Presented by Celtic Women International and led by Maureen Smith, the iBAM!
Literary salon is an amalgamation of short glimpses into the enchanting world of Irish culture
Saturday - Noon - Maureen Smith holds the Opening of Salon Ceremony
The iBAM! Salon, presented by Celtic Women International (“CWI”) is one of the weekend’s most popular attractions with authors, storytellers, historians and Irish culture experts sharing their craft, expertise and knowledge. Grab a cup of tea or something stronger from the Fifth Province Pub, pull up a chair and lean in for some amazing presentations.
Maureen Smith facilitates the local Chicago Branch of Celtic Women International. She has a passion for history. Maureen retired from Loyola University Chicago and now concentrates on historical research. While at Loyola, she achieved an M.S. in Computer Science and an M.A. in Digital Humanities & Textual Studies. She will give a presentation on the Celtic Calendar, Sunday afternoon, (see Sunday below for details).
Saturday - 12:30 - Ann McGlinn presents Ride On, See You. 
Her novel Ride On, See You is set primarily in Dublin, where she attended school as a youth. McGlinn’s short stories and poems have appeared in a variety of journals, and her first novel, El Penco, was published in 2014.
Poet and fiction writer Ann McGlinn has lived throughout the United States as well as abroad.
She lives in Chicago with her family and teaches English at the Latin School of Chicago.
annmcglinn.com
Saturday 1pm - Maureen Connolly presents A Million Miles From Yesterday:
a Chicago expatriate climbs back into life
The doctor in a small Wisconsin town failed his wife when she died. He struggles, challenged by diverse townspeople - Irish, Chicano, Navajo, Menominee.
Maureen Connolly's writing appears in The New Guard, Write City, and The Country Doctor Revisited, among others. Published poetry book Wing. Readings include Printers Row, Space, and Guild Complex. Award from Illinois Arts Council. Machigonne Fiction Prize. Grant from StoryStudioChicago. Story in The New Guard nominated for a Pushcart.
Saturday 1:30 Kathy Cowan presents Songs, stories and poems of Samhain
Singer Kathy Cowan specializes in Irish song, giving concerts and appearing in plays that require her expertise. She has appeared with symphonies; toured with her band Kiltartan Road; collaborated with Concert Dance, Inc., sings with the brilliant Irish musicians of Chicago. She teaches at NEIU and the Old own School.
Kathy Cowan, Songs, stories and poems of Samhain, when the veil is very thin between the worlds of mortal and fairy; magic and the mundane; sacred and profane...
Saturday 2pm - Lois Farley Shuford presents Finding Home: An Irish American Story
Lois Farley Shuford is the author of Finding Home: An Irish American Story. This literary non-fiction book braids memoir, history and the unwinding of a 100 year old mystery. Why does it matter to know our family history? How can we learn from the stories of those who came before us? What was life like for ordinary people in the midst of extraordinary times? Today’s world echoes much of the 19th century experience of Ireland and Irish America. What can we learn if we listen to our own ancestors?
Lois Farley Shuford worked most recently at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. A lover of history of all times and places, particularly that of Ireland and Irish America, she presents workshops and talks on family history.
Saturday 2:30pm - Monica Dougherty presents Journeys
A short talk describing the journey that became both my novel, Rose’s Ring: Inheritors of Silence and Secrets and my screenplay of the same name and the journeys taken by the characters.
A short talk describing the journey that became both my novel, Rose’s Ring: Inheritors of Silence and Secrets and my screenplay of the same name and the journeys taken by the characters. Growing up amidst family secrets and lost dreams, a TV reporter from Chicago wants to find her own dream. She inherits a family ring with only bits of information. To solve the mystery of the ring she is led on a quest across the ocean and back in time. Her journey enables her to bring the story of the ring and healing back to her family and also empowers her to follow her own dream.
A historical thriller that traverses time, Rose’s Ring interweaves the author’s own family story with that of a tribe of native Oneida people and a runaway slave whose decision to stop running sets in motion tragic events that culminate in one of the worst shipwrecks in Lake Michigan history, the sinking of The Lady Elgin.
Monica Dougherty is an artist, art therapist and author. She has written a children’s book entitled, You’re A Miracle…Pass it On!,
and is co-author with Mary Beth Sammons of Images of America: Irish American Heritage Center, and Your Family Story To Go.
A long-time volunteer at the Irish American Heritage Center, she now lives in Wheeling
and enjoys being on a creative journey!
www.monicadougherty.com
Saturday 3pm - Terry Boyle presents Angels and Empty Pages
Terry Boyle will read from his second collection of poems, Angels and Empty Pages.
In times of uncertainty, we desperately crave something to comfort our troubled hearts. Whether it’s a song, art, a piece of music, or an inspiring poem, we seek to find a temporary place of refuge from these dark times.
