An account of a journey through western Ireland made in 1984, fulfilling a childhood dream of a long-distance ride. The story centres on the growing bond between the author and her Connemara pony, Mollie and the many challenges that they face before the tragic conclusion in the mountains of Kerry. It is also a portrait of rural Ireland before the "Celtic Tiger" era, built up from conversations with the local people. The journey takes them through Counties Galway, Mayo, Clare and Kerry, the obstacles to their progress ranging from bogs, stone walls, and the River Shannon. "I've never tried hitchhiking with a horse before" comments the author. "It's not easy." She travelled with no set route, extending her backpacking knowledge acquired in the Andes to horse packing, "seeing the obvious advantage of climbing mountains on someone else's legs and using another's back for the packing."
A historian's personal journey into the complex questions of immigration, home and nation From Ireland to London in the 1950s, Derry in the Troubles to contemporary, de-industrialised Manchester, Joyce finds the ties of place, family and the past are difficult to break. Why do certain places continue to haunt us? What does it mean to be British after the suffering of Empire and of war? How do we make our home in a hypermobile world without remembering our pasts? Patrick Joyce's parents moved from Ireland in the 1930s and made their home in west London. But they never really left the homeland. And so as he grew up among the streets of Paddington and Notting Hill and when he visited his family in Ireland he felt a tension between the notions of home, nation and belonging. Going to My Father's House charts the historian's attempt to make sense of these ties and to see how they manifest in a globalised world. He explores the places - the house, the street, the walls and the graves - that formed his own identity. He ask what place the ideas of history, heritage and nostalgia have in creating a sense of our selves. He concludes with a plea for a history that holds the past to account but also allows for dynamic, inclusive change.
The New York Times–bestselling saga: In nineteenth-century Ireland, a titled English family keeps an estate in an era of famine and violent conflict. When Edward de Salis travels to America after the death of his first wife, he is astonished to find himself falling in love with Marguerite, a young woman many years his junior. Full of hope for the future, he returns to his Irish estate, Cashelmara, but in nineteenth-century Ireland—a country racked by poverty and famine—his family eventually becomes trapped in a sinister spiral of violence that Edward could never have foreseen. Cashelmara follows the fortunes of three generations as they struggle to survive both the tragedies of history and their own chaotic lives. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Susan Howatch including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.
These are the opening eleven chapters of Henry Coulter book 'The West of Ireland: Its Existing Condition and Prospects', first published in 1862. It offers local historians and genealogists access to a print version of the specific sections of this important book as it relates to Counties Athlone, Clare and Galway and the Connemara area. Coulter reports on poor harvests and the prospect of impending famine and state of agriculture and trade. The book gives a contemporary account of workhouses, gombeen men, high rents and evictions. It is a treasure trove for those interested in the history of the area and for for those with ancestral roots in the areas reported on. This edition has been enhanced by the inclusion of an index and extensive footnotes not found in the original or in other scanned editions of the book.
Award-winning producer and journalist Daire Whelan had reached the end of another busy week and couldn't shake the feeling that life was passing him by too quickly. Vowing to make a change, he decided to commit to a year of fly fishing and set about planning his route through the wild and rugged landscape of Ireland. Here, in Haunted by Waters: A Journey into the Irish Countryside we travel with Daire throughout a season of fly fishing. But as he searches for a sense of meaning, meeting kindred spirits as he explores the rivers and lakes, Daire finds himself rediscovering the majestic beauty of his native country. From fishing on our most secluded bays and wildest loughs in Connemara and Kerry, to casting a line on the rippling waters of the Suir in Tipperary, catching salmon on the Blackwater in Waterford, and the serenity of the Dodder in Dublin on a workday afternoon, Haunted by Waters is an evocative and stunning love letter to Ireland through a sport rich in tradition and storytelling.
The triumphant conclusion to Tim Robinson's extraordinary Connemara trilogy, which Robert Macfarlane has called 'one of the most remarkable non-fiction projects undertaken in English'. Robinson writes about the people, places and history of south Connemara - one of Ireland's last Gaelic-speaking enclaves - with the encyclopaedic knowledge of a cartographer and the grace of a born writer. From the man who has been praised in the highest terms by Joseph O'Connor ('One of contemporary Ireland's finest literary stylists''), John Burnside ('one of the finest of contemporary prose stylists'), Fintan O'Toole ('Simply one of the best non-fiction prose writers currently at work') and Giles Foden ('an indubitable classic'), among many others, this is one of the publishing events of 2011 and the conclusion of one of the great literary projects of our time. 'One of the greatest writers of lands ... No one has disentangled the tales the stones of Ireland have to tell so deftly and retold them so beautifully' Fintan O'Toole 'He is that rarest of phenomena, a scientist and an artist, and his method is to combine scientific rigour with artistic reverie in a seamless blend that both informs and delights.' John Banville, Guardian 'The Proust & Ruskin of modern place-writing, deep-mapper of Irish landscapes, visionary thinker, and human of exceptional intellectual generosity & kindness. He was an immense inspiration to & encourager of me & my work' Robert Macfarlane 'A masterpiece of travel and topographical writing, and an incomparable and enthralling meditation on times past ... This perfectly pitched work opens readers up to the world around them' Sunday Times 'Will endure into the far future ... He knows this world as no one else does, and writes about it with awe and love, but also with measured grace, an artist's eye and a scientist's sensibility' Colm Toibin, Sunday Business Post Books of the Year 'Anyone willing to get lost in this book will be left with indelible mental images of places they may never have visited but will now never forget' Dermot Bolger, Irish Mail on Sunday
