The Final Word A hands on guide to find your family within the county Tipperary . New; Full size 8 1/2 x 11; 76 pages; heavier parchment type cover; illustrations, some of which may appear faded with age as in the originals; County Map; Local Sources; Coats of Arms; and record extracts. Many families are given with family history notes, specific locations; coat of arms; and seats of power. Some are only mentioned. A must for any researcher. ( For a large collection of family histories within the county we also recommend "The Book of Irish Families, great & small", by O'Laughlin.)
“My wooing began in passion, was defined by violence and circumscribed by land; all these elements molded my soul.” So writes Charles O’Brien, the unforgettable hero of bestselling author Frank Delaney’s extraordinary novel—a sweeping epic of obsession, profound devotion, and compelling history involving a turbulent era that would shape modern Ireland. Born into a respected Irish-Anglo family in 1860, Charles loves his native land and its long-suffering but irrepressible people. As a healer, he travels the countryside dispensing traditional cures while soaking up stories and legends of bygone times–and witnessing the painful, often violent birth of land-reform measures destined to lead to Irish independence. At the age of forty, summoned to Paris to treat his dying countryman–the infamous Oscar Wilde–Charles experiences the fateful moment of his life. In a chance encounter with a beautiful and determined young Englishwoman, eighteen-year-old April Burke, he is instantly and passionately smitten–but callously rejected. Vowing to improve himself, Charles returns to Ireland, where he undertakes the preservation of the great and abandoned estate of Tipperary, in whose shadow he has lived his whole life–and which, he discovers, may belong to April and her father. As Charles pursues his obsession, he writes the “History” of his own life and country. While doing so, he meets the great figures of the day, including Charles Parnell, William Butler Yeats, and George Bernard Shaw. And he also falls victim to less well-known characters–who prove far more dangerous. Tipperary also features a second “historian:” a present-day commentator, a retired and obscure history teacher who suddenly discovers that he has much at stake in the telling of Charles’s story. In this gloriously absorbing and utterly satisfying novel, a man’ s passion for the woman he loves is twinned with his country’s emergence as a nation. With storytelling as sweeping and dramatic as the land itself, myth, fact, and fiction are all woven together with the power of the great nineteenth-century novelists. Tipperary once again proves Frank Delaney’s unrivaled mastery at bringing Irish history to life. Praise for Tipperary “The narrative moves swiftly and surely. . . . A sort of Irish Gone With the Wind, marked by sly humor, historical awareness and plenty of staying power.”—Kirkus Reviews “Another meticulously researched journey…Delaney’s careful scholarship and compelling storytelling bring it uniquely alive. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal (starred)
The Little Book of Tipperary is a compendium of fascinating, obscure, strange and entertaining facts about County Tipperary. Here you will find out about Tipperary's industrial past, its proud sporting heritage, its arts and culture and its famous (and occasionally infamous) men and women. Through quaint villages and bustling towns, this book takes the reader on a journey through County Tipperary and its vibrant past. A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped into time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage and the secrets of this varied county.
County Tipperary, the second largest county in Ireland, has a rich and colourful history that has inspired many myths and legends. A selection of the best are retold here, collected and reworked by professional storyteller Aideen McBride. Within these pages you will discover how the first settlers came to Ireland, what might happen if you join in the singing of the fairies of Knockgrafton and where treasure is said to be buried; you will learn how Lough Derg, the 'lake of the bloody eye', and Slievenamon Mountain, 'the mountain of the women', got their names; you will meet legendary Irish poets, pipers and shoemakers and the first King of Cashel, Conall Corc; and be told the stories of the legendary Battle of Widow McCormack's Cabbage Patch. From age-old legends and fantastical myths to amusing anecdotes and cautionary tales, this collection is a heady mix of bloodthirsty, funny, passionate and moving stories. It will take you into a remarkable world where you can let your imagination run wild.
Full of amusement, this series of fictional tales starts with a Galwayman's arrival in Tipperary's post-famine days and portrays the daily lives of a hillside community. Written in the colloquial and lyrical language of some of our ancestors, it tells - amongst others - such diverse stories as the reliance of families on children rabbit-poaching, on the pre-dawn cattle-droving days of a young school-leaver, the re-appearance of a dead girl to her newly-born sister...along with a number of love-hate incidents, like the townie scorn for a mountainy man at the show-fair, before he walks off with the big trophy!
Maurice Neal was 15 when he joined the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in 1906. By the time his regiment was shipped off to the Somme to fight in the First World War, he was a relatively experienced young sergeant. He and his men soon found themselves plunged into the full horror of trench warfare, daily enduring the shock of losing comrades and lying for hours in the mud surrounded by dead and injured fellow soldiers and deafened by the thunder of the bombs and guns. Throughout, Maurice kept a candid and beautifully-written diary of events: “Suddenly, a convulsion shakes him from head to foot and he lies still. The blood rapidly drains away from his face and hands. He turns ashen grey, and I realize that no more will Paddy sing to us… I look to the man on my right. He is making a gurgling noise and blood is oozing from his mouth – he does not live long. What are our orders? Are we to lie like this until a bullet accounts for us all?” Now, almost a century later, Maurice’s diary can be published in full, thanks to the efforts of his granddaughter, Stephanie Hillier.
