Professor publishes second book on Maine's Irish
Dr. Michael Connolly celebrated the publication of his second book, Seated by the Sea: The Maritime History of Portland, Maine, and Its Irish Longshoremen this spring. Connolly, who teaches history and political science, focuses his research on Irish and Irish-American history and the labor movement in Ireland and America. Seated by the Sea highlights the struggles of the Irish population in the city of Portland and was published by The University Press of Florida in early April.
William David Barry of the Portland Press Herald reviewed the book, saying, “not only does the book fill in a huge gap in the maritime history of Portland, the East Coast and the nation, but it deals directly with the hot-button issue of race dating back to the early 19th century.” Connolly says the book is a multi-disciplinary look at the social, labor and ethnic history of the docks in a major East Coast port. “It’s a community study of a whole culture of work in one port,” he adds.
Connolly’s first publication, They Change Their Sky: The Irish in Maine, was published in 2004 by the University of Maine Press.
English professor publishes collection of poetry
"Portraits and Landscapes,” a new collection of poetry by Sister Phyllis Doyle ’70, RSM, Ph.D., was published by Finishing Line Press in July.
The book’s poems evoke “astute landscapes and elegant portraits,” according to Betsy Sholl, poet laureate of Maine. The collection represents the author’s response to people and places that have strongly impressed her, including other authors and locations in England, Ireland and her native New England. The poems celebrate imagination and invite the reader to share in Doyle’s response to these people and places through “the double lens of humor and compassion” that she attributes to Chekhov. According to Sholl, these evocative poems speak with “clarity and depth, and a passion all the more powerful for its understated grace.”
Sr. Doyle is an English professor at Saint Joseph’s. Her poetry has appeared in several publications and anthologies. The paperback can be ordered through finishinglinepress.com.
Anne Frank
In her drab annex room
The skylight was the only door
To a world where she could breathe
Without fear of being overheard.
Here she floated with the clouds
North or south, east or west
With easy nonchalance.
She would watch the gulls
Dart up and down, in and out
Till they tilted far beyond
Her sight to find warmer waters.
As darkness came the stars
She saw were the same
As other nights at home
When she would run out
To the cool garden
And find Orion.
If the moon moved by
She would imagine her own
Prince Charming waiting
Out there in the darkness
And fall asleep in his arms.
Phyllis Doyle '70, RSM
