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Irish Emigrant Book Review, No.60 (July 2000)
Hungry for Home
by Cole Moreton
- Moreton, an Englishman who acknowledges being drawn to the south-west
of Ireland, has undertaken a journey from the Blasket Islands to Springfield,
Massachusetts, spanning 100 years, in an attempt to understand the Irish-speaking
people who inhabited the rugged islands off the coast of Kerry. Drawing
on local legend, archive material and interviews with the islanders and
their families on both sides of the Atlantic, he has succeeded in highlighting
the hardship and the sense of community inherent in the island way of
life.
Taking as his starting point the death of 25-year-old Seainin O Cearna
on Christmas Eve, 1946 with neither a doctor nor a priest in attendance,
the author traces the decline of Great Blasket as a community and the
scattering of its children. Alternating between accounts of life fifty
years ago and his own journey of discovery, Moreton’s superb use of language
brings to the reader a picture of a people fighting both the elements
and the government to retain their way of life. When the latter fails
them they make the decision to leave their island home, some to travel
no further than Dunquin but many of the younger ones joining the legions
of Blasket exiles in the US. On each step of his journey Cole Moreton
conjures up a 50- or 100-year old picture of emigration as he follows
in the footsteps of the islanders whose past and future lives were perhaps
more in contrast than any other immigrants. Also in stark contrast is
the life lived by those who stayed in Ireland and those who settled in
Springfield. Springfield-based Mike Carney, brother to Seainin O Cearna,
expressed sympathy for Sean and Muiris Guithin who had stayed in Ireland,
believing they had lost something by not going out into the world. The
Guithins, however, were content with their lives, even in old age looking
towards Blasket first thing every morning; their only regret was not having
accepted electricity when it was offered to them.
“Hungry for Home” portrays a unique way of life which has now vanished,
as has the community spirit of the numerous islanders who made another
Great Blasket in Springfield. There is regret and a knowledge that going
home can never be “going home”, for the village no longer stands and the
island is inhabited only by seasonal visitors.
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Oliver St John
Gogarty by Ulick O’Connor
- First published more than thirty-five years ago, Ulick O’Connor’s biography
of Gogarty takes us back to a time when not only Gogarty, but his father
also, were still remembered by some Dubliners. Oliver St John Gogarty,
doctor, senator, sportsman, poet and wit makes an ideal subject for biography,
and the author has done his subject justice. He manages to recall for
the reader the days when a man could dedicate himself to entertaining
the dinner-tables of Dublin, London and New York while at the same time
having both a political and a literary dimension. The young Gogarty, having
taken some years to gain his medical degree, began practising as an ear,
nose and throat surgeon in Dublin after spending a short time in Europe
perfecting his operating skills. As a student he had been a close friend
of James Joyce, who immortalised him as “Stately Buck Mulligan” in “Ulysses”,
and he was to become an important figure in the literary life of the city,
counting among his friends both Yeats and AE. When political unrest and
civil war came to the country he became involved, being a great admirer
of Arthur Griffith. During the Civil War he welcomed Michael Collins into
his house on many occasions and allowed it to be used to store vital records.
While Gogarty had a great love and admiration for Collins, his feelings
for de Valera were quite the opposite, and the author explores the reasons
for this antipathy at some length. Perhaps the event of this period in
Gogarty’s life for which he is best remembered is his escape from an attempt
by armed gunmen to kidnap him, by swimming the Liffey; he subsequently
honoured a promise made while he was in the water by donating two swans
to the river, an act from which he took the title of one of his poetry
collections, “An Offering of Swans”.
Gogarty spent some years in both England and America, and made a number
of return trips from the US, intending eventually to come home for good.
It was not to be, however, and just a few weeks before he was to set sail
he was taken ill and died in New York in September 1957. So ended a life
that had been lived to the full; in the words of Professor Mario Rossi,
Gogarty was “the man who lives with full consciousness for that admirable
phenomenon which is called life”. In this biography Ulick O’Connor has
celebrated that enthusiasm for life, reinforcing the portrait with quotations
and extracts from Gogarty’s poems.
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The Poeple Vs
Catherine Nevin by Liz Walsh with Rita O’Reilly
- Although this book, like Niamh O’Connor’s on the same subject, shows
the signs of being hastily produced, Liz Walsh and Rita O’Reilly have
between them produced a more rounded version of the Catherine Nevin story.
This is in no small part due to the detail of the court proceedings which
form Rita O’Reilly’s contribution to the work, the descriptions of the
defendant’s stance and facial expressions while the trial was in progress
helping to convey the atmosphere of the proceedings. However what gave
this version the edge over “The Black Widow” was the fact that the authors
included some positive notes on the character of Mrs Nevin. This is not
to say that they are trying to paint her in a good light; indeed the book
opens with a quotation from another notorious female murderer, Lady Macbeth.
However we do hear from Catherine Nevin’s own family, and from her former
teachers, to the effect that there was nothing in her childhood or youth
to indicate such a future. It is also emphasized that Catherine could
be extremely generous. If one of her staff suffered a bereavement she
would invite the entire funeral party to Jack White’s where she provided
a full meal totally free of charge. It would also appear that the authors
had a greater degree of co-operation from the brothers and sisters of
Tom Nevin, and their reactions and comments add greatly to the picture
we build up of their unpopular sister-in-law.
