Companion Guide to Ireland

Brendan Lehane

Excerpts from this Guide

On George Moore's house in Ely Green, Dublin:
When he moved in, all the front doors were painted white, by the landlord's orders. Moore, insisting that being an art critic demanded it, painted his green, and a feud began with his neighbours, two sisters. They dumped in his letter-box a torn-up copy of his novel Esther Waters labelled 'too filthy to keep'. To retaliate, Moore rattled their railings at night to make the dogs bark. They hired an organ-grinder to play below his window, and he prosecuted the organ-grinder. He threw stones at their cat, which threatened his favourite blackbird in the garden; then bought a trap. They called the RSPCA; but in the end the trap caught the bird. 
Chapter One, Dublin, p. 19.

On Tara, near Laracor:
Now we come to Tara, once the centre of Irish power, its royal splendours more thoroughly vanished than the creations of Ozymandias, a broad lumpy hilltop affording panoramic views, its rich grass fertilised by millennia of grazing cattle. Discovery of gold remains in 1810 led to a modified gold rush which further hacked the ground about. But Tara remains a symbol of Irish freedom – rebel leaders have always homed to it – and it keeps a few reminders of its past. Its origins are lost altogether, though legends speak of its being founded by Tea, daughter of the king of Spain, when the Milesians arrived. In some accounts the great god Lugh was king of Tara. Though there are neolithic passage tombs and numerous barrows, many of the tangible remains date from the first few centuries AD, and Roman and oriental goods show that Ireland, though always outside the Roman Empire, dealt and traded with (as well as plundered) those inside. It may have been the Roman influence which caused the star pattern of long straight roads that led from Tara to other focal points in the land. 
Chapter Two, Boyne Valley and Meath, p. 87.

On the Grange Stone Circle, Limerick:
The country's largest stone circle is at Grange, between the lake and the Kilmallock-Limerick road. A hundred boulders form a circle more than fifty yards in diameter. There are altogether twenty-eight monuments under state care, and innumerable more that are not. Various exhibitions, explanations, amenities and a shop have been provided at the north-western corner of the lake. All the same the irregular profusion of humps and tumps and rocky outcrops rising from the bog is fascinating in itself; and there are other treasures, like the spiny-flowered golden dock, hardly found elsewhere in Ireland, and the rare hornwort growing in the lake. The neighbouring bogs have yielded many remains of the so-called Irish elk, or great deer, a close but giant relation of the fallow deer[…] On May Day the magician third earl of Desmond rises from his watery grave in full armour and gallops over the surface of the lake on his silver-shod horse. He will be relieved of this duty only when this annual or in some accounts septennial ride has worn down the horse's shoes." 
Chapter 11, Limerick City, Inner Limerick and Lower Shannon, p. 300.

On Galway:
Down river on the west side is the area known as the Claddagh, once a pattern of rows of low-built cottages. Up to their demolition in 1934, they housed an Irish-speaking community numbering some three thousand, all fishermen and their families, the women famous for their black gowns and deep red petticoats. On the city side of the river is the Spanish Arch, part of the old city walls, its name commemorating the heavy trade once carried on between Galway and Spain. Nearby a plinth displays the stylised image of a galleon with an inscription to the effect that around 1477 Columbus, contemplating his greatest voyage, found here 'sure signs of land beyond the Atlantic', presumably from far-travelled fishermen. There is no proof that he came, or - as is said sometimes - that he attended a final mass in the church of St Nicholas (then Roman Catholic) before embarking for the West. It is not, though, impossible. 
Chapter 13, Galway North and West, p. 324.

Sample Images

1. The Cliffs of Moher, County Clare
2. Ben Bulben, Sligo
3. Kilkenny Castle, County Kilkenny
4. Mussenden Temple, County Derry

Reviews

Like going on a tour with a friend who combines a historian's meticulous scholarship with an ability to tell a gossipy anecdote with wit and point. CATHOLIC HERALD

Manages to fit in just about everything... A formidable feat, and the more so for being consistently readable, and frequently entertaining... An admirably comprehensive piece of work, to be recommended to anyone contemplating a visit. THE TIMES 

As well as being a practical guide it's an exhilarating read... It is a delightful thing: anybody contemplating crossing to Ireland for pleasure shouldn't think of going without consulting it. OBSERVER

He writes agreeably and well, he loves the past, and he sees the Anglo-Irish past as clearly
as the Old Irish past which preceded it and he sees the buildings and scenery with the same imaginative eye. SUNDAY TIMES

He brings vast knowledge, a rare feeling for history and a very genuine love of Ireland to this book... a must. CORK EXAMINER