 Hazel McIntyre the writerHazel McIntyre was born and grew up on the Inishowen peninsula of Co. Donegal, Ireland. Hazel's Mother was French Canadian and her stories and memories of growing up in Winnipeg made the family ties with Canada very real. Letters, photographs and gifts on birthdays kept the family bonds with the Canadian side of their heritage. Hazel recalls one birthday gift from her Canadian Grandmother. 'It was a snowsuit' she remembers. 'That winter was a particularly mild one in Inishowen and I was desperate to wear that suit. So on a November morning with a sleety shower or two, I donned the snowsuit. The turf fire in the schoolroom was warmer than usual that day and then the sun came out. Well, I sweltered for the entire day. But I still loved that blue Canadian suit."Hazel began writing ten years ago. As she explains "Inishowen has a long tradition of storytelling. During the growing years storytelling around the turf fires was still the main source of entertainment. It was an art form in its own right. Sad to say, that way of life has all but disappeared and we are much the poorer for its passing." Hazel Mc Intyre has published three books since1994, and is working on a fourth. "Out of my three books, 'Lament in the Wind' was my greatest challenge," she says. "The famine was without a doubt the biggest tragedy in our history and as my research went on I became totally engrossed in its scale. I hope the result is a fitting tribute to their courage." Hazel and her husband Charles are making plans to visit the 16th Irish Festival Miramichi, New Brunswick in July 2000. 'For Love of Mary Kate' was chosen by 'Woman's Way' (Ireland's best selling woman's magazine) as the most compelling read for inclusion in the 'Annual 2000. Hazel McIntyre's latest novel "Lament in the Wind' has been chosen as the basis for a new documentary film at 'The Ulster American Folk Park' IRON WHEEL ON ROCKY LANES Her first book 'Iron Wheels On Rocky Lanes' recalling her Donegal childhood, was published in 1994 to outstanding critical ovation. The following are just a sample of what the newspaper critics had to say.
"The cozy friendly style in which hazel writes takes you into her world with such ease and confidence that you almost feel you know the events intimately. Humor, sadness, happy days, it's all there and more. An excellent read."
"Her accounts, drawn from the everyday experiences of childhood are touching and moving, the prose evocative and lively. It is a tribute to Hazel McIntyre's talent that her accounts are deeply poignant one moment yet heart-warming and uplifting the next. It is to be highly recommended."
"Hazel captures the innocence of the age as she grew up in the Donegal of the fifties The most charming and entertaining of the present books of the same genre currently on the Market."
"Hazel's tales and memories are written in a straightforward way, giving the work a personal touch. There are however plenty of twists and turns in the comic yet touching stories. It's a most enjoyable read, further enhanced by some thought-provoking-poetry."
"Don't forget reading for yourself yarns like the one, in that age of respect for the professional man, when the new doctor tentatively pronounced as dead a man who had fallen from a ladder; the supine victim was of a different opinion and groaned. "I'm not dead," only to be put firmly in his place by a bystander. "Oh, will you shut up. do you thing you know better than the doctor?"
These pieces are innocent and warm, sometimes reflectively sad and always filled with love." 'Iron Wheels on Rocky Lanes' also received an outstanding review and recommendation on the 'Gay Byrne Show' RTE. Second level students in Ireland have used her writings as a textbook, and she has followed this up by giving talks to the students
"These writings are loving evocations of a childhood spent in Donegal. They capture the innocence of that time, its sudden and compelling enthusiasms, its sadness and silences, its pleasures and dismays, and, above all, the rare gift of having been brought up in a small loving community. These are accurately drawn pictures, but they also act as evocations of a warm community as memory does its magical work of transformation."
FOR LOVE OF MARY KATE Hazel's First novel 'For Love of Mary Kate' set in Donegal and New York was launched in her native village of Culdaff. Described as a "compelling saga of love and courage spanning three generations," it is one of those books that cannot be put down. The following are a few of the early reactions from reviewers and readers.
The story evolves around Mary Kate, how she is rescued from the nunnery. The reactions of the people who impinge on her life are lovingly told, together with the interaction of those involved.
"This is a simple tale. It is also very moving very powerful, very compelling."
It's a story of love and hate and a heart-warming story of life in 1920s Donegal a book you can't put down until it's finished!
"Hazel Mc Intyre has made the transition from autobiography to fiction writing with ease, with a first novel which is certain to appeal to the better instincts of all who read it.
This is surely the first of many fine novels from this emerging Donegal writer."