Where the two books coincide is in the emphasis each lays on Catherine
Nevin’s extra-marital affairs which were said to be legion, though only
one man actually admitted to having had an affair with her. Both also
give details of the alleged overdose that forced the adjournment of the
trial for a number of days, but of the two, “The People Vs Catherine Nevin”
gives greater coverage to the controversy surrounding the transferral
of the pub licence to Mrs Nevin, granted by Judge Donnchadh O Buachalla
in circumstances which have led to the setting up of a special inquiry.
The conclusion to be drawn from both works, however, is that we may never
know either the name of the person who fired the shot which killed Tom
Nevin, or what exactly were Catherine Nevin’s motives for orchestrating
the murder.
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The Connemara
Bus by Ann Milholland Webb
- Although on the face of it this is the story of one man’s contribution
to his community, a major part of “The Connemara Bus” concerns the author’s
search for, and discovery of, peace after a bereavement. Following the
death of her husband, Ann Milholland Webb travelled to Ireland to visit
her younger brother and to undertake that favourite occupation of so many
visiting Americans, a search for her roots. This search led her to Connemara
and a meeting with Hugh Ryan, driver of the Connemara bus as it follows
the route taken by his grandfather, Andrew Ferguson, for more than thirty
years. From the time of their meeting Ann’s attempt to come to terms,
not only with the death of her husband, but the earlier death of her father,
is intertwined with stories of Hugh’s grandfather and we are introduced
to a cast of characters from the past and present, ranging from an eccentric
Scottish landowner to a backpacking Australian. Such is the vividness
of the writing that the rapport which develops between the visiting American
and the Irish bus driver is almost tangible. Indeed it is through Hugh
that Ann fulfils one of her ambitions, to “get to know an Irish family
and experience a portion of their tenderness”.
Having been told some of the detail of Andrew Ferguson’s life, I was anxious
to reach that part of the book that would elaborate on this and finally,
in Chapter Thirteen, my patience was rewarded. Andrew, from Oughterard,
was only 18 when he embarked on a career that would take him to the Police
Force in Shanghai, where he met his English wife, Daisy. Filial duty brought
him home to run the family bar and it is from that time that his good
business sense led him to develop, first a delivery service to his more
remote neighbours, and then the original Connemara Bus. Andrew took his
passengers to the market in Galway, on pilgrimages to Knock, on evening
trips to play bingo or to go to dances, and into Galway for the Christmas
shopping. The service was particularly liberating for the huge numbers
of women living in the country districts who seldom had the opportunity
to leave their homes, since they were now able to travel to market with
their eggs and butter, their vegetables and live poultry, and the bus
became popularly known as Bus na mBan.
Although the bus now following the route is not the original, it is of
the same type and vintage and has allowed Andrew Ferguson’s family to
commemorate a man who is remembered with respect and affection by so many.
The renewal of Andrew’s journeys undertaken by his grandson Hugh has also
enabled Ann Milholland Webb to find what she refers to as her “pathway
of renewal”, and so the book becomes an interesting mix of local history,
reminiscence and spiritual renaissance.
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There is a Time
- ed. Mary Willis & Mary Cahalane
- This series of memories produced by the Day Care Centre in Skibbereen
contains the usual mixture of reminiscences. We hear of childhood days,
the excitement of Christmas, the harshness of the farmer’s life and the
community spirit which is no longer as strong. However this collection
has an immediacy and freshness to it which is a rarer characteristic of
the genre. The opening chapter, dealing with matchmaking and marriage,
has a wonderful story about a priest whose innocence of colloquial expression
caused great hilarity among his listeners. I feel sure it was this episode
that caused a note in the preface to the effect that the material should
be “taken in good spirit”. A further chapter providing some amusement
among the remedies, is entitled “Herbal Cures”. Here we are reminded that
nettle stings can be eased with dock leaves, that puffy eyes can be treated
with cucumber. Rather more startling is the advice, “Boil a mouse in milk
and give it to a child to drink and it was said to prevent him/her wetting
the bed”. Similarly, while I can believe that putting salt on the tongue
could be effective in preventing cramps, I do wonder about the advice
to “turn slippers upside down under the bed”. This blend of anecdotes,
poems and contemporary photographs brings to mind a world that is gone
but will strike a chord in the memories of many.
New Series:
Departures, Vol.4 ed. John Doorty
- This volume of “New Series: Departures” is a beautiful tribute to the
late Cyril O Ceirin, poet and artist. It contains poems in Irish by Cyril,
with English translations by various Irish writers. It also contains poems
in Cyril’s memory by some of the best practitioners of poetry in Ireland
today: Moya Cannon, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Michael Davitt, Cathal O Searcaigh,
Gabriel Rosenstock, Sean O Donnchu (alias John O’Donohue) and an exceptional
poem, An Leicimeir, by the late Micheal O hAirtneide (Michael Hartnett).
