“Kathy White House” Book Launch

Carmody shared with Irish America background on how the book originated with a visit to Dublin.

The book had its genesis on a visit that I paid to Brian McCaffrey in Dublin in late 2007. Earlier, in April of that year, my first cousin, Eileen (Buckley) McCaffrey had died. Eileen was Kathy Buckley’s niece, and she had inherited her estate after Kathy died in 1969.

Following our return to the house that evening, after a few drinks and a meal, Brian produced a large folder, that contained a vast amount of memorabilia, this was the original material that Kathy, had typed, collected, and saved, during her 47-year tenure in America, until her retirement and return to Listowel in 1953.

As a lover and well-known collector of everything historical, I was very much impressed by the folder’s content, as I carefully leafed through the many layers of its fading paper sheets. I immediately recognized the importance of preserving its contents for the future and the possibility of its presentation in book form, which I then said to Brian, then, as suddenly as he had opened the folder he closed it, handed it to me, and said, “Vincent, this is yours, you have the experience of the publishing world, take it and publish it, in memory of Kathy Buckley and Her niece Eileen.” 

So that is how the story of how the book had its roots, way back in 2007. It was always a work in progress, whenever I would get an idea, I would revisit the folder, dip into it, and write a note, before closing it again. Much of what I do is ongoing, projects overlap, and this is something that will never bore you.

A proud Listowel man, Carmody has published multiple books starting with North Kerry Camera: Photographic Memories of Listowel and its Surroundings 1860-1960, in 1989. He followed that book with Listowel – Snapshots of an Irish Market Town, 1850-1950, in 2012.

The book will be launched in Dublin on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, at 6:30 pm at the Teachers Club, Parnell Square with guest speaker Dr. Miriam Nyhan Grey, formally of New York University, Dr. Grey wrote the introduction to the book.

The Wednesday, March 6, 2024, New York book launch at the AIHS will be moderated by new Executive Director Dr. Elizabeth Stack, also a Listowel native, and will feature culinary journalist and historian Laura Shapiro. Her essays, reviews, and features have also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, Gastronomica, Slate, and many other publications. Her first book was Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century (1986), which the University of California Press has reissued with a new Afterword. She is also the author of Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America (Viking, 2004), and Julia Child (Penguin Lives, 2007), which won the award for Literary Food Writing from the International Association of Culinary Professionals in 2008. 

On March 7, 2024, Carmody will travel to Yonkers, New York for a talk on the book at the Kerry Hall Association at 305 McLean Ave, Yonkers, New York.

The last stop on the book launch in the US will be on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in Chicago at the Law Office of Hinshaw & Culbertson, 151 N Franklin St Suite 2500, Chicago, IL 60606 at 4:30 pm. If you are interested in attending please email poundlaner@gmail.com to reserve a spot.♦