We commemorate the 100th Anniversary of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby this week with Patrick O'Sullivan Greene, author of Gatsby: Death of an Irishman.

Patrick guides us through F. Scott Fitzgerald's troubled Midwest upbringing, his quest for status, his ambivalence towards his Irish heritage, the sociopolitical climate of early 20th-century America, and the careless Jazz Age excess portrayed in Gatsby.

Patrick peels back the intricate layers of Fitzgerald's character, revealing the underlying themes of identity and self-rejection in his work, his shifting views of Irish issues, and how his personal battles influenced his writing and contributed to his tragic life.

The episode also touches on Patrick’s own Irish heritage and his journey from business and finance to writing.

We end the conversation as The Great Gatsby ends, with the novel’s closing line, “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Links:

Patrick O'Sullivan Greene

• Website
• LinkedIn
• BlueSky
• X
• Instagram

Gatsby: Death of an Irishman

• Amazon
• TheBookshop.ie

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 11; Total Episode Count: 114

In this episode of the Irish Stew Podcast, host Martin Nutty discusses his experience celebrating St. Patrick's Day at the American Irish Historical Society, meeting its executive director, Dr. Elizabeth Stack. Despite her success in revitalizing the society, news of her removal for cost-saving measures casts a shadow on its future.

The episode reissues a conversation from July 2024, when cohosts John Lee and Martin Nutty met Dr. Stack at AIHS to discuss her background, her efforts in promoting Irish American history, and the Society's then-state. The conversation also explores the importance of storytelling, historical preservation, and community involvement in sustaining cultural institutions.

Links

Irish Stew Blog Post, which will be updated as new information becomes available

• Turmoil Revists the American Irish Historical Society

Elizabeth Stack

• LinkedIn

Articles on the Latest Turmoil at the American Irish Historical Society

• Irish Echo: Firing and Resignations Rock the AIHS
• Irish Echo: AIHS Board Issues Statement After Firing, Resignations
• Irish Central: American Irish Historical Society faces new "transition"

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 10; Total Episode Count: 113

Join us as Larry Kirwan spins us back to the vibrant, violent New York City of the 1980s and the lives of the mostly undocumented Irish who called a patch of turf there home, in his novel Rockin’ The Bronx.

Best known as the frontman for the legendary Irish-inflected rock & roll band Black 47, Larry delves into themes of immigration, Irish and Hispanic cultural intersections, the shifting fortunes of the navvies and the nannies, the unnamed scourge of AIDS, Reagan-era politics, and his creative process in writing plays, novels, and music.

“I could tell you how to write a novel, and how to write a play, basically in five minutes each,” he says. “With songwriting, I still don't understand it. It's that moment when the hammer hits the anvil, and sparks fly.”

Now the Wexford native is combining his songwriter and playwright skills in a new musical on labor organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.

And stick around for Martin’s reading of a Rockin’ The Bronx passage reminiscent of the closing section of James Joyce’s “The Dead.”

Links

Book Orders:

• Fordham University Press: Rockin’ The Bronx

Larry Kirwan

• Wikipedia
• Black 47
• Celtic Crush with Larry Kirwan
• Celtic Crush Facebook
• Prior Irish Stew Episode

Episode Details: Season 7, Episode 9; Total Episode Count: 112