About this episode

Kevin P. Reilly discusses his book 'Gregory Ghosts: Haunting Irishness', exploring the lives of Lady Augusta Gregory and her contemporaries in the context of Irish literary studies.

Kevin P. Reilly is President Emeritus and Regent Professor with the University of Wisconsin System, having served as President from 2004-13. Kevin grew up in Manhattan and the Bronx, and went on to earn his B.A. at the University of Notre Dame, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, all in English. He has published on higher education policy and accreditation, autobiography and biography, and in Irish Studies. In this interview he discusses his most recent book, Gregory Ghosts: Haunting Irishness ( Peter Lang, 2026), a creative non-fiction intervention into Irish literary studies. This book is a kind of Irish ghost story. In it the ghosts of Lady Augusta Gregory (1852-1932) and eight of her family members and colleagues look back over their lives—and sometimes forward beyond them—to try to make sense of them, their times, and one another. Theirs were all turbulent lives played out on the western edge of Europe at a time of great change.Lady Gregory helped shape that change at a pivotal moment in Ireland’s development into a modern nation state. The author’s fresh approach questions and complicates the image of her as a prim Victorian workhorse. Setting her in…

People in this episode

Guest: Kevin P. Reilly

Topics covered

• Irish literary studies
• creative non-fiction
• biography
• higher education policy
• Irish history
• ghost stories

Keywords

• Irish Studies
• Gregory Ghosts
• Lady Augusta Gregory
• creative non-fiction
• biography
• Irish history
• higher education

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Wisconsin System, University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota, Peter Lang

Books & works: Gregory Ghosts: Haunting Irishness

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