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Irish Emigrant Book Review, No.80 (Mar 2002)
On A Clear Day
by Anne Doughty
- A chronicle of the progress of a young girl to adulthood, Anne Doughty’s
latest novel is again set in the Armagh countryside, a countryside for
which the author has a very obvious love. It is essentially the tale of
a child growing up in the 1950s against tremendous odds, having lost both
her parents at the age of nine. Although her family rallies round to help
Clare and her younger brother, William, it is an unsettling time, a time
of great sadness and insecurity for the bright little girl whose world
has fallen apart. Salvation comes in a strange form when her grandmother
dies and Clare decides her place is with her grandfather, Robert, at the
old forge. Meanwhile William has gone to live with his Hamilton grandparents
and his problematic childhood is a recurring theme throughout the narrative.
We follow Clare as she moves from primary to grammar school, as she gradually
learns to combine running her grandfather’s house with keeping up with
her studies and eventually achieving a scholarship to Queen’s in Belfast.
Her adolescence is brightened by her friendship with Jessie, the support
of her cousin Ronnie and her developing friendship with Andrew, the son
of the local ’big house’ who was, like herself, orphaned at an early age.
The inevitable death of her grandfather and the loss of her home leaves
Clare temporarily adrift again until she begins to understand that it
is people rather than place who constitute a home. This is a slow-moving
leisurely novel which dwells as lovingly on the different seasons in Armagh
as on the characters who inhabit it.
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Overnight To
Innsbruck by Denyse Woods
- Initially offputting, progressively enthralling and ultimately unsatisfying
would accurately summarise my feelings about Ms Woods’ novel. The device
of employing an eavesdropper as a means of telling the story of Richard
and Frances was irritating at first, but any irritation was soon lost
in the absorbing way in which the author tells the tale of doubt and missed
connections, of assumptions and missed opportunities. Richard and Frances
are travelling by train across the Nubian desert in Africa when they become
separated through a bizarre series of circumstances, and their subsequent
efforts to regain contact form the core of the narrative. Both suffer
doubts about the future of their relationship as much as they both suffer
from the extremes of the African climate, and both also receive help in
their quest from fellow travellers. The relentless heat of the desert
leaps off the pages and one almost experiences at first hand the raging
thirst of Richard and the heat-induced lethargy suffered by Frances. Far
from the deserts of Africa, the train to Innsbruck is where they meet
up again, four years after their journey in Africa, and it is where they
come to understand that they cannot pick up the threads, that they have
both moved on and that, in a cruel trick of fate, each has taken on the
perspective of the other in their way of life. Where Frances was the inveterate
traveller, she has now opted for a conventional life and is about to be
married, while Richard, who had made a career for himself in London and
travelled only to keep Frances in his life, has now settled in Egypt.
The inevitable parting of the ways is faithfully chronicled in the penultimate
chapter and this would have been the perfect point at which to close the
narrative. However Ms Woods has added a final chapter in which the eavesdropper
appears to have learnt from the story of Richard and Frances, that “the
true culprits were time and place”, and thereby ensures that her own life
is not similarly afflicted.
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Singing Stone,
Whispering Wind by Raymonde Standun And Bill Long
- Raymonde Standun had taken many photographs of the people of Spiddal
and the surrounding area when she realized that the subjects of her work
would all have an interesting story to tell. The subsequent series of
interviews she carried out now form the substance of this book and give
an account of life in a coastal village during the early and middle years
of the twentieth century. Many of the anecdotes and descriptions overlap,
giving a continuity to the chapters, and the importance of folk-memory
is emphasized again and again as the interviewees recall stories handed
down from their parents and grandparents. Many of those interviewed had
much to say on the subject of landlords, with the Killanins being universally
loved as much as the Blakes were universally disliked, and both Lord and
Lady Killanin have recorded for the authors their memories of Spiddal
and Connemara. Most interviews, however, were conducted with people whose
families have lived and worked the land in the area for generations, and
the length of their pedigree was often the first piece of information
given. Schooldays, the abundance of fish in the sea and rivers, fair days,
card playing and dances are all frequently mentioned, as are emigration,
p=F3it=EDn making and the annual visits of the “Gaeilgeori”. However a
darker side to life in the early decades of the last century was the incessant
toil, particularly for the women, who were expected to help their menfolk
in all the outdoor work as well as rearing the children and providing
food. Trips to the market in Galway are a common feature, with Martin
Flaherty remembering making his first trip to sell turf at the age of
nine. Nora McCluskey used to travel on a sidecar into Galway each Saturday
to sell her butter and eggs, but she remembers women who would make the
journey on foot carrying heavy baskets. A small number of outsiders now
resident in Connemara were also interviewed, including Gertrude and Martin
Degenhardt, a German couple who live in a thatched cottage in Spiddal,
and Jack Toohey, a Limerickman of Lithuanian descent whose family name
was originally Tooch. These add a new perspective to a view of life on
the western seaboard “from Barna to Carna” which has been preserved through
the expressive black and white photography and vivid colour images of
Raymonde Standun, and the editing skills of Bill Long.
