Exclusive interview with author Mary Pat Kelly and a review of her new novel about an Irish American war photographer who gets caught up in the Irish Rebellion
By Gabrielle Pantera
“I was very surprised when I discovered the Irish College of Paris in 1985,” says Of Irish Blood author Mary Pat Kelly. “In the 17th Century when Ireland was under English rule Catholicism was outlawed. It was forbidden for Catholics to go to school, own land or vote. Priests in Ireland were hunted and killed. At this time 38 colleges were set up across Europe to educate priests and laypeople. The Irish College started still exists and is now the Irish Cultural Center. Of Irish Blood was inspired by the life of my great aunt Nora Kelly, who according to family lore worked in Paris for year as a buyer for Marshall Fields department store. I imagined here finding the Irish College and meeting Ireland’s revolutionary women as well as famous American expatriates such as Gertrude Stein.”
Kelly weaves real people throughout the story. So much is covered in the book you may wish it had been two books, one on Nora’s life in the States before and during WWI, the second about the Irish Rebellion and Nora returning home. Nora is feisty and very creative.
It’s 1903. Nora Kelly is 24 and lives in Chicago. She works as a switchboard operator, gets promoted, and starts designing clothing for women. She advances by moving to Boston, but becomes involved there with the gangster Tim McShane. She goes to Paris and learns how to use a camera. She meets artists and many well known people like Gertrude Stein and Sylvia Beach. It’s now 1914. Europe is about to enter the First World War. Nora can’t go home so stays in Europe where she becomes a war photographer. Being Irish, she becomes embroiled in the Irish rebellion.
“I researched Galway Bay and Of Irish Blood for 40 years,” says Kelley. “My Ph.D dissertation was entitled, The Sovereign, Woman: Her Image in the Literature of Ireland. I learned a lot about the myths and sagas of Ireland. And through my documentaries I studied more recent history as well as researching my own family. I viewed 14th century manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy on Dublin including The Book of the Kelly’s which is important in Of Irish Blood. When a fragment is discovered in the Irish college it becomes kind of a talisman for the gathering of revolutionaries.
While researching Galway Bay, Kelley found the grave of her great great grandmother in Chicago. “There was no headstone. It was an unmarked grave. So put out a call to her descendants . Now I knew my first cousins and some of my second cousins but the Kelly Clan in Chicago is a mighty group and we found each other and came together to dedicate a Honora’s headstone in Calvary cemetery in Chicago. Her grandson Ed Kelly, who became Mayor of Chicago is buried nearby.”
“Galway Bay was my way of telling the story of Irish America through my own family history, especially the devastation caused by the Great Starvation of the 1840’s and how Honora saved her children and escaped to Chicago,” says Kelley. Of Irish Blood is the sequel to Galway Bay. It follows the Kelly family through the next-generation those born in America.”
Kelley has written three novels. Her nonfiction books include, Martin Scorsese The First Decade and Martin Scorsese: A Journey. “I met him in the 60s and worked with him doing research for The Last Temptation of Christ. I met him when I was studying to be a nun, so we have our Catholicism in common.”
Kelley is currently writing the book called Irish Above All. That follows the Kelly family through the rise of Ed Kelly as he becomes mayor of Chicago in 1933 and his influence in FDR’s administration during the Second World War.
Kelley has lived in New York since 1970. She was born in Chicago.
Of Irish Blood By Mary Pat Kelly. Hardcover: 512 pages, Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (February 3, 2015). Language: English, ISBN: 9780765329134 $25.99
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