The Writing Irish of New York

by Colin Broderick

In the ten years following the Great Famine, Irish flooded into New York at an astonishing rate. By 1860 one in every four New Yorkers was Irish, and by the 1920s Irish-American authors like Eugene O’Neill and F. Scott Fitzgerald had transformed the American literary landscape and laid the foundation for a century that would put Irish writing at the forefront of American letters. This series of essays by and about Irish-American writers traces that heritage from it’s humble origins through the twentieth century. Editor Colin Broderick provides background essays on Brendan Behan’s New York, Maeve Brennan’s heartbreaking decent into madness, Frank McCourt’s rise from school teacher to literary phenomenon, and 23 of today’s top Irish-American authors provide personal accounts of how they found their voices in the Big Apple. Taken together, the stories provide a vivid portrait of a community of authors who continue to fight for Ireland’s place at the top of literary canon. "This collection of essays and remembrances is bursting at the seams with talent. Irish writers finding their voice in New York City is a long and revered tradition, and this book shows that tradition to be alive and well in the new century. If it’s wit, wisdom and dazzling prose that you’re looking for, The Writing Irish of New York will not disappoint." --T.J. English, New York Times bestselling author of The Savage City "This is a fascinating book which I read at one sitting—containing no end of insight, with chunks of unanticipated wisdom and the finest of contemporary writing. A delicious feast." --Patrick McCabe, author of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto

330 pages, Paperback

Published October 19, 2021

About the author

Colin Broderick is a playwright, filmmaker and author. He has written a previous memoir, Orangutan. He currently lives and works in New York City.

Reviews

[John Vanderslice]

This was a surprisingly engrossing find. My wife gave it to me for Christmas, thinking it might be a fun book for me to browse. But when I picked it up and started reading, I found myself immediately immersed in it. Being Irish and being in NYC and being a writer might seem like a cliche by now. I suppose it is. Yet, in this tightly organized collection, Colin Broderick breaks through the cliches to highlight the wildly diverse career stories and deep humanity of dozens of Irish immigrants to NYC and American-Irish who were born and raised in the city. Most of the writers featured contributed original essays about being an Irish writer in New York. A few are pedestrian and forgettable--Malachi McCourt's was especially disappointing--but several are revealing and deeply felt, even instructive. Colum McCann, a writer who seems unable to produce less than sterling work, offers a beautiful essay about his coming to terms with the city and his vocation. The playwright Don Creedon, meanwhile, contributes an essay that speaks as powerfully to the value of revision as anything I've ever read. We also learn quite a lot about his fascinating career. I also really liked Honor Molloy's honest self-account. It made me buy her autobiographical novel Dublin Savage. While the original essays are most valuable, Broderick also includes short profiles (written by himself) of several famous Irish and American-Irish writers associated with New York but who are now dead and gone. These include Maeve Brennan, Frank O'Hara, Jimmy Breslin, Eugene O'Neill, J.P. Donleavy, and Frank McCourt, among others. These profiles make a nice add-on. A couple were so short as to be useless but others were quite informative, even personal in tone. The profiles of Brennan and McCourt were especially good finds.

[Mchristopher]

I usually avoid short stories, but bought this book because I loved Colin Broderick's other books and movie and I am so glad I did. Some of the writers featured I was already familiar with - I loved Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin and I've been a fan of Dennis Driscoll for many years and always love hearing his stories. Nice to see him mentioning my brother in there too.

I have already gone searching for more work by many of the writers I hadn't heard of before as well as spending a rainy afternoon watching "A Catered Affair", after reading Peter Quinn's story of growing up in the Bronx.