Originally from Derry, Northern Ireland, Terry resides in Coachella Valley in California. After leaving his hometown in 2004, he took up a teaching position at Loyola University, Chicago where he taught Irish and British literature. In 2011, his play, ‘Oh what a bloody good Friday!’ reached the semi-finals of the prestigious Eugene O’Neill competition. Since 2011, he has had plays produced in Chicago, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. In 2021, his poem, A New Economy, was selected to be included in the compilation of ‘The Best of New British and Irish Poets 2019-2021 (Black Spring Press). His first poetry collection, ‘This Will Be’, was published in 2022 by WIPF and Stock Publishers. he is also a regular columnist for the Irish American News in Chicago.
Saturday 3:30pm Rosemary Feurer presents My Irish Spirit Has the Fight in it
Rosemary will discuss the connections between Mother Jones, James Connolly and Jim Larkin, profiling their encounters and mutual influences on each other.
Rosemary is writing a new biography of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones. She teaches labor history at Northern Illinois University. She is Director of the Mother Jones Heritage Project, which is sponsoring a new play “At Table for Two at the Dill Pickle” which depicts a conversation between Irish labor and independence advocate James Larkin and Mother Jones. 
Saturday 4pm - 5pm Bridget Conway presents Project Concern
Concern Worldwide (often referred to as Concern) is Ireland's largest aid and humanitarian agency.[1] Since its foundation in 1968 it has worked in 50 countries. According to its latest annual report, Concern helped 28.6 million of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people in 2019, while responding to 82 emergencies in 24 countries.[2] Concern aims to help those living in the world's poorest countries.[3] Concern is engaged in long-term development work, in addition to emergency relief in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Concern's core work focuses on health, hunger and humanitarian response in emergencies.[4] The charity works in partnership with small community groups as well as governments and large global organizations. Concern is one of fourteen fully certified members of Humanitarian Accountability Partnership.[5] It has no religious or political affiliations. Concern Worldwide US is an affiliate of Concern Worldwide. It has offices in New York City and Chicago. Concern Worldwide is a partner of One Campaign.
https://concernusa.org/
SUNDAY
Sunday Noon - Jessie Ann Foley talks about her books and incorporating Irish traditional mythology into contemporary writing.
Jessie Ann Foley is the Printz honor-winning author of the novels The Carnival at Bray, Neighborhood Girls, Sorry for Your Loss, You Know I’m No Good, and Breda’s Island, as well as the picture book Agatha May and the Anglerfish. Her work has been named to best-of lists by Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, YALSA, Entertainment Weekly, and many other outlets, and has been featured on school and library recommended reading lists across the United States.
Jessie lives with her husband and four kids on the northwest side of Chicago, where she was born and raised.
https://www.jessieannfoley.com/bio
Sunday 12:30pm - Kathy O'Neill presents The Irish Exit - Kathy will read original stories and poems that are sad, funny, heartfelt and awkward.
Kathy O'Neill is a writer and storyteller in the Chicago SLAM story tradition.
The writer, arts producer and journalist has been published in New City, Book and Film Globe and ABCNews.com.
She has read her stories at a sold out performance at Steppenwolf Theatre and such productions as Is This a Thing?, Storylab, Soul Stories, Do Not Submit, This Much is True and the Irish American Writers & and Artists Salon with author Malachy McCourt.
O'Neill trained in storytelling under two-time Moth Slam winner Scott Whitehair, and at the University of Limerick Frank McCourt Summer School at New York University.
Sunday 1pm - Maureen Smith presents The Celtic Calendar
The Celts divided their calendar year into 4 seasons. Maureen will discuss aspects of each of the seasons and explore their relevance in our modern world of today.
Maureen Smith facilitates the local Chicago Branch of Celtic Women International. She has a passion for history. Maureen retired from Loyola University Chicago and now concentrates on historical research. While at Loyola, she achieved an M.S. in Computer Science and an M.A. in Digital Humanities & Textual Studies
Sunday 1:30pm Theresa Choske presents Maud Gonne and the Irish Rebellion
Maud Gonne was an Irish revolutionary born in Aldershot, England. With her founding of the Daughters of Erin in 1900, she opened the door of politics to Irish women. She gave inspiring public speeches on behalf of the suffering; those evicted from their homes in the west of Ireland. She is also known as the woman William Butler Yeats loved and celebrated in his poetry. Gonne inspired and played the leading role of the heroine, ‘Cathleen Ni Houlihan’ in W.B.Yeats’ spirit of Ireland play in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1902. 
Sunday 2pm Micael Clark presents Emily Bronte
Not Your Typical Ghost Story: The Power Behind the Spirits in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte's father Patrick was born on March 17, 1777 in the parish of Drumballyrony, County Down; and like many Irish, he was a great teller of ghost stories. Many scholars believe that his childhood influence is what led Charlotte, Anne, and Emily to write their novels in the Gothic mode, with elements of ghostly presence in Jane Eyre, Villette, Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and especially Wuthering Heights. There will be no spoilers in this program; instead, I will focus only on Wuthering Heights, a novel that has gripped the imaginations of generations of readers since its publication in 1847. I intend to show that the literary power of Wuthering Heights, so compelling that to read the book is to be "caught up in a whirlwind," derives from Bronte's insight into the deep significance of ghosts. In Wuthering Heights, rather than an illusion or a trick that is revealed as false at the end, Emily Bronte's ghosts represent the human spirit that loves, and suffers, and lives eternally. Her ghosts are not put there for thrills: they make a significant statement about human existence.
