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Irish Books

Fleming's offers hundreds of Irish book titles. We have cookbooks and calendars; some that are only published in Ireland. Click on the link below to be redirected to our secure shopping area. It is a very small sampling of the selection that is offered in our store. Please call, email or stop in for information about other titles and artists.

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KEVIN O'DONNELL Fadó, pronounced f’doe, is an Irish expression meaning “long ago” or “in years past.” The term was commonly recited as an introduction to old Irish stories related by a Seanchaidh (shana-'kee), a Gaelic word meaning a teller of tales, an antiquarian, or historian. A Seanchaidh was regarded as an important and highly revered member in Irish society. It is by this unique story-telling device that author Kevin O’Donnell chronicles the confluence of two distinct cultures: one in Ireland, the other in the American heartland. The stories reach back to 1835 Ireland, while providing an historical account of Mundelein, Illinois, his boyhood village, during the same period. The narrative relates their simultaneous development, their unique ties, and the subsequent events that resulted from their confluence in 1959 when his family moved to the small, mid-west town which O’Donnell describes as: “so far on the outskirts of Chicago, it wasn’t even considered a suburb…too small to be called modest and too blue-collar to be called middle-class.” Resonating throughout each chapter is the underlining story of a son eager to please his father and prove his worth. Each chapter is a succession of journeys the author takes to appease, understand, and eventually escape from under his father’s shadow. O’Donnell captures the essence of the unique Irish culture of his ancestors on the remote and desperately poor island of Arranmore in County Donegal – “a place,” the author notes, “where pagan superstitions can still be found and traditions begun by medieval kings have survived the centuries.”