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Sheila Killian brings Mungret-educated priest’s fight against white supremacy to life in new novel

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Limerick award-winning author Donal Ryan pictured with Sheila Killian at the launch.

Limerick-based author Sheila Killian shines new light on the remarkable story of a Mungret College-educated priest who stood up to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s America

‘Something Bigger’ celebrated its official European launch at the University of Limerick bookshop with special guest Donal Ryan.

A Limerick-based author is shining new light on the remarkable story of a Roscommon priest, educated at Mungret College, who stood up to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s America.

Celebrating its official European launch at University of Limerick’s bookshop on Thursday, April 23, the Sheila Killian novel ‘Something Bigger’ tells the story of Fr Jimmy Coyle, a Roscommon-born priest working in Birmingham, Alabama, who challenged racial segregation and preached inclusion at a time when doing so carried serious personal risk.

Set in the tense years after the First World War, the novel explores how Birmingham’s booming coal and steel industries brought wealth and power to some, while deepening divisions of race and class for others. At the centre of the story is Fr Coyle’s determination to build welcoming congregations across those divides — a stance that placed him in direct opposition to white supremacist movements gaining strength in the American South.


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The story is told through the voice of his younger sister Marcella, offering what Killian describes as a deeply personal perspective on a family shaped by courage, conviction and loss.

Sheila Killian shines new light on the story of a Mungret College-educated priest who stood up to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in America
The Limerick-based writer has a close connection to the story herself: she is the grand-niece of both Jimmy and Marcella Coyle, and the novel is based on real events from her own family history.

The Limerick-based writer has a close connection to the story herself: she is the grand-niece of both Jimmy and Marcella Coyle, and the novel is based on real events from her own family history.

Originally published in the United States during the Covid pandemic, the book has now been released in a new European edition printed in Ireland and featuring a redesigned cover. The Irish launch was performed by award-winning novelist Donal Ryan on Thursday, April 23.

Praise for the novel has already come from leading Irish writers. Donal Ryan described it as “a stunning, intensely engaging novel by a consummate storyteller,” while Liz Nugent called it “compelling, intriguing and skilful.”

Killian, who is based in Limerick and works as a teacher as well as a writer, said she hoped the book would introduce Irish readers to a little-known chapter of Irish diaspora history.

Something Bigger is available through selected Irish bookshops and can be ordered through local retailers nationwide or online.

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