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O’Connor brings the good news of Irish literature to NYC

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Novelist Joseph O’Connor, it seems, would rather be in New York than just about anywhere else.
He spends most of his time in Dublin, where he grew up, and some of it in London, his wife’s native city, but has always welcomed opportunities to live and work for extended stays in America’s biggest city.
A couple of years back, the author spent a year as a fellow at the Cullman Center at the New York Public Library in Midtown, while completing “Redemption Falls,” the sequel to the Famine-era set “Star of the Sea.” Now, he’s doing a six-month stint teaching at Baruch College.
“Living in New York can be a memorable experience,” he said. “We’re staying in the East Village, which is always a pleasant place for a walk or, late at night, a frightened run.
“But to be serious, living here as a family is really a lot of fun. Our kids love it and so do we,” he said.
The father of 8- and 5-year-old sons spends part of his day talking to college students about Irish literature.
“They’re extremely bright and open and Baruch is a wonderfully diverse
school,” O’Connor said of the CUNY affiliate. “And I’ve found, as always when teaching, that you learn a lot by doing it. It kind of forces you to look at aspects of your own writing again in a new light, and it means you have to form your thoughts about it very clearly.”
O’Connor, who won major literary prizes in the U.S., Britain, France and Italy for “Star of the Sea,” is currently at work on his 7th novel. He’s leaving the 19th century behind for this one, but the geographical settings are familiar.
“It’s a love story based loosely on the real-life affair between the great Irish playwright John Synge and the young Abbey Theater actress Molly Allgood,” he said. “The story moves between London in the 1950s, Ireland in the 1910s, and America, especially New York, in the 1920s.”
However, he keeps up with current events, too. He’s been following the health care debate, for instance, with a “sense of some amazement.”
O’Connor said: “Like anyone from Europe, I think of health care as a right, and I sometimes forget that certain Americans regard it as a privilege.”
Joseph O’Connor will speak on next Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 5:45 p.m. at Baruch College, Newman Conference Center, 7th Floor, 151 East 25th St., NYC. There will be a reception immediately beforehand.

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