen of All Saints? If not it's because I'm still reeling. Nicole and her aunt Mary Anne Grennan and uncle Tom Grennan came up at the end. They are the descendants of Luke Kelly, the brother of my great grandmother Bridget Kelly who married Patrick Kelly. A Kelly marrying a Kelly. We had a fine reunion and then they brought other cousins to meet my Aunt Marge Kelly McGuire who is now the most senior member of the Clan and the only one from that generation. We have only begun to connect those dots!

After Villanova I signed at the Warrington Borders. That invitation came from Jim Dowling who I met on Cape Cod because he is a friend of Elizabeth Merrill who hosted me when I signed at her book store Titcombs where a dear friend from Connecticut Dick Whitcomb brought his friend who turned out to be a cousin who girls I went to High school with in Chicago. Got it? Do you see why my blogging lags behind?

I was signing "Merry Christmas" at the great Celtic New Year gathering of writers, artists and musicians in ChicagoIBAM-- Irish Books Art Music-- that Cliff Carlson, publisher of a number of Irish American newspapers, put together a Celtic New Year celebration with dozens of author, musicians, dancers and artists at the Irish American Heritage Center with its beautiful new ballroom. That's such a wonderful place and I have gotten to know so many volunteers there as well as the new director Tim McDonnell, Malachy and Alphie McCourt were there from New York and commented on the warm welcome Chicago people give visitors. One of the best parts of Galway Bay is spending so much time in my home town.

That week before I spoke to the Celtic Women at the Heritage Center and had a wonderful evening at the Polo Cafe in Bridgeport (Galway Bay central) with 60 members of book clubs from the area parishes and topped it off with a lovely afternoon with the Irish American teachers. I stayed that week at the Polo Cafe's bed and breakfast hosted by the amazing Dave Samber and was able to walk the streets my ancestors knew so well and get the feel of the neighborhood as I research material for the sequel.

Dave also spearheaded two events at nearby St. James Parish. We showed Proud, the movie I wrote and directed which told the story of the men of the USS Mason, the only African American sailors to take a US Navy warship into combat during WW II. (Check Proudthemovie.com and USSMason.org) It stars Ossie Davis (his last movie). He plays the real Mason sailor Lorenzo Dufau and Mr. Dufau was with us there in Chicago! The students attending the daytime screening loved him and so did the adults at night. We even were featured on ABC news.

Mr Dufau and I had been in Buffalo that weekend where Proud was featured in the Buffalo International Film Festival. We shot the movie in Buffalo so it was a homecoming. Two actors from the film-Ron Mangum and Willie Faulkner attended. The next day Mary Heneghan and her son Tom whose store The Tara Gift Shop is at the heart of Buffalo's Irish Community arranged a signing for me at a unique book store Dog Ears, just down Abbott Street the neighborhood where the street signs are in Irish and a statue of Chauncey Alcott in front of Buffalo's Irish Center watches over his birthplace. A happy day.

And then I entered a sacred space that from childhood meant Irish to me--The University of Notre Dame. I signed books in the Notre Dame book store the day of the Notre Dame-Boston College Game. Talk about Irish Pride. Nothing like hearing the band play the fight song followed by a jig and watching thousands of students in the stands dance along. Met so many friends. Tailgated with Rose Durkin Snyder, whose been a huge support. She'd joined my childhood friend Barbara Leahy Sutton, a St. Mary of Notre Dame's graduate, in helping me at my table in the book store. Roe is amazing. Her enthusiasm pulled people in. They had to buy!!

November now and I am far behind in this blog. I am writing a piece
for Irish America magazine about my travels so that eases my mind a
little. Arrived in California last night and saw Julie/Julia on the
plane which made me resolve to update this blog. Watching the movie
filled me with gratitude that I am a writer and that Galway Bay is out
there being read. When I was writing away with my fine point black
Papermate pen on legal sized narrow-ruled yellow pads (not easy to
find!!) at 5am I hoped (and prayed) that readers would find and be
moved by the story. And now I meet people who do appreciate Galway
Bay at every stop.