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Irish Emigrant Book Review, No.94 (May 2003)
The
State of Grace – Catherine Donnelly
The heroine, a caring wife and mother, suddenly finds herself left to
rear her children when her husband walks out. With the support of the
children and a number of close friends, and resurrecting talents buried
under years of household drudgery, she emerges triumphant as a new woman
with a new career and newly acquired self-esteem. Thus runs the plot of
the average deserted wife novel, but Catherine Donnelly’s heroine is so
different, indeed different enough to make us laugh with her as well as
to empathise with her difficulties. For Grace’s immediate reaction to
being fired from her job in the advertising industry, on top of her husband
Lionel’s defection to a newer model, is to take up smoking and to fall
off the no-alcohol wagon on which she has perched safely for fifteen years.
Her two children are of little help to her since her relationship with
both Josh the accountant and Emily the reformed drug addict are a touch
dysfunctional, and it is a friend of her estranged husband who is the
key to her eventually reaching firm ground again. Ms Donnelly’s characterisations
are excellently drawn, with Grace alternating between the guilty mother
and the just as guilty but also exasperated daughter. Her father, dealing
heroically if a touch idiosyncratically with his wife’s Alzheimer’s, her
two children whom she barely knows, and her colleagues in the frenetic
world of advertising all contribute to the manic life of Grace. But it
is Olga, the Russian woman who arrives as a friend of her husband’s and
finishes as the catalyst for Grace’s reclamation of her life, who is the
larger than life counterpart to Grace’s hesitancy. It is through Olga
that Grace is brought to an understanding of her two children but the
serious undertones are so overlaid with the manic pace of Grace’s life
that they never become sententious. This is a hugely enjoyable story which
gallops along and comes to a fitting, if slightly unusual end.
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Skelligs
Calling - Michael Kirby
This is a gem of a book, written by a man in his mid-nineties in what
is his second language. Michael Kirby’s knowledge of his native Ballinskelligs
is legion, a knowledge acquired over a long lifetime of observation. But
these are not the disjointed reminiscences of an old man, they are clearly
set out details about the abundant wildlife with which he has become familiar
through his work as a fisherman and his rambles about his native place.
Written in a style which combines erudition with poetry, Michael Kirby’s
narrative underlines his almost personal relationship with the inhabitants
of the sea and air, the delicacy of the cod’s palate and tongue when made
into soup, the formidable aspect of the mullet, and the individual characteristics
of so many seabirds. At times he digresses to relate a story, such as
the close encounter he and his father had with a shark while fishing off
Bolus headland. He recognises, however, that man has not yet uncovered
all the secrets of the world of wildlife for, he says, “Modern technology
and communications stop short at the turnstile to the animal kingdom”.
But more than wildlife occupied the thoughts of those living on the shores
of Ballinskelligs Bay, and there is a wonderful description of beachcombing,
of finding uses for everything that the ocean washed up. One of the tricks
was to elude the Customs men, though in later years local members of the
police force would collude with the recovering and selling of a number
of precious items. The story of Paddy, Jamesie and the cask of rum is
a prime example of the way in which such escapades could quickly turn
to farce. Not everything that came ashore was beneficial to the local
community, however, for a number of mines, both Allied and German, were
also washed up and had to be dealt with. The author has not spent his
entire life on the south-west tip of Ireland, for he lived in the US for
a short period, but his arrival there coincided with the Wall Street crash
and it was but a short interlude in his life. However short it was, he
brings to its description the same eye for detail as had served him so
well at home, from the seven-day voyage across the Atlantic to his work
on the railroad. Fate brought him home to Ballinskelligs where his life
as a farmer has been enlivened by his storytelling, painting and poetry.
Perhaps one of the greatest legacies contained in “Skelligs Calling” is
his recording of the traditional Irish place names along the Skelligs
shore and his listing of the Irish names for all the birds to be found
in his own locality. And ultimately, who could resist a book with a chapter
entitled “Observations of a Fish-Gutter”?
