Children of the Far-Flung.
Author: CUSACK, Geraldine O’Connell.
Dublin: The Liffey Press, 2003. xii, 210 pages. Paperback.
The story of four generations of an Irish-American family, with family trees for Nellie Taaffe and Michael Joe O’Connell whose roots lay in Cork, Sligo and Galway, and includes the story of Deirdre O’Connell, founder of the Focus Theatre in Dublin.
“Children of the Far-Flung is the true account of four generations of a remarkable Irish-American family, four generations of emigration and return, from Ireland to New York and back again.
It is also the story of the author’s sister, the late Deirdre O’Connell, founder and artistic director of the critically acclaimed Focus Theatre in Dublin — her marriage to singer Luke Kelly, her successes and failures and her remarkable and long-lasting impact on theatre in Ireland.
In many ways, the book tells a tale common to thousands of immigrant families who made new lives in the teeming metropolis of New York City between the 1930s and the 1960s. It describes their ongoing struggles to walk a tightrope between two cultures — their divided loyalties between the home they left behind and the new one they were creating in America — and brings into sharp focus the conflicts that millions of immigrants face when forced to choose between the two.
At its heart, Children of the Far-Flung is essentially a joyful story, one of faith and endurance, a story laced with a touch of madness and a spirit of adventure, told with love and affection.”
ISBN: 1904148336
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