Arts & Entertainment

Author to Discuss Book About Local Irish Catholic History

Janet Maher will present her book on Thursday, June 21.

Janet Maher will present her new book about the Irish Catholic diaspora and the first settlers in the Naugatuck Valley and New Haven County on Thursday, June 21 at 6 p.m. at the . She will give a talk about her work and sign books at the free reception to which the public is invited.

Beginning from an interest in her own family's history, with From the Old Sod to the Naugatuck Valley, Maher explores the history of Ireland through the perspective of Catholicism, bridging it to the origins of Catholicism in Connecticut, then to several Irish families whose personal stories extend to the present.

Mapping and thoroughly transcribing the oldest Catholic cemetery in Naugatuck, Saint Francis Cemetery, Maher has made connections between generations of families and friends. The book includes selected marriage, baptism and death records throughout the 19th Century and excerpts from rare letters between Irish immigrants and individuals still in Ireland. It is replete with photographs from Ireland and Connecticut, and restored personal images selected from families' collections, including her own, from materials safeguarded in scrapbooks and albums for years.

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Janet Maher is a native of Waterbury and is an Associate Professor of Visual Arts, Studio Arts, at Loyola University Maryland. This is her first scholarly book.

Published by Apprentice House, Baltimore, the book will be available from Amazon.com for $65.95 and will be slightly reduced on the night of the reception. (389 pages, 336 images)

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