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Gaps
of Brightness – Patricia Boylan
Many more people are now living in to their nineties but not many of them,
I suspect, could set down their memoirs with such clarity and humour as
Patricia Boylan. From her early years as one of twelve children growing
up in Coalisland and Dungannon she observed those around her, and two
short stories incorporated into the narrative depict characters in her
native Tyrone. A clue to Ms Boylan’s independent and inquisitive character
may be deduced from her decision as a young child to pay a visit to a
house where a death had occurred, a visit which necessitated mitching
from school for the day. In a similar fashion after the family had moved
to Belfast, and while Patricia was still at the Dominican convent, she
dressed up in her older sister’s navy serge suit and posed as a reporter
in order to work her way into the Opera House where the Abbey Theatre
company was playing. Although she trained and qualified as a nurse, following
her older sister to Leeds, the author’s main ambitions lay in the world
of theatre and it is her association with the Abbey and with Radio Eireann
that affords much of the interest of this book. At the Abbey she met,
or at least rubbed shoulders with, many of the legendary names of Irish
theatre, including W.B. Yeats, Lennox Robinson, Cyril Cusack and F.J.
McCormack. Writing for the Irish Press paid her fees at the Abbey, and
Ms Boylan has successfully threaded some of her pieces into the narrative
to throw a further light on her experiences. Patricia Boylan’s work with
The Dublin Verse-speaking Society, whose chairman was the poet Austin
Clarke, her marriage to a senior member of the radio authority and the
years spent establishing themselves and their four children into suitable
accommodation, make up the final chapters of this entertaining memoir.
Beginning at a time when the author’s mother was a dominant influence
on her life, the book closes with her mother’s death more than forty years
ago. Ms Boylan is at present at work on a third book and one hopes that
at some time she will share with her readers more memories of her life
over the past forty years.
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Home
Turf – M.J. Quinn
M.J. Quinn’s novel is full of surprises. When it begins with Tommy McDermott
being informed that his father’s body has been found on Magilligan Strand
in County Derry on the other side of the Atlantic, we are all set for
a thriller taking in the present political situation in the North. When
he makes the journey from his New York base, however, he discovers that
his father died of natural causes, and that particular mystery is solved.
But this is no run-of-the-mill story of an Irish-American finding his
roots, for the McDermott family and their relatives, the Finneys, have
a particular gift which gives an insight into their family history that
few others possess. Tommy’s encounter with his myriad relations (and the
huge cast of characters is a bit confusing to the reader) and his connecting
with the life his father led before emigrating to the States gives him
a new perspective on his New York life as a journalist. A convincing comparison
is drawn between the constant deadlines and meetings of the New York office
and the peace and tranquillity of his father’s Irish home, not to mention
the welcoming relatives. However M.J. Quinn is clever enough not to allow
Tommy to plunge straight into rural life and give up his New York life
forever. The introduction of Marnie, a family friend who lives across
the water in Donegal, promises some kind of continuity but again the author
resists the temptation to offer a happy-ever-after ending. Instead there
is a gradual realisation on Tommy’s part as to where his future lies and
the narrative comes to an optimistic end without being too predictable.
On the whole M.J. Quinn has successfully conveyed the tenor of life in
rural Derry and Donegal, though his style is somewhat didactic, perhaps
aimed at those who have little prior knowledge of Ireland. In Tommy McDermott
he has created a believable character even if some of the events stretch
the reader’s credibility.
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There
is a House – Kieron Connolly
Kieron Connolly’s novel of writers block, incipient alcoholism and dysfunctional
relationships is redeemed from total darkness by his sense of humour.
