An Epic Story of the Famine Irish

Peter Quinn, the acclaimed author, talks to Mary Pat Kelly about the new edition of his groundbreaking book, "Banished Children of Eve."

"So I studied history at Fordham - got a doctorate eventually - with Morris O'Connell, who was Daniel O'Connell's great-grandson. I learned a lot of Irish history, and then went over to spend a semester in Ireland at University College Galway.

"I was about to finish my dissertation, but was on this demographic curve and all the jobs had gone away. So I was writing articles for America, the Jesuit magazine. Kevin Cahill, Director of the American Irish Historical Society, saw one and gave it to Governor Hugh Carey. He hired me as a speechwriter.

"Working in Albany, I started to think about writing a history, not of Ireland but of the Irish coming here during the Famine - what it was like, a social history like the book Irving Howe wrote, World of Our Fathers, about the Jewish experience.

"I began to research that, looking at housing reports, police reports, and came upon the Draft Riots, this great explosion, which I immediately connected with the Famine immigration. Then at one point I realized that I didn't want to talk about the great social forces - I wanted to talk about individuals. So then it was on to try to write fiction."

Was there any individual or story that moved you to write this book?

"I discovered that Stephen Foster, the progenitor of the American song industry, committed suicide, I'm sure, on the Bowery in January of 1864. And I realized the man who wrote 'Oh Susanna,' 'Gentle Annie,' 'Hard Times' - some really great first American songs - was down there during the Draft Riots.

"I stood outside the hotel on Broadway and Bayard, where he had died. I thought, 'I know who he is and I can hear his voice.' I had the idea for the book in 1982, then I researched until 1988. I started writing on Columbus Day, 1988 - twenty years ago today. I remember because I finished three and a half years later on the Feast of the Epiphany."

What was that process of writing the novel like?

"I never start with an outline. 'Banished Children,' 'Hour of the Cat,' and the book I'm working on now all started out in my mind with two people having a conversation. I have the setting, I know what year it is, and they start talking. The plot comes out of that. There were moments I had to wait. I would write and realize I don't know what they're going to do next, but two novels later they've never let me down. They'll tell you what they're going to do.

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Nster.com