"For Love of Mary Kate is a compelling story, of all that is good in human nature. Ennobling and uplifting...........overpoweringly tragic......the heroin of the novel is Sara, who in her moments of self-revelation is testimony to the dignity of the human spirit.
Hazel Mc Intyre touches the heartbeat of the reader with this story of friendship and loyalty which deepens into love.
This book must have a sequel...."
"I picked up 'For Love of Mary Kate' to have 'a browse' I read the book from cover to cover in one night and enjoyed every minute of it! What more can I say?"
For Love of Mary Kate is a love story, one which touches on the particular harshness of social and religious mores of rural Ireland in the 1920's. For all that, love conquers all - in Ireland or America-and in this increasingly cynical world, we need all the feelgood factor that we can find. We find any amount of it in "For Love of Mary Kate."
"This compelling saga stuns and holds from beginning to end" 'For Love of Mary Kate' has been chosen by 'Woman's Way' as the most compelling read for the millennium serialization beginning Dec. 1999. Hazels is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio Foyle and radio Ulster and other local radio stations, and also contributes regular articles and short stories for the local press. She also runs workshops for mental health groups, students, woman's Institutes and other interest groups both in the Irish Republic and cross border. 'For Love Of Mary Kate' has been favorably reviewed on BBC's kaleidoscope. Hazel Mc Intyre's poem "Horizons" first published in "Iron Wheels On Rocky Lanes" has been recently short-listed by the International Library of Poetry Maryland USA. While in Boston USA Hazel Mc Intyre was the guest on The John Clifford Show (BNN TV), where she talked about her growing years in Donegal and her writings. This program has since been repeated by BNN. Also while in Boston Hazel was the guest on the I IC center's answer channel television program.
LAMENT IN THE WIND An interesting footnote to Hazel Mc Intyre's third book is that young Irelander, Thomas Darcy Mc Gee, escaped to America in 1848 via Culdaff in Co. Donegal where Mc Gee-disguised as a clergyman-hid in a farmhouse until passage was secured for him on a Derry emigrant ship. By 1858 he had established the 'New Era' newspaper in which he advocated the creation of a Canadian nation. On July the first, 1867, he was a member of the Canadian legislature which admitted New Brunswick as one of the four original provinces of the Dominion of Canada. 'As I followed the turbulent life and times of Cassie O' Connor from County Donegal to New Brunswick, I was reminded of T. S. Elliot's lines;
"Beneath the bleeding hands we feel Cassie's life parallels an equally convulsive period in famine Ireland but Hazel Mc Intyre doesn't resort to easy clich or cosy familiarity. Her's is 'the healers art'; the British and Irish are not conveniently brutal and downtrodden in equal measure; 'the fever chart' of Ireland's history is much too enigmatic to be used as a expedient backdrop for a work of fiction. There is suffering in 'Lament In The Wind' but the innate compassion of the author ensures that we are left with hope and affirmation. This is a love story and to quote Anthony Trollope; 'Those who have courage to love should have courage to suffer.' Frank Galligan writer and broadcaster BBC Radio Foyle and Radio Ulster. The celebrated writer Joyce Carey once wrote about the 'dark light' which enveloped the Inishowen Peninsula, the setting for one of his novels. He evoked the landscape, its colors and moods and as I read Hazel McIntyre's moving account of the life of her central character, Cassie O'Connor, in 'Lament In The Wind,' the themes of light and darkness kept recurring. The darkness was the shadow of the Great Famine but the light shone from the love and warmth of the characters in their triumph over adversity in a traumatic period in Irish history. In this, her third publication, Hazel McIntyre vividly recounts the dark episodes in the lives of the famine victims; their fear of the workhouse, the threats of eviction, the hemorrhage of emigration and the deserted homesteads left in its wake. But she also evokes the redeeming brighter side of human nature as events unfold, which bring hope out of despair and which, a century later, turn darkness into light.
No-one can remain unmoved after reading this heroic story, skillfully narrated with sympathy and understanding by Hazel McIntyre ; a powerful tribute that will be eagerly read everywhere, but especially in Ireland and Canada.
Hazel McIntyre is a born storyteller and her latest novel 'Lament In The Wind' is proof of that seemingly effortless talent.
'Lament In The Wind' unfolds naturally as an absorbing family history, taking us from the comfort of a high-tec present to the harshness of of a Donegal past during the famine. And as Hazel fills her canvas with realistic characters, landscape and historical detail, she sympathetically recreates that cruel period without wallowing in it.
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