Dubliner Paul Conlon has embarked on that most difficult of exercises
for a moderately successful writer, the second book, and his novel is
a book about writing a book, which becomes the book itself. For the only
words on page one of his new work are “There is a house” and the narrative
rambles backward and forwards from his childhood through his awkward adolescence
to eventual love and fatherhood. The characters in his life, his former
partner Caroline, his agent Tim and his neighbour Kate inhabit the past
present and future in a sometimes bewildering procession of events, and
Paul guides us through it all with a quiet fatalism. The house of the
title becomes the house of his lowest point as well as the house of hope
for the future, and the story of Paul’s turbulent life is told with a
deadpan humour that carries the reader along to the final ironic sentence.
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The
Dublin Review – Summer 2002 – ed. Brendan Barrington
The 11th edition of the review contains contributions from poet John Montague
with an extract from a forthcoming memoir which deals with his time at
Berkeley University during the 1960s, and a description by author Hugo
Hamilton of a summer spent at a pea-processing plant in England. Molly
McCloskey writes of a High School reunion which reveals the way in which
our memories can mislead us, while Christina Hunt Mahony examines the
portrait of the Irish as seen through Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New
York”. Other contributors include Roy Foster, Edna Longley, George O’Brien,
Sydney Lea and Aine Ni Mhaonaigh.
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Where
Glory Dwells – Stephen Redmond SJ
This is an enjoyable ramble through the places of worship which have been
associated with Stephen Redmond from his baptism in St Andrew’s, Westland
Row to the Holy Family Church in Aughrim Street which is his parish church
in his retirement. In between he takes us on a journey through his Jesuit
life and all the foundations of the order with which he was associated.
His “Sanctuaries I Remember” include primitive places of worship in Africa
and the more ornate buildings of Rome, and it is here that the profane
creeps into his description of the sacred. In St John of the Latin Gate,
where he stood “soaking in the centuries”, he waited to be uplifted by
the music of the organ. Instead the organist launched into “’Dance of
the Sugar-Plum Fairy’ from the ’Nutcracker’ suite, played with a few wrong
notes”. Written in a conversational tone and including the people he met
on his journey through the sacred places, Stephen Redmond’s book is both
a personal recollection and a sharing in prose and verse of those places
which have had special meaning in his life.
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Eight
True Maps of the West – Kevin Bowen
The worlds of Vietnam and Ireland combine to provide the themes for the
poems of American-born Kevin Bowen, the Vietnam to which he was conscripted
when he dropped out of school and the Ireland of his grandmother which
he has rediscovered. He tells us of the futility of war, the “hollow speeches
of empty men” and the “Good men and women who try to speak up and are
silenced”. Bowen also records the small forgotten kindnesses of war, the
old woman who lifts the body of a dead soldier though “No one was there
to take your picture for the important books of war.” The colours of both
countries, and the relentless rain are recurrent themes in this collection,
which also touches on the personal in poems about his brother and father.
The title poem is a lengthy examination of the conditions which forced
his grandmother’s emigration, with verses expanded by the letters written
for help for his parishioners by the local parish priest in the 1880s.
Here the poet revisits the old homes in Carraroe and the island where
his ancestors took shelter, and tries to imagine himself into the life
of his grandmother as she went “to wash in the cold waters one last time,
that night of her leaving.” This newest collection includes work from
“Playing Basketball with the Vietcong” and “Forms of Prayer at the Hotel
Edison”.
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The
Girls in the Big Picture – Imelda Foley
Through interviews with four Ulster playwrights the author sets out to
examine the importance of gender in Northern Ireland theatre. Using as
a starting point the Ulster Literary Theatre, established more than one
hundred years ago, Ms Foley demonstrates the predominance of the male
and patriarchal influence on theatre, before taking as the starting point
of a radical shift in attitude, the establishment of the Charabanc Theatre
in the 1980s. Set up to counteract the perceived lack of roles for women,
it was particularly focused on “presenting plays which represent Northern
Ireland society”. From this beginning developed Dubbeljoint, whose aim
was to link the two parts of Ireland in content and direction. The main
focus of Ms Foley’s work concentrates on an examination of the way in
which the roles for women developed through the works of Marie Jones,
Christina Reid, Anne Devlin and Frank McGuinness which, she asserts, “reinstates
the ideology of the ULT in contemporary terms”.
