Our Man In Hibernia

Our Man In Hibernia PDF Author: Charlie Connelly
Publisher: Abacus
ISBN: 0748115072
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Book Description
Each year on St Patrick's Day eighty million people around the world celebrate their Irish ancestry. Millions more don leprechaun hats and down pints of Guinness in the annual high-fiving of Ireland and the Irish. Charlie Connelly was one of them. He thought he had a good idea of what Ireland was all about. He was, after all, practically Irish. He had a bodhran and everything. Then, when he was least expecting it, he went to live there. Our Man in Hibernia follows Charlie's adventures among the Irish. Immersing himself in Ireland's language, music and literature, he learns how closely the rose-tinted image he'd grown up with matches the reality, and explores the land, from the small patch of Connemara bog that changed the world to the Holy Tree Stump of Rathkeale. From defining moments of the country's history - the Great Famine and the Easter Rising - to its quirkier phenomena, such as the National Ploughing Championships and the Rose of Tralee, in Our Man in Hibernia Charlie Connelly paints an evocative, entertaining and witty portrait of Ireland today.

Gilbert

Gilbert PDF Author: Charlie Connelly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472917596
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
There are few more instantly recognisable figures, from any era, from any walk of life, than W.G. Grace. With his enormous height, beer-barrel girth and immense beard he was - and remains - a caricaturist's dream. Too much so, in many ways. Arguably the finest and most influential cricketer who ever lived and one of the first true celebrities Grace became a persona rather than a person, racketing up unprecedented amounts of runs and wickets while slowly vanishing behind an increasing swirl of myth and apocrypha. Gilbert is the first examination of Grace to dig beneath the surface, blow the fog of fable and explore the man himself, the human being, and ask what he might have thought and felt. Who, in effect, was W.G. Grace? In the year that marks the centenary of Grace's death, Charlie Connelly charts the final years of his life, from his fiftieth birthday celebrations in 1898 to his death at the age of 67 in 1915, through the eyes of Grace himself. In an unusual take on this most eminent Victorian and extraordinary pioneering sportsman, Connelly draws on contemporary documents and accounts to imagine Grace's progress through his final years. It was no quiet dotage either: he played cricket until a year before his death, captained the England curling team and remained an enthusiastic golfer and shooter to the end. He also dealt with bereavement, ill health and was greatly troubled by the gathering clouds of war. He was, in short, a human being as much as a sporting colossus. Combining facts and imagination, Gilbert is an affectionate and beautifully written account of the Champion's later life that comes closer than ever before to giving a sense of the real W.G. Grace behind the mythology; the perennially childlike soul saddled with the weight of genius. To the public he was The Doctor, The Champion and W.G., but to those who knew him best he was simply Gilbert. This is a book about Gilbert.

The Greener Shore

The Greener Shore PDF Author: Morgan Llywelyn
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 0345477677
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
At last, the haunting sequel to Morgan Llywelyn’s phenomenal epic Druids. The Greener Shore unfurls the story of a brave and mystical people who learned to manipulate the forces of nature—in order to control magic. As druids in Celtic Gaul, they had been the harmonious soul of their tribe, the Carnutes. But when Julius Caesar and his army invaded and conquered their homeland, the great druid Ainvar and his clan fled for their lives, taking with them the ancient knowledge. Guided by a strange destiny, they found themselves drawn to a green island at the very rim of the world: Hibernia, home of the Gael. Here they would depend for survival on an embittered man who had lost his faith—and a remarkable woman who would find hers. Burning with hatred of the Romans, Ainvar can no longer command his magic. But his mantle falls on unexpected shoulders. In a beautiful, war-torn land of numerous kingdoms and belligerent tribes, Ainvar and his beloved wife, Briga, struggle toward an uncertain future. Their companions include the volatile Onuava, widow of their fallen chieftain; Lakutu, Ainvar’s dark and mysterious second wife; Ainvar’s son, Dara, who seems more drawn to poetry than to combat; and the “Red Wolf,” the young warrior who is as close as kin and is determined to find Ainvar’s missing daughter. Other forces are at work in Hibernia as well—the spirits that haunt the island, forces older than even the magic of the druids. Through them Ainvar seeks his redemption . . . as Briga seeks her rendezvous with history. Filled with the deep feeling, stunning detail, and rich characters that made Druids a masterwork, The Greener Shore is a superb saga of an amazing world and its wondrous ways—a much-awaited novel that will delight all the devotees of this admired author.

