Newspaper Article by Lisa Cooney, on
"The Pipes Are Calling", The Pottsville Republican and Evening Herald
Newspaper article on "The Pipes Are Calling", The Pottsville Republican and Evening Herald
House inspires author to pen book
BY LISA COONEY
CORRESPONDENT
03/08/2007
Email to a friendPrinter-friendlyMAHANOY CITY — Loretta A. Murphy, Ashland, claims she wrote her first book as an 8-year-old, but it wasn’t until 2001 that she had a novel published.
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“When I was a little girl I wrote a book out in longhand in a notebook. My Aunt Lizzie saw it and thought it was wonderful. She took it to get it published, I guess, and that’s the last I ever saw it,” said the 1973 North Schuylkill High School graduate who grew up in Girardville.
Murphy earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Millersville University in 1992 and her master’s degree in 1999. While in school, she performed at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, Manheim, and sang folk and Celtic music with the group Wylde Roses.
“I’ve been writing all my life, poems and plays and musical lyrics. In college, I did good research and wrote good papers. I always knew there was a book inside me somewhere,” Murphy said.
Building on her Irish heritage, Murphy incorporated the lyrics to the classic ballad “Danny Boy” in her newly published book, “The Pipes Are Calling” (PublishAmerica, Baltimore, Md.).
The romantic novel follows the lives of a present-day Irish-American single mother of two and an Irish native son. Their ancestors share a common tie in the past.
For a touch of Irish whimsy, there is a modern-day leprechaun who serves as a matchmaker for the pair.
“But at the core of the story is what happened at the O’Donnell house,” said Murphy, referring to the 1875 Wiggans Patch massacre when Charles O’Donnell, 18, and his pregnant older sister, Ellen McAllister, were shot in their home by a band of masked vigilantes.
Murphy said McAllister was a sister-in-law of John J. “Black Jack” Kehoe, the man known as the leader of the Molly Maguires.
No one was ever brought to justice for the brutal crime.
Murphy’s book is a work of fiction, but it includes her interpretation of historical events surrounding the Irish immigrants who worked for labor rights in the hard coal industry in the 19th century.
While doing genealogical research, Murphy discovered her great-great-grandfather, Charles Carroll, immigrated to the area from Ireland.
Although she has been unable to find a direct relationship, she believes that her family is somehow related to James Carroll, the Tamaqua tavern owner who was put to death for conspiring with the Mollies.
Murphy has always held an affinity for the Molly Maguires.
“These guys were important not only to Schuylkill County but to the whole world because they were the original pioneers of the labor movement,” she said.
Murphy would pass the abandoned O’Donnell homestead in Boston Run each day on her way to work as a school nurse at Mahanoy Area Elementary School.
In November 2006, the owners of the property, the Reading Anthracite Co., had the wooden structure demolished.
The building was in danger of toppling onto power lines and the roadway.
“Every day I would look at that house and think that house bulged like a pregnant woman. It was like Ellen had a hand in it,” Murphy said.
“That house had some kind of persona, some kind of pull on me. I would say to people, when my book comes out, the house is going to fall. The press release for the book came out from my publisher on Nov. 17. The next day in the paper, there it was, the house came down. It was weird,” Murphy said.
Murphy is now working on a compilation of her poetry.
She has two daughters, Brigid M., 20, and Terra D., 18, and is married to Patrick Birster.
Her book is available locally in bookstores and available online at barnesandnobles.com, amazon.com and Waldenbooks.com as well as PublishAmerica online.
More on Murphy and her book is available online at http://www.publishedauthors.net/lmurphy/index.html.
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