About
ABOUT GO HOME PADDY: Paddy Brennan is just off the boat. Things in Boston are not that much better than they were in Ireland; minus the Potato Famine, of course. It’s 1847, and the Irish are setting sail in massive numbers for the New World. They flee the Famine and English oppression fueled by a view of the Irish as an inferior race. On American shores, Paddy is finding the same miseries that he had left behind on the other side of the Atlantic: bigotry, poverty and hatred. The Americans seem to detest the Irish — and in no city are they more despised than in Boston, where the natives regard England as their mother country and where, at one point, the Puritans had banned Christmas for being too Catholic! Paddy’s parents are dead, he has no job prospects and he’s haunted not only by what he saw during the Famine, but also by his experiences while crossing the ocean on one of the many infamous “Coffin Ships”. Paddy will have to fight for his rights, his religion and his very life if he’s going to survive in Boston. And what will happen if Paddy and his fellow immigrants assimilate? Will they remember their torturous pasts, or will they simply move up the ethnic ladder and look down on those considered different? GO HOME PADDY, a web-comic, is the tale of one Irish immigrant’s aching struggle to find his way in a Bostonian society that fears and hates him while not forgetting his people’s wretched history.
Heartbreaking, thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting, this unique narrative incorporates historical details such as the Great Hunger, the rise of the Know-Nothings, Victorian prejudices and the Great Boston Fire of 1872. GO HOME PADDY is also timely as it examines the role of immigration, race relations and religion in American society — hot political topics of today. GO HOME PADDY is a graphic novel of around 120-140 pages and illustrated using the Victorian simian stereotype of the Irish.
A short video describing GO HOME PADDY and its genesis can be viewed HERE.
ABOUT JOHN A. WALSH: John A. Walsh was born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut; he was the last of his parents’ five boys. He graduated from the School of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University and lives with his wife Rachel and daughter Fiona Maeve in Boston. John is currently creating the Great Irish-American Graphic Novel— GO HOME PADDY — which is being serialized on this website. While continuing to be the Editorial Cartoonist at The South End News in Boston, John is also writing a screenplay with Boston filmmaker Daniel Small. John’s clients include Harvard University, Boston University, Brigham & Woman’s Hospital (Partners Organization), the Hannaford Supermarket chain and many others. He’s available for freelance projects and commissions both large and small. More of his work can be found at: www.johnawalsh.net
He can be contacted at: john@johnawalsh.net and can also be found on Twitter as: thickmick
CV available HERE.