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Reinventing
Modern Dublin – Yvonne Whelan
Yvonne Whelan has taken as her subject the way in which the streetscapes
and statuary of Dublin reflect the changing history of the capital city,
how our surroundings define our attitudes to the political situation at
a given time and the change from the Imperialist street names and monuments
to those expressing the independence following the Easter Rising and the
establishment of an Irish government. A number of interesting plans and
lists are included, showing the vision of a future Dublin expressed by
those at the birth of the new nation, and the fate of a number of statues
which once adorned Dublin. Ms Whelan has made good use of contemporary
documents to give a flavour of the thinking behind many of the changes
wrought. An example is the saga of the statue of Queen Victoria, which
once stood in front of Leinster House before being put into storage and
which was donated in 1987 to the city of Sydney to celebrate its bicentenary.
Though its removal had been urged from the 1920s, on the grounds that
it was an affront to the ideals of the new State, by the time of its eventual
removal some were calling for its retention in the light of the Anglo-Irish
Agreement and the two traditions. The extensive research undertaken in
the writing of this book, and the detailed notes and bibliography, attest
to its origin as a PhD thesis, but in the transformation from thesis to
published book Ms Whelan has succeeded in transforming the appeal from
the academic to the general reader.
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Bottling
It Up – John P. Rooney
John P. Rooney’s story could only have been written by a Belfast man,
who can introduce a note of black humour into the carrying out of paramilitary-style
beatings and general threatening behaviour. His hero, Paul Fox, is one
of a group of architects working on government housing projects who changes
his lifestyle after a health warning from his doctor. This change in attitude
to his job, when he will no longer “bottle up” his real feelings, opens
a can of worms that leads to threats from rival factions. Coupled with
an ongoing estrangement from his wife and difficulties in his work relationships,
this evolves into a story of intrigue and humour of the darker kind. The
book takes on a serious note at times, for example in the situation in
which foreman Danny finds himself, which is at odds with the general tenor
of the narrative. However despite this unevenness “Bottling It Up” successfully
pokes fun at a number of aspects of the Northern establishment.
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Discover
Cork – Kieran McCarthy
One of the O’Brien City Guide Series, this guide to Cork is divided into
two sections, the first dealing with the history of the city and the second
giving a guide to the main attractions. However Kieran McCarthy has not
kept rigidly to this division and the book benefits from this decision.
For while it is important to give an overview of the city to aid appreciation,
it is impossible to describe present buildings and amenities without in
some way referring to the past. The historical section includes a variety
of illustrations, photographs, maps and drawings, and a number of colour
photographs of different aspects of Cork divide the two sections. A numbered
map precedes the descriptions of notable areas and buildings in Cork,
including the Butter Market and St Finbarre’s Cathedral, with less easily
recognised landmarks such as the well of the Franciscan Abbey at the North
Mall also featuring in this useful guide to Ireland’s second city.
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Governance
and Policy in Ireland – ed. Donal de Buitleir & Frances Ruane
Eleven people were asked to contribute to a collection of essays which
would be a tribute to Miriam Hederman O’Brien, and the range of subjects
covered bear testament to Ms Hederman O’Brien’s wide-ranging influence
over the last five decades. Pat Cox MEP, President of the European Parliament,
naturally focuses on the enlarged Europe; Paul Haran, Secretary-General
of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, discusses the ways
in which the civil service is adapting to change; and Fr Peter McVerry
SJ writes on the topic of homelessness, a field in which he has worked
for the past twenty-five years. Other contributors include Ruth Barrington,
Peter Cassells, Peter Feeney, John Kay, Dermot Keogh, Sir Brian Kerry,
Thomas Mitchell, Patricia Quinn and the editors.
