GOLWAY, Terry 1955-

PERSONAL: Born 1955; father a fireman.

ADDRESSES: Home—Maplewood, NJ. Office—New York Observer, 915 Broadway, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: New York Observer, New York, NY, columnist and city editor.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The Irish in America, edited by Michael Coffey, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1997.

Irish Rebel: John Devoy and American's Fight for Ireland's Freedom, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1998.

For the Cause of Liberty: A Thousand Years of Ireland's Heroes, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

Full of Grace: An Oral Biography of John Cardinal O'Connor, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 2001.

So Others Might Live: A History of New York's Bravest: The FDNY from 1700 to the Present, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Washington's General: Nathanael Greene and the Triumph of the American Revolution, Holt (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals, including Irish Echo, American Heritage, Boston Globe, and New York Times. Columnist for America.

SIDELIGHTS: Journalist Terry Golway teamed up with editor Michael Coffey for his first book, The Irish in America. A compilation of poems, songs, photographs, historical text, and short essays by such notable writers as Frank McCourt, Mary Higgins Clark, James Carroll, Thomas Flanagan, and Peggy Noonan, the work was commissioned by the publisher Hyperion as a companion volume to the Disney film of the same name. Golway wrote the book's historical narrative—what America reviewer George W. Hunt called the book's "heartbeat and skeleton"—describing the Great Famine of the 1850s and the experience of Irish immigrants who came to America aboard "coffin ships" filled with infectious diseases. He also worked with editor Coffey to help select other passages for inclusion in the book. The Irish in America was a popular and critically respected book, and it became the companion volume to the similarly titled PBS documentary series. A Publishers Weekly reviewer hailed it as a "beautiful emerald tapestry that celebrates Irish achievement and success, but remembers those who made the crossing for the want of a potato."

Golway's next project was a biography of John Devoy, an Irish patriot who came to the United States in 1871 to drum up support for the Irish Republican cause. While Michael Collins has been much credited for his role in the fight for Irish self-rule, Devoy's prior work to establish political connections and raise money was crucial to the eventual success of the Fenian cause. As a Publishers Weekly critic put it, "had there been no John Devoy there probably wouldn't have been a Michael Collins." In Irish Rebel: John Devoy and American's Fight for Ireland's Freedom, Golway establishes the roots of Devoy's revolutionary zeal in his childhood during the Great Famine and his subversive activities against the British, for which he was imprisoned from 1866 to 1871. He was released on the condition that he immigrate to the United States, where he spent fifty-seven years building American political and financial support for his cause. He was an instrumental figure in the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland and in the creation of the Irish Free State. New York Times Book Review critic David Murray commended it as a "well-researched biography of a man whose life has hitherto been given too little attention." And a Publishers Weekly contributor considered it a "groundbreaking" work.

Golway attempts to cover a millennium of Irish history in For the Cause of Liberty: A Thousand Years of Ireland's Heroes. Here he principally looks at some of the country's great heroes in the period beginning in 1171 with the arrival of the first English soldiers on Irish soil. Although the book is less than 350 pages, the author covers his subject "so compellingly that readers may wish that Golway had written as many pages as there are years in the millennium he covers," stated Thomas E. Mackin in the World of Hibernia. Golway makes connections between generations that provide key historical background to notable historical events, while illuminating the lives of famous and obscure Irish people whose actions have furthered the cause of Irish freedom. The role of other countries in the Irish independence movement is also analyzed, and Golway considers the difficult question of how to move forward with a new Ireland, as peace and stability are achieved. A Publishers Weekly reviewer praised the history as "an energetic and deeply informative work."

Full of Grace: An Oral Biography of John Cardinal O'Connor is a collection of testimonials from those who knew and admired the Irish-American priest who rose from modest beginnings to become one of the most powerful men in the American clergy. O'Connor was a down-to-earth man, according to many, but beneath his simple demeanor was a powerful force for social justice. Both the famous and the obscure recall the cardinal's impact on their lives in commentary that "makes clear that O'Connor was an impressive and industrious man," stated Tom O'Brien in America. O'Connor's alliance with Nat Hentoff, a noted civil libertarian, is illuminated, as well as his friendly relations with numerous New York rabbis, who appreciated O'Connor's outspoken stand against anti-Semitism. A Publishers Weekly reviewer commented that like O'Connor, the recollections in this book are "deceptive in their simplicity," but "taken together, they present an extraordinary portrait of the man."

