Last of the Donkey Pilgrims

Rating:
Summary: Round Ireland with the Donkeyman
Review: What makes Ireland Ireland? What makes the Irish Irish? Kevin O'Hara had reason to wonder, and it let him to wander, led him on the wonderful journey recounted in this book, looking for the remote old Ireland soon to be absorbed into the modern world. Though born to emigrating parents in England and raised in America, Kevin felt himself to be Irish and believed that if he came to know Ireland he would wind up knowing himself.
So, on the brink of age 30 in 1979, with a stint in Vietnam and training as a psychiatric nurse behind him, Kevin embarked on a personal quest to discover the country of his ancestors and the nature of his heritage. A wacky back-to-the-land scheme to become an apprentice thatcher fell through like an old roof, but Kevin came back with an even wackier idea: He would get a donkey and cart, and walk the circumference of Ireland, living off the land and the hospitality of its people.
In peregrination he would find his position in the world, among the people he would discover the person he was, and in contact with the blessed earth he would find the strength to complete not just this mad 8-month journey but the journey of his life as well.
So off he set, saying good-bye to his grandmother in Roscommon and waving farewell to the crowd of cronies at Rattigan's bar, elder countrymen each with his own view of the Yank's quirky quest. Bets were laid on the outcome -- would he complete his circuit of the island or would he fail to make it out of the county? Was he idiotic or merely idiosyncratic, a wise fool or simply foolish?
He was touched to be sure, be it with wonder or whimsy or wand of faerie, but could this oddfellow circle the island and find the center of the eccentric, the heart of a divided country? Now, 25 years later, readers can decide for themselves, since the story has finally been published.
What happens when a city boy takes a donkey named Missie for a traveling companion? When a nightly roof over their heads depends on farmers and householders met along the road? When even their daily bread depends on the generosity of the land's people? When the road stretches endlessly through a magical landscape of serene beauty and ancient grievance? What adventures and pratfalls await the wanderer? Where will the road lead and where will it end? The answers lie within "Last of the Donkey Pilgrims."
Full disclosure: Kevin O'Hara is a friend of mine, but I believe if you read this book, he will begin to feel like a friend of yours as well.