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I’ll Know It
When I See It by Alice Carey
- This quest for home, written with humour, depth and honesty, is a sort
of “Angela’s Ashes” in reverse. Alice Carey grew up in a coldwater flat
in New York with an abusive father and a mother, known as Big Alice, who
constantly strove to improve their lives. Part of Big Alice’s dream was
to bring her daughter home to Ireland, and “home” was a recurring thread
in her conversation. But the life from which Alice and Denis Carey escaped
to New York was not one which she wanted her daughter to know, and her
attempts to discourage Little Alice from reading books about a poverty-stricken
Ireland only served to confuse the child. The opportunity to work for
a distinguished director gave the two Alices the means to make the journey
back to Kerry, a visit which was to have a lasting and negative effect
on their relationship. The young Alice was accepting of the deprivation
of life on the Kerry farm, but her view of her parents’ home place was
soured by the behaviour of her mother’s brother, Uncle Bob, who was a
priest in the almost too-familiar role nowadays of molester. The narrative
swings from New York and Kerry in the mid-20th century to Fire Ireland
and County Cork in the 1990s, when Alice and her husband Geoffrey make
the decision to sell up their home on Fire Ireland, where they have befriended
and finally cared for many AIDS sufferers, and buy a home in Ireland.
A 19th-century house with adjoining stables is chosen near Bantry and
the process of restoring the stables and of selling the house on Fire
Island invoke memories both good and bad of the author’s parents, her
childhood and the friends who made her education possible. Her contentment
is tinged with both fear and sadness prompted by external events, the
murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, the Omagh bombing of 1998 and the
death of Princess Diana. However the dominating presence of Big Alice
is as strong in life as in death and it is she who affirms that her daughter
has at last come “Home”. Alice Carey has lifted her book from the normal
run of “unhappy childhood” sagas by concentrating on the good things that
happened to her and by minimizing the hardship and physical brutality.
This has the effect of making “ I’ll Know It When I See It” a more positive
experience for the reader, an experience leaving a desire to read more.
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Archaeological
Objects From County Fermanagh by Williams & Gormley
- Brian Williams and Sarah Gormley have produced a remarkable work which
catalogues every artefact found within County Fermanagh over the last
one hundred and fifty years. Set out in two sections, the first covers
finds made by antiquarian surveys, in dredging or farming operations or
random finds, while the second part is concerned solely with artefacts
uncovered during archaeological excavations. The type, location, date
and map reference are given in each case, with readers being directed
to reference material on each find. Where either the date or present whereabouts
is uncertain this also is stated. This is by no means a dry list of artefacts,
however, for the authors have included an overview of the archaeology
of Fermanagh, which has been inhabited since the Mesolithic era, augmented
by a number of maps and a series of illustrations.
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A History Of
Irish Theatre, 1601-2000 by Chrisopher Morash
- Christopher Morash has chosen an interesting format for his history
of the theatre in Ireland, with the chronological narrative interspersed
with descriptions of particular, and notable, days and nights in theatres
in Dublin and Derry. In the early years of Irish theatre there was a strong
relationship between the court and the theatre, with one providing finance
while the other provided an opportunity for display. As theatre became
a stronger force the plays began to reflect the realities of both Irish
and English life, a fact which led to many of the incidents of objections
from the audience. The author gives an example of such a reaction in a
description of the trouble that broke out during and after a performance
in Smock Alley in 1754 which resulted in wholesale destruction being perpetrated
on the theatre itself. The introduction of touring theatre, which eventually
took in the United States, and the establishment of the national theatre
in the early years of the 20th century are among landmarks noted, with
audience reaction to J.M. Synge’s “Playboy of the Western World” an obvious
choice for one chapter of “A Night at the Theatre”. The author concludes
with an account of the diversity of Irish theatre at the beginning of
a new century which owes its existence and its diversity to the procession
of actors and theatre people over the last four hundred years.
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Irish Surnames
by Padraic O’Farrell
- lists the more common surnames to be found in Ireland, including variations.
For example details for the name Smith include Goan, Gow, Gowan, McCona,
Mac Gabhann, Magough, O Gabhan, O’Gowan and Smyth. The general location
for each name is given as well as a few examples of famous bearers of
that particular name.
Irish Saints
by Padraic O’Farrell
- gives a short biography of some of the lesser-known saints as well as
those with whom we are all familiar, such as St Brendan, St Colmcille
and St Patrick. The author has also included some interesting but not
always entirely believable anecdotes associated with the saints, and finally
a Litany of the Saints of Ireland.
Irish Superstitions
by Daithi O Hogain
- is divided into four sections focusing on superstitions to do with the
human body, those concerning our physical world, beliefs connected to
the animal and spirit world, and those which ruled the actions of daily
life. According to the author such superstitions, though they may appear
to be far-fetched, “always have something to tell about our attitudes
towards life and towards the world around us”.
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Irish Words
& Phrases by Diarmaid O Muirithe
- includes the familiar, keening, currach and jackeen, with the more unusual
words such as fushion, meaning nourishment; gudget (glutton); and alfraits
(a scoundrel). Here also the entries are categorized, in this instance
into Anglo-Irish, Ulster Irish and Hiberno-Irish sections, and the derivation
and geographical location for each word is explained.
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Finding Courage
by Joy Carol
- Joy Carol, who is currently a spiritual director and workshop leader,
has gathered together a series of testaments to personal courage in a
range of situations from terminal illness to internment in a concentration
camp. The book opens with three stories from people caught up in the attack
on the World Trade Center giving their reactions to the destruction, danger
and personal loss. More personal tragedy is experience by Noreen Hill,
the widow of one of the victims of the Enniskillen bombing, and Anna,
who was the only member of her family to survive the holocaust. Racial
prejudice in South Africa is revealed through the testimony of Anglican
priest Alan and his wife Jenny, while its counterpart in the US is the
subject of Betty’s contribution. The series concludes with a contribution
from the author who is herself facing serious illness. She also writes
a short introduction and conclusion to each chapter, outlining the troubles
faced and examining the way in which healing has been achieved through
courage.
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