Golway's father was a firefighter in New York city, as were many of his other family members and acquaintances. In 2002 the author paid tribute to that heritage when he published So Others Might Live: A History of New York's Bravest. Beginning in 1700, the book tells many stories of the generations of men—and, more recently, women—who have worked heroically to save lives and property in New York City. Though the overall tone is one of great admiration, Golway also acknowledges the darker side of the fire department, such as its long-held, fierce discrimination against African Americans, women, and other groups. Noting the courage shown by fire department members during the crisis of September 11, 2001, Golway proposes that it was made possible by the strong culture of firefighting that has grown up in the city over the years. A Publishers Weekly reviewer praised Golway for writing "with humor and passion and an understanding of the firefighter's mindset." New York Times reviewer John D. Thomas called the book "gutsy, emotional, and detailed."

Golway returns to U.S. history in his biography Washington's General: Nathaniel Greene and the Triumph of the American Revolution. Nathaniel Greene was a man with no formal education. He was raised as a Quaker, and worked for many years at his family's forge in Rhode Island. As a Quaker, he embraced pacifism until he was more than thirty years old. Yet as the American Revolution began to seem inevitable, Greene suddenly broke with the Quaker belief in nonviolence and went on to become one of General George Washington's most trusted officers. He never won a major battle, yet his contributions were significant: he supported colonial militias, helped to undermine Tory militias, commanded the siege of Charleston, and in various other ways seriously hampered the British forces. Though he is relatively obscure, "Golway makes a convincing case that Greene should be better known," remarked a Publishers Weekly reviewer. A Kirkus Reviews writer, noting that most biographers have painted Greene as an almost saintly figure, found Golway's more honest treatment of the man and his faults to be "a fitting and welcome monument to a surprisingly complex actor in early American history."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, September 20, 1997, George W. Hunt, review of The Irish in America, p. 2; March 21, 1998, Patrick H. Samway, review of Irish Rebel: John Devoy and America's Fight for Ireland's Freedom, p. 28; March 28, 1998, George W. Hunt, review of Irish Rebel, p. 2; February 25, 2002, Tom O'Brien, review of Full of Grace: An Oral Biography of John Cardinal O'Connor, p. 21.

Booklist, March 15, 1998, Mary Carroll, review of Irish Rebel, p. 1197; December 15, 2004, Gilbert Taylor, review of Washington's General: Nathanael Greene and the Triumph of the American Revolution, p. 702.

Book World, April 19, 1998, review of The Irish in America, p. 1.

Buffalo News, October 26, 1997, Michael D. Langan, review of The Irish in America, p. E8.

Choice, April, 2003, T. D. Beal, review of So Others Might Live: A History of New York's Bravest: The FDNY from 1700 to the Present, p. 1426.

Commonweal, June 19, 1998, George W. Hunt, review of Irish Rebel, p. 25.

Detroit Free Press, September 8, 2002, review of So Others Might Live, p. 4F.

First Things, February, 2002, review of Full of Grace, p. 73.

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 1998, review of Irish Rebel, p. 94; February 15, 2000, review of For the Cause of Liberty: A Thousand Years of Ireland's Heroes, p. 224; July 15, 2002, review of So Others Might Live, p. 1008; November 15, 2004, review of Washington's General, p. 1078.

Kliatt, March, 2004, Ann Hart, review of So Others Might Live, p. 38.

Library Journal, February 15, 1998, review of Irish Rebel, p. 155; March 1, 1998, review of Irish Rebel, p. 103; March 1, 2000, Charlie Cowling, review of For the Cause of Liberty, p. 108; September 1, 2002, Nathan Ward, review of So Others Might Live, p. 191; February 1, 2005, Charles M. Minyard, review of Washington's General, p. 97.

New York Times, September 8, 2002, John D. Thomas, review of So Others Might Live, p. 11; November 20, 2002, Ralph Blumenthal, review of So Others Might Live, p. E9.

New York Times Book Review, March 15, 1998, David Murray, review of Irish Rebel, p. 26; June 20, 1999, review of Irish Rebel, p. 24; September 8, 2002, review of So Others Might Live, p. 11.

Publishers Weekly, September 1, 1997, review of The Irish in America, pp. 84-85; January 26, 1998, review of Irish Rebel, p. 75; February 28, 2000, review of For the Cause of Liberty, p. 75; November 12, 2001, review of Full of Grace, p. 57; August 12, 2002, review of So Others Might Live, p. 289; September 9, 2002, Dermot McEvoy, interview with Golway, p. 36; January 10, 2005, review of Washington's General, p. 50.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2004, review of So Others Might Live, p. 250.

Star Tribune, March 11, 2001, Robert Armstrong, review of For the Cause of Liberty, p. F15.

Times Union, May 18, 2000, Paul Grondahl, interview with Golway.

USA Today, March 16, 2000, Michael Jacobs, review of For the Cause of Liberty, p. D7; September 5, 2002, Bob Minzesheimer, interview with Golway.

World of Hibernia, summer, 2000, Thomas E. Mackin, review of For the Cause of Liberty, p. 158.