Troubles memoir at Irish Society meeting

The Irish Cultural Society’s first meeting of the 2013-2014 season will have a talk on the Troubles by a writer who lived in Northern Ireland during the sectarian conflict in the ‘60s through ‘90s commonly called the “Troubles.” The Society will meet on September 11 at 7:30 pm at the Garden city Library, across the street from the Garden City Hotel. All are invited and there is no admission fee.

The guest speaker, Colin Broderick, was born in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s when Northern Ireland was aflame with sectarian violence. He faced the question young people on both sides of the conflict faced: What is a teenage boy to do in a neighborhood torn in half by hatred of the “other”? Colin Broderick’s book That’s That: A Memoir brings its readers into the crucible of Northern Ireland to experience what Mr. Broderick experienced as a young man. Will he join the fight or walk away? Every young man had to grapple with that question. One reviewer said, “This book will definitely keep a reader amazed.”

Mr. Broderick comes to Long Island from the Bronx where he has lived and practiced his craft as a writer for more than twenty years. Random House published his earlier memoir Orangutan, about his life after he immigrated to America. Mr. Broderick has been published in the New York Times, Poets an d Writers, Writers’ Digest, and other journals and magazines. The Irish Cultural Society’s season opens with an active creative writer with a dramatic story to tell.

At the meeting, president Martin Kelly will ask members of the audience to reflect on the contributions Ray Coyne made to the founding and success of the Society. Ray Coyne died on July 2.

Dues will happily be collected.