David M. Kiely

Life
1949- ; b. Dublin; worked in advertising abroad from 1974; returned and settled in Wicklow and later in Newry, Co. Down [NI]; author of J. M Synge, a Biography (1994); A Night in the Catacombs (1995), fictional portraits of Irish writers from Swift to Behan - his best-received work; The Angel Tapes (1997), with DI Blade Macken on the tail of a bomber-assassin in Dublin; num. studies of Irish women who kill (Bloody Women, 1998; Deadlier than the Male, 2005; More Bloody Women, 2009); Kiely founded the Parsifal Press (Newry) which reflects his interest in the paranormal; he is married to Christina McKenna, also an author, and lives in Newry as loyal subject to Queenie, their cat.

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Works
Fiction
  • The Angel Tapes (Belfast: Blackstaff 1997), 285pp.
  • Usher’s Island (Newry: Parsifal Press 2015) The Ghost of ’98 (Newry: Parsifal Press 2015)
  • Usher’s Island (Newry: Parsifal Press 2015)
  • Eyeless in Cooley (Newry: Parsifal Press 2015) [sequel to The Angel Tapes].
  • Baron Livingstone and the King of Manhattan (Newry: Parsifal Press 2015)
Miscellaneous
  • J. M Synge: A Biography (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1994).
  • A Night in the Catacombs (Lilliput 1995), 220pp. [fictional portraits of Irish literati].
  • Bloody Women: Ireland’s Female Killers ( Gill & Macmillan 1998) [17 cases of Irishwomen found guilty of murder].
  • Deadlier Than the Male: Ireland’s Female Killers (Gill & Macmillan 2005) [sequel].
  • with Christina McKenna, The Dark Sacrament: Exorcism in Modern Ireland (Gill & Macmillan 2006) [9 cases of exorcism today].
  • More Bloody’ Women: Ireland’s Most Dangerous Females (Poolbeg Press 2009) [sequel].
  • The Faustian Gambit (Newry: Parsifal 2015) [the paranormal and the printing press].
  • The Epic of Mesopotamia (Newry Parsifal Press 2015) [novel about ill-fated campaign of 1915].

See also his ‘Reader’s Choice’ notice on Adrian Kenny, Istanbul Diary, in Irish Times, ([15 June] 1995).

Book list supplied in Wikipedia
  • John Millington Synge: A Biography (Gill & Macmillan 1994);
  • A Night in the Catacombs (Lilliput Press 1995) literary portraits from Swift to Behan.
  • Modern Irish Lives (Gill & Macmillan 1996) [500+ entries by Kiely].
  • The Angel Tapes (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 1997) [DI Blade Macken in a Dublin crime thriller about a bomber’s attempt to assassinate the US President].
  • Bloody Women: Ireland’s Female Killers ( Gill & Macmillan 1998) [17 cases of Irishwomen found guilty of murder].
  • Deadlier Than the Male: Ireland’s Female Killers (Gill & Macmillan 2005) [sequel].
  • with Christina McKenna, The Dark Sacrament: Exorcism in Modern Ireland (Gill & Macmillan 2006) [9 cases of exorcism today].
  • More Bloody’ Women: Ireland’s Most Dangerous Females (Poolbeg Press 2009) [sequel].
  • The Ghost of ’98 (Newry: Parsifal Press 2015) [novel of NI in second person involving Joy McCracken, a young American mourning the cot-death of her child]
  • The Faustian Gambit (Newry: Parsifal 2015) [the paranormal and the printing press].
  • Usher’s Island (Newry: Parsifal Press 2015) [historical novel and mystery tale set in the Famine in Ireland and America].
  • Eyeless in Cooley (Newry: Parsifal Press 2015) [sequel to The Angel Tapes].
  • Baron Livingstone and the King of Manhattan (Newry: Parsifal Press 2015) [novel about Viking Leif Erikson in America].
  • The Epic of Mesopotamia (Newry Parsifal Press 2015) [novel about ill-fated campaign of 1915].
Unlisted: More Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pt. I (Parsifal 2012). Gill & Macmillan titles published by St. Martin"s Press in New York.
Avaiable at Wikipedia - online; accessed 03.09.2023].

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Commentary
C. L. Dallat, review of A Night in the Catacombs, in Times Literary Supplement, (9 June 1995); the stories incl. ‘To Love a Stranger’, an Arran girl’s account of Syne’s visit to the island, with memories of his uncle, the Protestant clergyman ‘Alastar’; deals also with lady Gregory’s affair with Wilfrid Blunt; a tête-à-tête between Maria Edgeworth and captive rebel officer in 1798; an encounter between John Casside (Sean O’CAsey) at nine and a personage like Lady Gregory; others involve George Moore and James Joyce, the latter on a supposed Dublin visit of 1924; Dean Swift; an American academic interviewing Somerville & Ross; a Goldsmith tale in 18th c. language; and an apocryphal and scatological tale of Brendan Behan. ALSO review by John Dunne, Books Ireland (Summer 1995), p.150, with strong recommendation.

Mary Campbell, review of A Night in the Catacombs, in Linen Hall Review (Winter 1995-96), p.15: calls it ‘an extraordinary collection of dejà vu, mimicry, caricature, and pastiche, come together in a powerful entertaining and yet serious tribute to the power of very different Irish writers and their unique contribution to the last few centureies of literature in the English language’; notes that the Behan story concerns a macabre experiment in cannibalism requiring a borrowed body part from the mortuary (title story); Joyce revisits Dublin incog to glean experience in a Mountjoy Sq. brothel; Oliver Goldsmith on amorous adventures in the Netherlands; O’Casey rescues Maud Gonne’s monkey; Synge as seen on the Aran Islands by the narrator, Barbara, who falls in love with his ‘fine Protestant lips’.

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References
Lilliput Press (1995 Catalogue) writes of ‘...post coital Cairene Wilfrid Blunt and Lady Gregory discuss rights of small nations ...’; Behan; O’Casey and Maud Gonne; Swift; Somerville and Ross (her spirit); Moore and Manet; Joyce’s secret visit to Dublin; fictional debut.

Buzzlearn website places his wealth at $1-6 million earned in his primary career as a writer [online]

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