Ireland: True Stories of Life on the Emerald Isle (Travelers' Tales) [Paperback]

James O'Reilly (Editor), Sean O'Reilly (Editor), Larry Habegger (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Travelers' Tales | Publication Date: April 2000

Best-selling authors and a favorite destination come together in a collection of surprising and heartwarming stories.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Travelers' Tales is a valuable addition to any pre-departure reading list." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpted from Travelers' Tales Ireland: True Stories of Life on the Emerald Isle, edited by James O'Reilly, Larry Habegger, and Sean O'Reilly. Copyright (c) 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. IRELAND: AN INTRODUCTION (James O'Reilly)

When I was a boy, I remember my father sitting, lost in thought and memory, in view of a painting in our American living room. That painting was of Torc Mountain rising above the Lakes of Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland, which was for my father, home. He always seemed unreachable in this state, but whether or not he was, it was clear to me that he was filled with a longing that I at least in part understood. I loved him then as he loved Ireland-hopelessly, with every fiber of my body.

So for me my father was Ireland itself, just as he was the Catholic Church, the essence of which he labored mightily to instill in me and my six brothers and sisters. (And of course in Ireland, the two are, as the saying goes, joined at the hip.) What then did my father, as Ireland, represent in these twin roles?

He embodied a love of learning, a love of scholarship, a love of exact speech, of moral laws, of hard work, of looking for and expecting goodness in others but not being surprised if it wasn't forthcoming, of storytelling and reading and music, of sly and lunatic humor. He had a wild streak of sacrifice and charity, a combination of St. Francislike gentleness and ayatollahlike fierceness. He lanced personal boils with self-denial, revered tradition and rules because they are the stone framework of civilization when the wolves of cruelty and hunger are at the door, as they have been for so much of Irish history, a framework that lasts long after the roof has burned and the residents hanged. My father made me want to be, well, a saint-because it was so transparently the goal and practice in his own life-and it seemed then as it seems now, that nothing else could be as important. What does being a saint mean? Being as close to your Maker as you possibly can, at all times, warts and nose hairs and terrible bleeding mistakes all. That was the gift of my father, and for me was and remains the gift of Ireland.

What does this have to do with modern Ireland? Ireland has changed so dramatically in recent years, you'd hardly recognize the place if you haven't been in a while, or if all you know of Ireland is what Uncle Paddy told you of his childhood. So intellectuals in Dublin may scoff at my characterization of Ireland, cynics in Belfast hoot with derision, geeks in Cork dismiss the bandwidth of my thinking, Eurotrash in Galway snort at my navete. They've seen the real Ireland and it doesn't look at all like the romanticized version sloshing over the gunwales of the vast Irish diaspora. The Catholic faith has eroded, the Church is in decline, the famine ships are ancient history, the rural culture is on its last legs, and everything Irish is nothing but a tourist gimmick. But sometimes those who have left, those who are filled with unspeakable longing, as my father was, have something correct to say.

Ireland has in it, in its soil and air and water and sun, something that for want of a better word is alchemical, that no other place on earth seems to have. This is not to say that other peoples don't love their native land as much or as well, or that ancient portals of feeling and wisdom don't exist the world over, not at all. It is just that whatever there is in Ireland is unique. Perhaps this is a genetic thing-my bias is suspect with a name like O'Reilly-but I don't think so. I think the genetic predisposition may be only to love Ireland a bit more fervently, but it is not responsible for the place Ireland holds open on the spectrum of human possibilities. Ireland, it seems to me, is an earth-bound zone between birth and death that has not been de-coupled from either human event, not by Celts, nor Catholics, nor Computers. In Ireland you can sense more clearly the form of your own life, the shape of the little corporal boat that carries you down the river to home and the Eternal. In other words, in Ireland, you can get pretty close to Heaven.

