Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly (with author guest post and giveaway)

I'm always drawn to multi-generational family sagas, so I knew I had to be part of the Early Birds Blog Tour hosted by Hachette and Grand Central Publishing for Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly. At more than 500 pages, I was a bit nervous when I received the book in the mail, but by the time I finished, I wished it were longer so I could spend more time with Kelly's captivating characters.

Galway Bay is a fictional account of Kelly's great-great-grandmother, Honora Keeley Kelly, the daughter of a fisherman and the granddaughter of a woman who believed in the importance of folklore, storytelling, and passing stories down through the generations. Just as Honora is about to enter the convent, Michael Kelly, the son of a blacksmith, swims toward her in Galway Bay, and they fall in love at first sight. Thanks to the sacrifice of her older sister, Maire, the couple enjoy wedded bliss on a hill overlooking Galway Bay, but their happy family soon encounters great hardship. Mary Pat Kelly does a wonderful job telling the story of the potato famine of the late 1840s and the struggle between the English and the Irish and the landlords who take everything the Irish have and hope The Great Starvation will get rid of them once and for all.

Kelly's characters are well-rounded and captivating, from Honora and her strong sister Maire to Honora's mysterious brother-in-law, Patrick Kelly, a man on the run as he fights for Ireland's independence. I was on the edge of my seat reading about Honora and Maire's journey to America with their many children and the hardships they endured as immigrants living in Chicago, and as I'm part Irish, it made me curious about how my ancestors ended up in the States. As a mother, I understood how Honora and Maire were pained by their sons' decision to fight in the Civil War after all they had done to keep them alive during the potato famine. Kelly's writing is beautiful, and her descriptions are so vivid I felt like I was with Honora through it all. Along with Honora's young children, we witness the horrors of starvation and the cruelties inflicted upon the Irish people, both in Ireland and America. I cried several times while reading the book, and after I turned the last page and dried my eyes, I placed Galway Bay on the special shelf reserved for my most favorite books.

Read an excerpt from Galway Bay here.

Listen to Mary Pat Kelly talk about Galway Bay on Blog Talk Radio today, March 17, at 11 am EST. Click here.

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I'm thrilled to welcome Mary Pat Kelly, author of Galway Bay, to Diary of an Eccentric to talk about why she wrote the book.

What Inspired Me to Write Galway Bay
By Mary Pat Kelly

When I began I didn’t even know my great-great-grandmother’s name. After decades of cranking through microfilm, turning the pages of church registers and haunting libraries in the U.S. and Ireland, they emerged from the past: Honora, the fisherman’s daughter; Michael Kelly, who fed his family with potatoes coaxed from stony ground; and their children – four boys and a girl. Finally I stood on the piece of earth where they lived and thanked them for my very existence. They had survived unimaginable suffering, and here I was.

Later, I walked the shore of Galway Bay with Geraldine Folan, who had written The Lost Fishing Hamlet as a chapter in a book telling the history of the area. We looked at the stretch of grass, rock and sand where my great-great-grandmother was born. “It’s still empty. Nothing has been built on it for more than a hundred and fifty years.” Why? It seemed the landlord had sold the land to a company intent on developing it into a seaside resort. This, during the Great Starvation. The story had it that the new owners evicted the fishermen and burnt down the thirty cottages on one night. The people were driven out, but this haunted ground resisted the efforts of the new owners and it remained empty as a kind of monument to the exiled ones. It was as if the ghosts of those who left kept watch over it.

“I always wondered what happened to the people that were here,” Geraldine said. The shared realization dawned on us both.

“I’m what happened to them,” I said. “Honora took her family to Chicago, to Bridgeport. Her grandson, Ed Kelly, became the mayor. There’s hundreds of us Kellys, all doing well enough for ourselves.”

Geraldine and I laughed. The fisher folk had won after all.

This is America’s story. We’re all descended from those who refused to be defeated by war, famine, genocide, the middle passage, death itself. Hope won. Our lives are their victory. Remembering our ancestors can sustain us in the toughest of times. This is the message of Galway Bay.

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Now for the giveaway! Hachette is generously offering one copy of Galway Bay to a lucky reader.

Because shipping is being handled by the publisher, this giveaway is open only to U.S. and Canada addresses, no P.O. Boxes.

To enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post about why you'd like to read Galway Bay.

2. For a second entry, blog about the giveaway or post it in your blog sidebar and leave me a link here.

3. For a third entry, tell me the title of your favorite family saga. I'm always looking for more of these books to read.


You don't need to leave separate comments, but you must leave your email address or blog URL.

The giveaway will end on Tuesday, March 24, at 11:59 pm EST.

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Here's a list of the other bloggers participating in the Early Birds Blog Tour for Galway Bay:

2 Kids and Tired Book Reviews
At Home With Books
book:thirty
A Reader's Respite
My Friend Amy
Bermudaonion's Weblog
A Circle of Books
The Book Nest
Lori's Book Den
Books Ahoy!
So Many Precious Books, So Little Time
Library Queue
Allison's Attic of Books
Cheryl's Book Nook
A Bookworm's World
Booking Mama
Enroute to Life
The Tome Traveller's Weblog
Marjolein Reviews
Peeking Between the Pages
Cafe of Dreams
Jenn's Bookshelf
The Book Czar
Write for a Reader
Linus's Blanket
Books by TJBaff
Caribousmom
A High and Hidden Place
Medieval Bookworm
Library Girl Reads
Savvy Verse & Wit
Pudgy Penguin Perusals
Write by Faith
Radiant Light
Booksie's Blog
Book Bargains and Previews
Wendi's Book Corner
This Book for Free
A Book Blogger's Diary

Disclosure:  I received a free copy of Galway Bay from Hachette for review purposes.