Mike Barry and the Kentucky Irish American

the long version

The Kentucky Irish American began life in 1898 as one of many ethnic newspapers in America, but by its final years it attracted an avid national audience of many ethnicities. From 1925, the KIA was owned and edited by the Barry family of Louisville: by John J. Barry to 1950, and by his son Michael to its demise in 1968. This anthology focuses on the Mike Barry years - a time of Cold War and Vietnam, of McCarthy, Goldwater, Kennedy, Nixon, and Happy Chandler. Under Mike's brilliant editorship, the KIA offered its readers a richly textured, pungent voice that combined humor with a constant push for social improvement in Kentucky and in the nation.