Micael Clarke taught English Literature with a focus on Victorian Novels, women, and religion, for 45 years. Now retired from Loyola University Chicago, she is working on a book on Emily Bronte and mysticism.
Sunday 2:30pm Maureen Tolman Flannery presents Already Part of the Sky
Poetry in Homage to Her Irish Heritage & Celebrating Ireland’s People & Landscape
Maureen Tolman Flannery, an award-winning poet, will read poems in homage to her Irish heritage and celebrating Ireland's people and landscapes. She will also share from her book, Navigating by Expectant Stars, a volume of poems inspired by the wartime love letters of her mother and father. Maureen's mother Margaret Quinn was pregnant with their first child and living at home with her Irish immigrant family while her husband in the Army Air Corps was navigating for a mapping crew over Africa in 1944.
The granddaughter of Irish immigrants, Maureen Tolman Flannery has grounded her poetics in the various landscapes of her life experience: Wyoming, where she grew up in a sheep-ranching family and has recently returned to rescue and restore three historic log cabins; Mexico, where she became infatuated with the rich complexity of its culture; and Chicago, where she and her husband Dan of 54 years settled to raise their family of three sons and a daughter. She received a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council and was thrice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Maureen has received multiple awards in Poets and Patrons contests over the years, as well as in the Joanne Hirshfield Memorial Award, WyoPoets and New River Poets contests.
Maureen’s poems have been the script of two theatrical productions. "The Ides of March Poetry Show,” performed at Chicago’s Loop Theatre. and “A Fine Line,” a musical theatre piece with her poems as the script. She received her BA and MA degrees in English Literature from Creighton University, and taught English as a Foreign Language for thirty years. She has been active in end-of-life care and support of home funerals and green burials. Her volumes of poetry include Already Part of the Sky, Navigating by Expectant Stars, Tunnel Into Morning, Destiny Whispers to the Beloved, Ancestors in the Landscape, Beloved Quietus, and Secret of the Rising Up as well as the chapbooks Remembered into Life, and Snow and Roses about the White Rose resistance in Nazi Germany.
Sunday 3pm - Dr. Mary Pat Kelly presents To Live for Ireland – remembering Pat and John Hume
To Live for Ireland – remembering Pat and John Hume. Author and filmmaker Dr. Mary Pat Kelly reflects on her nearly 50 year connection to the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who the architect of the Good Friday Agreement. She will focus on the essential role played by Pat Hume,his partner in all things, in the Nonviolent movement that against all the odds brought peace to Northern Ireland. Kelly’s award-winning PBS documentary, made in collaboration with WTTW, “To Live For Ireland” will be screened during the weekend as she is honored as the IBAM Person of the year.
Dr. Mary Pat Kelly is a best-selling author and an award-winning filmmaker. She has participated in IBAM from the very beginning. Her trilogy of Irish American historical fiction “Galway Bay “, “Of Irish Blood“ and”Irish Above All” is based on her own family history. Her great- great- grandmother, Honora Keeley Kelly escaped with her children from the Great Starvation of 1840s Ireland. Against unimaginable odds she managed to bring them to Hardscrabble now Bridgeport. Honora Kelly’s grandson, Edward J Kelly, became Mayor of Chicago and a power nationally nationally.
Mary Pat Kelly wrote and directed the feature film, “Proud” starring Ossie Davis and Stephen Rea —the story of the men of USS MASON, the only African-American sailors to take a US Navy warship into combat during World War II. Their first foreign port was in Northern Ireland where they said the Irish were the first to treat them as Americans. Kelly also worked on the staff of “Good Morning, America, “ “Saturday Night Live” and as a screenwriter for Columbia and Paramount Pictures Pictures. She most recently published an updated version of “Martin Scorsese, A Journey, “ her book on the iconic Director she met while studying to be a nun. She is presently working on a nonfiction book, charting the changes in Ireland, and the women who wrought this transformation.
Dr. Mary Pat Kelly attended Marywood School for Girls in Evanston, is a graduate of St. Mary-of-the-Woods college and received her PhD from CUNY New York. She is married to Martin Sheerin from County Tyrone . She is proud of her Chicago roots and rejoices in the extended family that owes its existence to the heroism of Honora Keeley.
Sunday 4pm The Literary Salon for iBAM! 2023 will close with a "So Long Celebration" as Maureen Smith retires from Lit Salon presentations. This would be a good time to thank her for all she has done!
CWI’s many years of participation in iBAM are coming to a close. Join us while we celebrate and salute our many presenters and participants!
Official closing of the
2023 Celtic Women International Literary Salon