When my father died, we took him back to Kerry. He was borne on the shoulders of his grade school classmates to rest above Killarney in Aghadoe, in a sixth century cemetery with a breathtaking view of his beloved Lakes and, of course, Torc Mountain. My brothers and I filled in his grave, taking care with the skulls and bones of other relatives buried there.

When I visit now, especially when I visit my father's grave, and look out over the Kerry Mountains, I am still filled with longing for all the things humans long for. But the heart's home really is elsewhere...only in Ireland, you are closer to it than anywhere else.

Product Details

• Paperback: 390 pages
• Publisher: Travelers' Tales Inc; 1st edition (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885211465
• ISBN-13: 978-1885211460
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,756,622 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sub-title says it all., August 16, 2000

By 

Malcolm Massie (Cobourg, Ontario (60 miles east of Toronto)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ireland: True Stories of Life on the Emerald Isle (Travelers' Tales) (Paperback)

This book consists of a wide variety of stories from the humourous to the profound to the historical. There are stories that you want to sit down with a friend and read it to them: specically, "A Pub Fairy Tale" by Pamela Ramsey tells of a visit to an Irish pub by the author who wanted to take in the "ambiance" of the music and dancing. She hoped that she would be asked to dance, but as closing time drew near, her hopes seemed slim. Then an energetic old gentleman finally asked her, and she describes it this way: "I could feel the other dancers watching us, nodding, laughing, giving us encouragement, but the old man and I had eyes only for each other. We were two odd strangers caught in a moment of tenderness. A moment of magic. I was Cinderella, the belle of the ball, dancing with my Prince - an old, almost-blind man, wearing a black beret." Beautiful. Another story tells of the estrangement of a son and his father when he married outside the faith, and how, when the father died, a reconciliation of sorts was established with his brother with they go hiking on the hills where there father had hiked with them, and how he came to understand his father's secret strength and connection with the isle: "Walking the Kerry Way", by Tim O'Reilly. This brief description of Mr. O'Reilly's story does it a gross injustice, because there is a depth of feeling that only the author can convey. The brief biographical descriptions at the end of each story are informative and to the point. At the end of the book, there is an extensive, "The Next Step" which includes a number of websites, and a good bibliography. The book is well put together, and succeeds very well in conveying "true stories of life on the emerald isle."

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific read on Ireland, April 21, 2000

By 

Paul Winston (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ireland: True Stories of Life on the Emerald Isle (Travelers' Tales) (Paperback)

I'm on my way to Ireland in a few days. This is just a note to say that I found this book on Ireland, to my surprise as so many nice things can be, enormously sensitive and moving and classy. Classy because the type style, the paper stock, and the interior arrangement of the stories and back-of-the-book tips and advice show a lot of editorial thought, being so well done. I was deeply moved by the selection of the tales, each its own chapter, and I definitely felt a sense of coming to know Ireland in a way no other book I could buy would bring me. Lots of laughter and tears and thoughts arriving as I stared out a window, enveloping the mood of a story I'd just finished. They were wonderfully written for me, to my standards, which are impossibly high -- I admire the best, even if I can't write at that level -- and overall I sensed that the editing was careful, thoughtful. There'd been plenty of work put into this volume. The end of the book with all the tips was very enjoyable, and I've read it through twice so far as I sense it will all come true for me, all prove to be good advice, on this, my first trip to Ireland.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Descriptions pull you into the landscape, May 14, 2000

By 

Tom Mullen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ireland: True Stories of Life on the Emerald Isle (Travelers' Tales) (Paperback)

Like other books in the Travelers Tales series - this book gives excellent insight into the Irish way of life and provides excellent reading (I am slightly biased, having written one of the short pieces that is included - titled Cycling to Dun Aengus). The overall quality of the book is excellent and the descriptions pull you right into the landscape and geography of Ireland - from sitting in smoky pubs to driving past weather beaten coasts. Some of these pieces are also hilarious. Highly recommended not only as a prerequisite to a visit - but for a great read. [e-mail]