As the Twig is Bent: A Portrait of the Teacher as a Young Man
A boy evolves to a man. What shapes him, nurtures him, supports and challenges him? Over the decades from his deep ancestral roots along the rugged West Coast of Ireland to his own beautiful home port in coastal Maine, the shaping of the boy emerges as he grows and changes. Grandparents he never knew, loving parents he knew every day; family, friends, classmates, mentors and fellow travelers – all provide love, guidance, challenge and support. Young Coley Folan evolves, gaining insight, purpose, wisdom and humor; all of these he passes on to those he cares about. Share this journey with Coley as he explores and traverses this landscape where the confluence of nature and nurture pave the way for him to an inevitable vocation as a teacher and a scholar.
As the Twig is Bent is the third book of a historical trilogy. Michael Connolly's first book, Murky Overhead, was published in 2021. The second book of the trilogy, Ever the Twin Shall Meet, was published in 2024.
Published 2025. ISBN: 979-8-9916115-5-8
Michael C. Connolly is a life-long resident of Portland’s Munjoy Hill. His experiences growing up in what was one of the city’s predominantly Irish and Italian working-class neighborhoods greatly shaped his thinking. This left a continuing influence on his writing. He was encouraged by his parents to be the first in his family to graduate from high school, let alone college.
He earned his B.A. in Social Sciences at Florida Southern College (1973), his M.A. in Modern Irish History at University College Dublin (1977), and finally his PhD in American Immigration History at Boston College (1988). Beginning in 1984, he taught for 36 years in the Department of History and Political Science at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine. Mike retired in May 2020 and now holds the honorary title of Professor Emeritus.
His research has focused on Irish and Irish American history and the labor movement in Ireland and America. In 2004, the University of Maine Press published his edited collection of essays, They Change Their Sky: The Irish in Maine. Along with Dr. Kevin Stoehr of Boston University, he co-edited another collection of essays, John Ford in Focus: Essays on the Filmmaker’s Life and Work, published by McFarland in 2006. In 2010, the University Press of Florida published the book largely based on his Boston College dissertation, Seated by the Sea: The Maritime History of Portland, Maine, and Its Irish Longshoremen. In 2016 he completed a documentary film, Building Bridges: Connections between Maine’s Governor Joseph Brennan and Senator George Mitchell. Mike’s first work of historical fiction, Murky Overhead, was published by Tower Publishing in 2021. Murky is the story of an immigrant family living in Portland, Maine, at the turn of the 20th century. This second novel, Ever the Twain Shall Meet, moves the story forward a generation to Portland in the 1930s and 1940s.
In October of 2016, Mike received the Claddagh Award from the Maine Irish Heritage Center in recognition of his promotion of Irish history and culture in Maine. During sabbatical leaves from Saint Joseph’s College, he was pleased to offer history courses for the Semester at Sea program on its around-the-world voyages in Spring 2004, Spring 2011, Fall 2017, and Spring 2023. He still resides on his beloved Munjoy Hill along with his life partner and anam cara, Becky Hitchcock.
“Michael Connolly’s historical novel, As the Twig is Bent, effortlessly captures the intersection of ancient wisdom, political critique, and personal reflection of a life lived in Portland, Maine. In a new era of growing ‘placelessness’ and division, As the Twig is Bent gives us cause to remember and celebrate our roots and neighborhoods and [to] take the best of those traditions into the world and all its beauty. As the ‘new’ Portland, Maine, is quickly replacing the old, Connolly reminds us of the best of what the gritty, yet graceful ‘old’ neighborhoods of the “Forest City” offered for those lucky enough to have called them home.”
~ Dr. Mark Hibben, Professor of History and Political Science at
Saint Joseph’s College of Maine
“A Protestant boy growing up on Munjoy Hill above the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Portland, Maine, goes to the South to attend a Methodist college in Florida and comes home to the Hill, studies in Ireland, and becomes a distinguished history professor in a small Roman Catholic college nearby. Through all these adventures, his heart beats to ‘a different drum,’ as he challenges cultural norms both in the north and the south of our country. His curiosity, outgoing friendliness, and natural charm endear him to many and various individuals. How blessed we are to have encountered and walked with him at different stages in his journey.”
~ Bishop S. Clifton and Jane Ives,
Retired United Methodist Bishop and Portland residents
“Mike Connolly recaptures our days growing up and entering adulthood on Portland’s Munjoy Hill neighborhood. Mike vividly describes the characters, school and neighborhood memories and unique relationships and experiences that shaped the life of Coley, the book’s protagonist. As a historian, Connolly also weaves in real historical events affecting Coley’s perspective of what was happening in the world.”
~ David Brenerman, former Portland mayor, city councilor and state legislator
“As The Twig Is Bent is a most enjoyable read, sketching out the many chapters and life experiences and travels of one Coley Folan, from his youth on Portland’s Munjoy Hill all the way back and forth to many travels to Ireland and elsewhere. It incorporates his graduate education in Ireland and Boston, and through to decades of college and university teaching in Maine. Readers will appreciate the familiar names and places within the Portland community, the many local Irish personalities mentioned here and back in Ireland, sprinkled throughout with Irish Gaelic phrases and expressions. It is fun reading, so sit back and absorb Coley’s life experiences in the merged cultures of Ireland, on that beautiful green island, and here at home where so many of her sons and daughters settled and thrived. Sláinte.”
~ Kevin W. Concannon, Former Maine Commissioner of Health and Human
Services and Former Under Secretary, United States Department of Agriculture
“Set against the backdrop of the turbulent late 1960s and early ’70s, As the Twig is Bent follows Irish-American writer Mike Connolly on a deeply personal journey—from his first exhilarating days in 1972 Dublin to graduate studies at UCD, the search for family roots in Connemara, and a months-long solo trek across Europe and the Middle East. What begins as a youthful adventure becomes a lifelong transformation, ending where it began—in Portland, Maine, and the streets of his childhood with new eyes and a fuller heart, settling once again in the neighborhood that shaped him. Rich with humor, heart, and hard-earned wisdom, this is a coming-of-age memoir for anyone who has ever searched for where they truly belong. Connolly’s odyssey is a mirror of a generation longing to find its place in a shifting world.”
~ Jean Haney, Entrepreneur with a Passion for Community Storytelling and Heritage
“Michael Connolly’s fine eye for history is paired with a warm heart for his community—the Portland neighborhood in which he sported and played as a youngster; the wider U.S. where he studied and traveled with friends later on; Ireland, where he came home again and found deep roots; and the academic world into which he happily settled. His latest book takes the reader on an engaging journey through his life and times—and all of these worlds.”
~ Ellen D. Murphy, MA, Gaelic Literature, University College, Cork
“In this third book of his Irish historical trilogy, Mike Connolly once again captures the ethos of his youth in Portland, Maine, along with the meandering and illuminating journey to a career as a master teacher. His characters and experiences are full of vigor and wry humor, while the occasional missteps always seem to resolve themselves with a happy ending—and another life lesson learned. Coley Folan and his family, like so many other immigrants, then and now, understood the power of education and assimilation—and that experience is often the best teacher. If there is an underlying theme in As the Twig is Bent, it is that perseverance, passion and persuasion can overcome almost any challenge. Maith thú, Michael!”
~ Rusty Atwood is a retired educator and former Trustee of the Maine Historical
Society; Sue Atwood is a retired educator. They reside in Gorham, Maine
$7.00 via US Mail
