Finished Star of the Sea there today. A really impressive book. Jesus if half of it were true to life we were all blessed to be born when we were. Life must have been truly miserable 6/7 generations ago. My grandmother told me she remembered talking to people who had lived through the famine.
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This is excellent. Half way through listening to it, she reads it herself and some of the story is so harrowing she is clearly emotional relaying it
Grim but gives some insight into life in poverty with drug addicts parents. Poor kids.
My father in law says he remembers his mother always cooking extra spuds and she’d leave them out over the back wall and the children from a nearby family would come through the fields to bring them home to eat. Seems incredible but he’s adament it happened.
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I can well believe it.
There was a poor, large family that lived beside my father when he was growing up. His parents, my grandparents, used to give them eggs and potatoes. Another neighbour offered to settle their bill in a local shop if they signed over some land to him. His people are still there and are hated by many - the current generation share similar traits.
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John Tyler who was US president in 1845 has a living grandson
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I remember hearing about a lad I think it was in east Limerick who basically lost his entire family by the age of 14 bar two younger sisters I think.
They had a handy sized farm but it was busy enough with different animals and what not.
A couple of days after the funerals of his parents the neighbours stopped helping him. He was going to have to learn to do it himself and quickly to survive. So sad when you think of it.
I know my dad had an uncle that left for America in the 20s and he was never heard from again. They think he got work in middle America but there’s no trace. So odd when you think nowadays everyone knows everything so quickly.
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The class structure on the ship was stark. Landlords having meals and brandy and the others starving, fucked with sickness and rats running around the place.
That’s how society was - no one questioned it,
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Started Strange Sally Diamond the other day. Cracker so far.
Loved that book. Dark as fuck and all the better for it.
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Great book.
Finished it there.
You wouldn’t be well after it.
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I meant to post here that “killing Thatcher” c/o @Fagan_ODowd is absolutely great. I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying it. My dad thought it a great read. Interesting to see both sides of thatcher. Id highly recommend it.
As an aside, one of the young lads in the office saw me reading it, and asked what it was about.
"Based around the Brighton bombing"I said.
He looked at me quizzically
“Where the IRA blew up the Tory party conference in Brighton?” I said.
“Oh yeah”, he replied, “I think we did a bit about that in history”
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Anyone read this yet? If so, any use?
Just started it.
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Yes I very much agree. McKay is admirable and I think somewhat of a pioneer.
I have recently bought her book Bear in Mind These Dead which I will read soon.
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There’s a movie on it.
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Finished that they may face the rising sun there this evening. Found a copy in my mother’s house that they got free with the Independent some years ago. Glad I had seen the film first so that I could keep track of what was going on. I’d say anyone who wasn’t a Muldoon or had regularly gone on holidays to their Muldoon cousins would struggle with the language. Ruttledge, who I assume is based on McGahern, is a bit too wholesome to be true but apart from that small cavil it’s a grand read.
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It’s a lovely book to take your time with, beautifully written but you’d want to know what you were letting yourself in for
That’s a good point. I did take my time with it. I’d say I was 10 or 11 days reading it.