Irish Days: Oral Histories of the Twentieth Century

Rating:
Summary: A People of Poetic Diversity
Review: Eleven interviews with Irish people all aged over 75: from an 82 year old in Tipperary who still lives where he was born to an ex-High Court Judge. All walks of life are caught candidly on the page. Eamon Kelly talks about becoming an actor with the Abbey Theatre; Michael-Joe Tarpey worked all his life for the forestry department, but still managed to be a musician, builder, naturalist, maker of musical instruments and custodian of local history and folklore; Bridget Dirrane, now 106 years old, was an active member of Cumann na nBan, the women's branch of the Irish independence movements in the 1920s. Against a background of world-shattering events at home and abroad, Margaret Hickey's subjects lived lives of extraordinary diversity and recount them with the poetry for which their country is renowned.