Prema Talks & Reads: The Irish Goodbye

with Heather Aimee O’Neill

Q&A with Amanda Sidran

Please join long-time Prema student Heather Aimee O’Neill for an intimate afternoon of reading, reflection, and dialogue as part of our Prema Talks & Reads series. We’ll explore The Irish Goodbye — a layered and emotionally compelling novel about family, grief, and the ties that both bind and fracture us.

About The Irish Goodbye

The Irish Goodbye is the debut novel of Heather Aimee O’Neill. The story follows three estranged sisters — Cait, Alice, and Maggie — who return to their childhood home on Long Island for Thanksgiving, carrying years of guilt, grief, and untold secrets. When an unexpected guest from their past arrives, tensions rise, resentments surface, and old wounds threaten to unravel the fragile ties that remain.

Told through alternating perspectives, the novel weaves past and present as the sisters confront the accident that shattered their family years ago and grapple with choices that may lead to forgiveness—or further rupture.

Praise for The Irish Goodbye describes it as a “rich, compassionate novel about sisterhood, marriage, grief, and forgiveness,” with “long-suppressed family secrets” and deeply felt emotional stakes.

About Heather Aimee O’Neill

Heather Aimee O’Neill is a poet, writer, and developmental editor based in Brooklyn. Her poetry collections include Memory Future and Obliterations, and she has guided many emerging writers through the Sackett Street Writers’ Workshop. The Irish Goodbye is her first novel and was selected as a Today Show #ReadWithJenna book club pick. She lives with her wife and two sons.

Saturday December 6th

2pm-3:30pm

$10 community rate. All proceeds to Prema Hummingbirds.