HOLLAND, Edward John 1947-2004

(Jack Holland)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born June 4, 1947, in Belfast, Northern Ireland; died of lymphatic cancer, May 14, 2004, in New York, NY. Journalist and author. Holland was an authority on the culture and politics of Ireland, especially concerning the "troubles" between Catholics and Protestants in his native Northern Ireland. Studying literature and linguistics in college, he earned a B.A. from Trinity College in 1970 and an M.A. from Essex University in 1972. After freelancing for a year and teaching at the Language Center of Ireland for another year, Holland was an assistant editor at the Hibernia Fortnightly Review in Dublin in the mid-1970s and then worked as a researcher for the British Broadcasting Corp. in Belfast for a year. After another year of teaching at a community college, he became a full-time freelancer and over the next two decades wrote prodigiously about Ireland, though he moved to New York City to do it. Contributing hundreds of articles to magazines and newspapers such as the Nation and Village Voice, he published five nonfiction books, four novels, and two poetry collections. He also became senior editor and columnist at the New York-based weekly Irish Echo. His books concerning the conflict in Ireland include Too Long a Sacrifice: Life and Death in Northern Ireland since 1969 (1981), INLA: Deadly Divisions (1994), and Hope against History: The Course of Conflict in Northern Ireland (1999). Coming from a family where one parent was Protestant and the other Catholic, Holland was able to show both sides of the story in his writing, though he personally favored the side of the Catholic nationalists. He spent part of his time in recent years teaching at the Irish Art Center and at New York University. The last book Holland completed is called A Short History of Misogyny.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, May 21, 2004, section 1, p. 11.

Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland), May 15, 2004, p. 7.

New York Times, May 17, 2004, p. A23.

Sunday Times (London, England), May 16, 2004, p. 30.