Author

Laura McKenna 4 posts 0 comments

Laura McKenna is working on a novel as part of a PhD in Creative Writing at University College Cork. Her short stories and poetry have been published widely and she is the recipient of many awards including the Penguin/RTE Guide Short Story Prize, a nomination for a Forward Prize for Poetry 2016, and a Hennessy Award nomination in 2012. She is a past winner of the Novel Fair at the Irish Writers' Centre and was longlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize in April 2016. Her work has been supported by Literature Bursary by the Arts Council (2012) and a Tyrone Guthrie Bursary from Cork County Council in 2014.

Irish History

Black immigration |The Lives and Travels of Thomas Awishee and John Jea

Laura McKenna Jun 25, 2016 0

Thomas Awishee/ Osiat was born in the late seventeenth century, most likely in the Cape Coast, in what is present day Ghana. According to William Smith, surveyor for the Royal African Company in 1726, he was brought to Ireland as a child,…

Irish History

Ireland’s Immigration History | The Many Lives of Sake Dean Mahomet

Laura McKenna May 17, 2016 0

In 1784, at the age of twenty-five, a man named Sake Dean Mahomet sailed into Cork harbour with his patron, Godfrey Evans Baker. He left behind his life in India, (including fifteen years of service in the East India Company), and…

Irish History

Ireland’s Immigration History| ‘The Black Siren’ of the 18th Century

Laura McKenna May 10, 2016 0

Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, in March 1750. The playbill tells of a benefit concert organized "at the particular desire of persons of quality". The whole house is to be illuminated with wax lights, and the performance followed by a grand…

Irish History

Ireland and Multiculturalism |Our First People of Colour

Laura McKenna May 2, 2016 1

Twenty-five years ago, Ireland appeared to be a homogeneous place, with white freckled people everywhere. But things have evolved, and this year has seen an increase in media attention on Ireland and multiculturalism. In particular, there's…