Thomas F. Shea is Associate Professor of English at the University of Connecticut. His current research focuses on Ireland’s Blasket Island writers, primarily Tomás O’Crohan, Peig Sayers, and Maurice O’Sullivan. He is the author of Flann O’Brien’s Exorbitant Novels (1992), which received an “Outstanding Academic Book Award” from the Association of College and Research Libraries. His articles on Flann O’Brien, Patrick McGinley, Tomás O’Crohan, and Peig Sayers have appeared in a variety of journals such as Eire-Ireland, New Hibernia Review, Irish Studies Review, Twentieth Century Literature, The Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies, and The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies.