This summer, Robert G. Lowery published the final issue of the Irish Literary Supplement, a biannual journal that provided readers approximately 2,000 reviews since 1982.
“I’m grateful to all those reviewers and editors who were with me from the start, and those who joined the journey at stops along the way,” the editor and publisher wrote on the American Conference of Irish Studies (ACIS) Facebook page.
Lowery’s message generated more than three dozen supportive comments and nearly 100 positive emoji reactions as of the date this story was published.
“You have rendered the world of Irish Studies, indeed anyone interested in this country, its diaspora and its rich cultural history, a dedicated and generous service,” wrote Piaras Mac Éinrí, lecturer in Migration Studies and Geography at University College Cork.
Lowery, 84, has been a member of ACIS since 1975. He is the author of six books on Irish dramatist Sean O’Casey (1880-1964). In the 1970s, Lowery was founder and editor of the journal The Sean O’Casey Review. Simultaneously, he was editor of the ACIS Newsletter for 10 years and the Irish Arts Center (New York City) magazine Ais-Eiri for five years. He organized numerous conferences and centenary celebrations about Casey, and in 1986 delivered his extensive archive of O’Casey memorabilia to the Boston College Library.
The final issue of the ILS.
For most of its run the ILS was a cooperative venture between Lowery, ACIS, which provided mailing labels of its membership, and the Irish Studies program at Boston College, which provided sponsorship. Circulation fluctuated depending on ACIS membership, while at peak about 400 libraries subscribed to the journal.
“Before ILS, which most people can’t remember, there were very few outlets for book reviews on Irish subjects,” Lowery wrote in reply to my outreach. “The Times Literary Supplement would have one issue per year where Irish books filled the pages. And of course, the Irish newspapers carried book reviews, but this was before the internet and the only way to get Irish papers was at a few newsstands in New York City, Boston, and maybe Washington, D.C.
Before the internet … Today book publishers routinely bypass independent reviewers to promote their titles through web pages, email lists, and social media feeds. It seems to me that ILS readers and the Irish Studies scholars who wrote the reviews are shortchanged by these newer marketing strategies.
“Bob listened to many of us try out our work, which meant that he also had a sense of who might be able to review works that crossed his desk,” Timothy G. McMahon, Ph.D., associate professor of Modern Irish and British Empire History at Marquette University, Milwaukee, and a past ACIS president, wrote in an email. “A lot of us, therefore, got experience reviewing in the pages of the ILS, including learning how to deal with a tough-minded editor who cast a critical eye over the text.”
The final issue of ILS featured 21 reviews of books from 13 U.S., U.K., and Irish publishers, with a display advertisement from Wake Forest University Press, a supporter of the journal for decades. “I think it’s a strong ending,” Lowery wrote.
So what’s next?
Is there a future for the ILS?
Lowery, who owns the title through a Long Island, N.Y., entity called Irish Studies, said he hopes “an enterprising scholar” will pick up where has left off.
“The key to keeping such a publication going is to get the endorsement of ACIS,” he continued. “If you’re going digital, you can simply post the paper on the ACIS Facebook site; but I don’t know how you will fund it. It is too expensive to print, and print is somewhat passe anyway. When I started in 1982, first class postage for a 20-page paper to Ireland and England was 60 cents. Today, it’s $6.00. There is no 2nd or 3rd class postage.”
The endeavor also requires “a good strong Irish editor,” Lowery added. “I was lucky to have them.”
I reached out to ACIS and Boston College. I welcome members of the Irish Studies community to provide their thoughts about continuing the ILS in some format.