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Eight
Ball Boogie - Declan Burke
Harry Rigby is a struggling private detective (independent researcher)
who dabbles in a little journalism to pay the bills. His relationship
with his girlfriend is on rocky ground and he has a son whose parentage
is in dispute. Safe to say his private life is a little unstable. When
the wife of a local politician is murdered on her doorstep things get
worse for Harry. He is drawn into an ever more violent series of events
involving bent cops, drug traffickers, crooked politicians and paramilitaries,
the usual cast of characters to be found in any midsize Irish town. Set
in Sligo, the home of the author, this is a fast paced thriller written
with a nod in the direction of those old detective movies where the protagonist
is a down-at-heel loner with a tough attitude, a fondness for the drink
and a bag full of pithy one-liners. This constant dry wit seems more than
a little corny at first but when you get used to the style of the writing
it becomes quite enjoyable. The book reads at a blinding pace throughout
but rarely, if ever, delves beneath the surface. It is one-dimensional
but this doesn’t detract from the story, as it has no pretensions to be
anything but a good yarn. As for the relevance of the title to the book,
the author makes an attempt to tie it in to the plot but it remains unclear
at the finish. Despite a slightly convoluted plot Eight Ball Boogie is
an enjoyable read, a good first novel. (Review by Eoghan Ferrie)
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Forever
Green – Cathal Liam
Subtitled “Ireland Now and Again”, Cathal Liam’s book looks both backwards
and forwards, back to an Ireland of heroic rebellion and sectarian strife,
an Ireland of turf fires and traditional values, and forward to an Ireland
where old shops have been replaced by “plastic” pubs, where co-operation
between the two factions in the North may eventually lead to the full
implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. The collection of essays
and poems would seem to be aimed primarily at an Irish American audience,
and Mr Liam does a good job in explaining the ongoing difficulties with
the peace process. His choice of words in describing the British colonisation
of Ireland, however, give some idea of the basis of his political beliefs.
He talks of life in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century “with the
ever-present threat of the Stranger’s lash lurking overhead”. In an extract
from his historical novel, “Consumed in Freedom’s Flame”, his young hero
Aran Roe O’Neill is “outraged and incensed at the Saxon Stranger’s seven-hundred-year-plus
dominance of his homeland”. However he has a commendable grasp of the
events of the past five years in the North as well as an obvious love
for Ireland which emerges in his descriptions of Galway city, of Croagh
Patrick and of a day on the bog in the Irish midlands. (St Padraic Press,
<www.cathalliam.com>
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Turoe
& Athenry – Fr Tom O’Connor
In this detailed description of a number of ramparts in Galway, in the
Turoe and Athenry area, the author sets out his argument for relocating
the legendary seat of the High Kings of ancient Ireland from Tara in Co.
Meath to Turoe in Co. Galway. His main premise is that Athenry, far from
being merely a Norman town, held great importance during the Iron Age
and was the Regia based in Connacht that features in Ptolemy’s map of
the first/second century. As his sources Fr O’Connor uses the Dindsenchas,
described as legendary history dating from the 11th century, as well as
the importance of place names and the oral tradition. This latter aspect
is one of the most interesting since he is able to draw on the memories
of people now dead whose parents and grandparents told them of traditions
and names associated with local landmarks. While the author makes considerable
use of the conditional ’may’, ’might’ and ’probably’, his arguments do
bear weight, particularly in the proliferation of place names which point
to a considerable settlement having existing in the Athenry/Turoe area
in the Iron Age.
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The
Eyes of Ireland – Dani O’Riley
Dani O’Riley has travelled the length and breadth of the country to record
some of the many fine craftsmen and women at work. As she says in her
introduction, “not to include everyone was difficult”, but those she has
included she has served well. Not only are full contact details given
for each artist, including directions on how to find the studio, but each
entry is enhanced by a number of fine photographs which give a feel for
the work being carried out. The directions are particularly appropriate
as many of the studios are off the beaten track and not easily accessible
otherwise. The book is divided into eight chapters covering the whole
of the country and would be a useful addition to the more traditional
guidebook of the country.
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