I am a retired historian, writer and would-be musician. I earned a BA from Lafayette College, a MA and Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University, and a MLIS degree from Indiana University. I taught history at Southern Illinois University; the National University of Ireland, Dublin; Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany; Arizona State University and the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati. I also served as a program director for the Organization of American Historians.
Apart from H. L. Mencken and H. L. Mencken Revisited (1977, 2001), most of my scholarly work has involved Irish and Irish-American studies. I am the author of ‘Twas Only an Irishman’s Dream: Images of Ireland and the Irish in American Popular Song Lyrics, 1800-1920 (University of Illinois Press; recipient of an ASCAP award, 1996); Tourism, Landscape and the Irish Character: British Travel Writers in Pre-Famine Ireland, 1750-1850 (Wisconsin University Press, 2008); and Inventing Irish Tourism, The First Century, 1750-1850, published in 2010 (Anthem Press, UK). I also edited for publication Daniel O’Connell, The British Press and the Irish Famine: Killing Remarks, written by his late wife, Leslie A. Williams (Ashgate Press/Rutledge, UK, 2003). I was a researcher and consultant for The Long Journey Home (1998), the PBS series about Irish America. My latest book is on the Irish Famine; working title, “Great Famine, Great Failure.”
I published my first novel, ‘Tho It Were Ten Thousand Mile: A Love Story, in 2011. I later used it as the basis for a three-act play. Adapted for the stage, ‘Tho It Were Ten Thousand Mile was performed by the Irish American Theater Company in Cincinnati in 2014. The play won the Adjudicator’s Award at that year’s Acting Irish Theater Festival. My second novel, Yankee Girl in Galway (2017) is a sequel to Tho It Were Ten Thousand Mile.
I have authored several other theatrical pieces. A Terrible Beauty was staged as part of the Irish Heritage Center of Greater Cincinnati’s celebration of the Easter Rising of 1916. It’s A Very Long Way Back to Tipperary, a multi-media production about the Irish soldiers who fought in World War One, was produced on November 11, 2018, on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice. My first musical Maggie Murphy’s Home, was staged at the Milwaukee Irish Fest and then at the Irish Heritage Center in Cincinnati in 2010. The Center plans to produce my second musical, Zinzinnati Paddy, in spring, 2019.
As a performer, I have presented a program of Irish-American songs at Irish festivals and on college campuses around the country. I am a member of Ceol Mhór, a Cincinnati-based Irish band and the Williams Family Band.
Over the years, I have engaged in freelance journalism. My articles and reviews have appeared in Irish and in American newspapers and magazines. While in Ireland I wrote the monthly “Letter from Dublin” for the Baltimore Sun. I have also been a North American stringer for Irish Music Magazine.