The Speaker is also a reader. At the announcement recently of the citywide Imagine Ireland festival, New York City Council Speaker Quinn spoke eloquently about the role literature plays in our lives.
Just what is it about the Irish and words?
“Well, I’m not claiming it myself,” she says, with a laugh, “but many of us seem blessed with the gift of taking words and weaving them into a magical fabric, creating pictures, visions and aspirations of what life could be and what it was.” As a child at St. Patrick’s elementary school on Long Island, she says, “There was a rack of paperback biographies of trailblazing figures, and I read them ’til they were dog-eared.” Here’s what’s in her library these days.
— by Barbara Hoffman
Dubliners
by James Joyce
I went to a high school where, in junior and senior year, theology, history and English were all grouped together. One year you’d do America, the next, Europe. In my senior year, we did Ireland, and I read this. Not only is it written by one of Ireland’s most significant writers, but it’s evocative of the impact that loss has had on us — as individuals and as a people.
Rebels
The Irish Rising of 1916
by Peter De Rosa
The Irish rising was the beginning of the modern struggle for an independent Ireland. I think this is one of the significant historical books to read if you want a better understanding of what happened.
Let the Great World Spin
by Colum McCann
He’s an Irishman in New York — I think his wife’s a teacher. This book interweaves great stories about New York and Ireland and reminds us of a time when life was innocent — a pre-9/11 time when someone could string a wire between the World Trade Center towers and walk across it.
Lost Lives
by David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea
Someone gave this to me on one of my trips to Ireland. This is a book of obituaries — the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the troubles in Northern Ireland, starting in 1966 and going until 2006. It reminds you of all that was lost.