Bright Star of the West

Bright Star of the West PDF Author: Sean Williams
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199841020
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
Bright Star of the West examines the life, repertoire, and influence of Ireland's greatest sean-nos (old-style) singer, Joe Heaney (1919-1984). Best known for popularing this form of Gaelic a cappella folk song in the United States, authors Sean Williams and Lillis ? Laoire reveal the ways in which Heaney's life story demonstrates the intertwining of music with political memory and cultural understanding.

Saratoga

Saratoga PDF Author: David Garland
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312327194
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Book Description
British Army captain Jamie Skoyles struggles to compensate for the costly mistakes of overconfident British leaders, endures a pivotal battle at Saratoga, and imagines life after the war.

Bird in a Box

Bird in a Box PDF Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0316084050
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Book Description
Otis, Willie, and Hibernia are three children with a lot in common: they've all lost a loved one, they each have secret dreams, and they won't stop fighting for what they want. And they're also a lot like their hero, famed boxer Joe Louis. Throughout this moving novel, their lives gradually converge to form friendship, family, and love. Their trials and triumphs echo those of Joe Louis, as he fights to become the heavyweight boxing champion. Andrea Pinkney masterfully weaves in factual information about Joe Louis and actual radio commentary from his fights, enriching the narrative of this uniquely rendered and beautifully written novel.

Attention All Shipping

Attention All Shipping PDF Author: Charlie Connelly
Publisher: Abacus
ISBN: 0748131876
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Book Description
This solemn, rhythmic intonation of the shipping forecast on BBC radio is as familiar as the sound of Big Ben chiming the hour. Since its first broadcast in the 1920s it has inspired poems, songs and novels in addition to its intended objective of warning generations of seafarers of impending storms and gales. Sitting at home listening to the shipping forecast can be a cosily reassuring experience. There's no danger of a westerly gale eight, veering southwesterly increasing nine later (visibility poor) gusting through your average suburban living room, blowing the Sunday papers all over the place and startling the cat. Yet familiar though the sea areas are by name, few people give much thought to where they are or what they contain. In ATTENTION ALL SHIPPING Charlie Connelly wittily explores the places behind the voice, those mysterious regions whose names seem often to bear no relation to conventional geography. Armchair travel will never be the same again.

Lion of Ireland

Lion of Ireland PDF Author: Morgan Llywelyn
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429913207
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 447

Book Description
King, warrior, and lover Brian Boru was stronger, braver, and wiser than all other men-the greatest king Ireland has ever known. Out of the mists of the country's most violent age, he merged to lead his people to the peak of their golden era. His women were as remarkable as his adventures: Fiona, the druidess with mystical powers; Deirdre, beautiful victim of a Norse invader's brutal lust; Gormlaith, six-foot, read-haired goddess of sensuality. Set against the barbaric splendors of the tenth century, Lion of Ireland is a story rich in truth and legend-in which friends become deadly enemies, bedrooms turn into battlefields, and dreams of glory are finally fulfilled. Morgan Llywelyn has written one of the greatest novels of Irish history. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Touchy Subjects

Touchy Subjects PDF Author: Emma Donoghue
Publisher: Pioneer Drama Service, Inc.
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 32

Book Description
In this sparkling collection of nineteen stories, the bestselling author of Slammerkin returns to contemporary affairs, exposing the private dilemmas that result from some of our most public controversies. A man finds God and finally wants to father a child-only his wife is now forty-two years old. A coach's son discovers his sexuality on the football field. A roommate's bizarre secret liberates a repressed young woman. From the unforeseen consequences of a polite social lie to the turmoil caused by the hair on a woman's chin, Donoghue dramatizes the seemingly small acts upon which our lives often turn. Many of these stories involve animals and what they mean to us, or babies and whether to have them; some replay biblical plots in modern contexts. With characters old, young, straight, gay, and simply confused, Donoghue dazzles with her range and her ability to touch lightly but delve deeply into the human condition.
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Rits Blog by Crimson Themes.