The power of this book comes from a sense that he is reaching out towards a type of desolation and of isolation without which no imagination can be seen to have grown up.' Eavan Boland, Irish Times'Keyed and pitched unlike any other significant poet at work in the language anywhere.' Harold Bloom, Times Literary Supplement

    Starting with an account of his childhood in Ireland at the end of the 19th century, the story moves to Scotland where, tramp then gang-labourer then navvy, Dermond Flynn (as he sometimes calls himself) discovers himself as a writer.

    Walter Macken paints a memorable portrait of the hard life of subsistence farming, of loveless arranged marriages, and of rebellion against suffocating social mores.

    We follow the rhythm of the year from New Year to Easter, May Day to Harvest and Christmas along the chain of highdays and feastdays, St Brighid's Day, The Borrowed Days, Midsummer, St Swithin's Day, Lunasa, The Pattern Day, Samhain, Martinmas and Christmas. fishing boat - belief and usage - feasting and merrymaking. Picturesque customs are revealed - some forgotten, some forbidden, some still familiar, such as 'the making of St Brighid's cross - marriage divinations - watching the dancing of the sun on a hilltop on Easter morning - going to the Skelligs - cock-throwing - bullbaiting - herring processions - the swimming of the horses on Lunasa - and many others. A multi-coloured tapestry. years experience of research into Irish folk tradition. Irish Country People, Folktales of the Irish Countryside and The Pleasant Land of Ireland

    His authoritative & comprehensive history is masterly in its detail & judicious analysis. A classic in its field, this is essential reading for anyone attempting to understand the complex historical forces that have shaped Ireland.Preface1. Who were Irishmen?2 The first Irish republicans3. The union4 The tragedy of home rule5. Outselves aloneReferencesSelect BibliographyIndex

    

    Moira dreams of the day she will marry Liam - the man she has loved since childhood. When their potatoes begin to rot in the fields, Moira's dream is swept away. Hunger stalks the land and death becomes a constant companion.Moira, with an indomitable will to survive, sustains her family through the unspeakable horrors of the famine and, when all else is gone, her love for Liam remains. She clings tenaciously to the belief that a better day awaits them all....

    

    It traces the rise of modern Irish nationalism and the parallel decline and collapse of the old eighteenth-century social structure. "A well-written and masterly piece of compact description."-Irish Independent." "It explains carefully and clearly the main themes and problems of a complicated period in which so many of the attitudes and permanent social features of modern Ireland were crystallized."-Studies Ireland. Before The Famine 1798-1848 originally appeared as volume nine of the Gill History of Ireland. It remains the only survey volume dealing specifically with the first half of the nineteenth century.