There’s a good photograph of Cyril on the front cover of the book and
a nice photograph of his painting, Easter Burren, on the back cover; and
some more of Cyril’s paintings decorate the body of the book. And there’s
more, much more. There’s a clever, amusing essay, “Titles”, by John Saul,
prize-winning poems by Tom French, Noel King and Hugh O’Donnell and prize-winning
stories by Valerie Sirr, Peter Sweeney and Deirdre Devally. “Make you
Look” by Valerie Sirr is essential reading for anyone with a teenage daughter,
and any couple wishing to put back a bit of pep in their waning sex-life
should definitely read “On the Verge” by Deirdre Devally. And there is
still more. Here are 100 pages of quality celebration in print. Review
by Padraic Breathnach
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The Giant’s
Causeway and the North Antrim Coast by Philip Watson
- It would be hard to decide which is the more successful in the reissue
of this 1992 book, the text or the photographs, since both give an insight
into different aspects of this wonder of nature. Philip Watson moves easily
from myth to geology in explaining the origins of the basalt pillars,
and is equally at home in giving the history of the area, with many references
to famous visitors to the site such as William Makepeace Thackeray. The
different eras of management are also explored, with the modern emphasis
on conservation being particularly well-detailed, and the landmarks and
walking routes of the causeway are also given close attention. The colour
photographs give a vivid impression of the geology, flora and fauna of
the Antrim coast while the photographs of the people who made a living
at the site, and the visitors for whom they acted as guides, give a realistic
feel for the history of the Giant’s Causeway as a tourist attraction.
Saltair by Arna
Roghnu ag Padraig O Fiannachta
- This is a collection of prayers from the Irish tradition, first published
in 1988, covering all areas of life from praise to forgiveness, from morning
prayers to blessings. Each prayer has on its facing page a translation
into English by Desmond Forristal, who has stressed that he has endeavoured
to reflect the Irish way of thinking and speaking. This he has achieved
to great effect in the translation of the prayer “Trocaire De”, “The Mercy
of God”:
“Did not the man of the eleventh hour Get a day’s pay like the man of
the third? The slow dog is often lucky. There is generosity and mercy
in my King.”
The prayers are taken from everyday, from poetry and from theologians,
but all give an insight into the particular world of Celtic Christianity.
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The Road to
Donaguile by Herbert O’Driscoll
- This is an utterly enchanting series of reminiscences pinpointing the
spiritual experiences of childhood which helped lead the author to the
Anglican priesthood; “We tend to think that faith comes on the carefully
constructed highways of teaching, study, and information. Yet who knows
by what unexpected byways of childhood experience there comes a much deeper
perception of what lies at the heart of things?” Donaguile was his mother’s
home in Co. Kilkenny and here the young Herbert O’Driscoll spent the idyllic
summers of his childhood. He is deeply affected by his two contrasting
experiences of death, the acceptance and lack of fear apparent in the
death of Mrs Griffin in Cork, where the O’Driscoll family lived, and the
horror of the pig-killing in Donaguile which had taken him “beyond the
first frontier of a mysterious country that lies beyond childhood lands”.
The author, now ministering in Canada, paid a visit to Glendalough last
year where he reflected on the fascination which the Celtic world and
Celtic spirituality now holds for millions of Americans.
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Women and Christianity
by Mary T. Malone
- The subtitle of this work, “The First Thousand Years”, might seem a
little off-putting, but the content is absolutely enthralling, charting
as it does the gradual erosion of gender equality in the early days of
the church to the almost total subjugation of women by the 10th century.
The author, who has recently retired as Professor of Theology at Toronto
School of Theology, uses a number of examples to illustrate the decline
from the house-churches in the first century through the 4th century cult
of the virgin, upon which was based the traditional view of Mary, to the
gradual domination of female monasteries by the exclusively male Church
authorities. Although they have been virtually written out of history,
such religious leaders as Phoebe and Prisca, martyrs like Perpetua and
Felicitas, and missionaries such as Frideswide who founded Oxford in the
7th century have played a pivotal part in the development of the Christian
Church. Ms Malone presses the case for the reinstatement of women in the
Church and cites the example of Pope Joan as proof that there is no logical
reason why women cannot take an equal place beside men in today’s church.
The author has demonstrated convincingly that it was often the women who
led the way during the first one thousand years of the Church’s existence.
Renmore and
its Environs by Norbert Sheeran
- This is the second book by Norbert Sheeran on his own area of Galway,
the first being published in 1977. In this volume we are given a very
clear picture of the enormous change that has come over the city suburb
since building first started there in the 1960s. Some of the older residents
have recorded their memories of Renmore when it was green fields surrounded
by a small number of large houses, including Merview House, now the home
of Tara China, and Renmore House which still exists as part of the Woodlands
complex. Particular attention is paid to the village of Ballyloughane,
separated as it now is by the railway bridge, and the use by its residents
of both land and sea in their daily struggle to survive. The author does
not, however, dwell exclusively on the past, as he also reflects on the
way in which the present population of Renmore has become a successful
and cohesive community through its various voluntary organisations, helped
in no small part by the early members of the Residents Association who
had the foresight to urge the retention of thirty acres of land for recreational
use.
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