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Original Writing from Ireland’s Own
by Various Authors
Format: Paperback
Publication date: 5th October 2010
ISBN: 978-1-907179-62-4
Price: €11.95
This first Anthology of Original Writing from Ireland’s Own features over 50 of the prize-winners and highly commended entries to the annual writing competitions run by Ireland’s leading family magazine and supported by ourselves. It is an eclectic collection of fiction, anecdote and memories, with contributors from sixteen Irish counties, England, Scotland and South Africa.
Some of these stories will make you cry, some will make you smile, some will bring readers back to the Ireland of the 1950s and 60s with pathos and nostalgia; others are right up to date as people are confronted by grumpy teenagers and diminished pensions amid the pressures and problems of modern living.
The Memories recalled here will have a resonance for a great many people – going to the fair, spending Christmas in a London ‘squat’, when going to the creamery was an important social event as well as an essential farm chore, a close encounter with TB when it was a real scourge, loved ones remembered with fond affection, and the local shops where one could buy everything from paraffin oil to boiled sweets.
This is an evocative potpourri that will rekindle the sounds, scents, and scenes of the Ireland of the past, but with a generous nod towards modern times.
Foreword by Maeve Binchy
It is an honour to be invited to introduce this collection of original writing and short stories.
Ireland’s Own has been like a good kindly Fairy Godmother for all of us, publishing our first works, giving us encouragement, always answering our letters. The magazine has been like a friend, a great cushion against the tough world out there.
While I know some of those appearing in this book are quite experienced, there will be others reading their very first work in print between the covers of a book. It’s a heady experience, it’s marvellous. You want to stop passers-by and ask them have they seen it, read it, studied it. You will get several copies so that they can be shown around. It’s the proof that you have had something to say and that you said it.
This is why collections like this are so important to us. As Irish people, or as anyone living in Ireland will know, we think it’s good to talk. We never believe that keeping yourself to yourself is a good way of life. We are open and interested and curious about life, our own and other peoples.
And in terms of writing this is good. Very good.
We notice things and remember them; we have memories that can be called up, we have nostalgia for times gone by, or hopes for the future. This is the stuff of writing, the wish to share your thoughts with others, and the discipline to sit down and write them out, with a beginning, a middle and an end.
It’s not easy to submit a story or a memory and give it to someone else for judgement. We all hate putting that work out there. While it’s safe at home in the drawer nobody can hurt us or reject it. But you were lucky people, you sent your work to the kindly, generous Ireland’s Own who know how hard it is to make that step and who will often write to you an encouraging note even if they cannot accept your work.
And now in this joint venture with Original Writing from Dublin your work is appearing in an Anthology. You have made it. You have begun your journey in some cases, continued it in others, and the world lies ahead.
Congratulations to you all, especially those who are now Published Authors for the first time!
I am greatly looking forward to sitting down and reading these pages and to knowing that you will feel like me . . . that it is great to be part of a nation of story tellers and we must keep it all going.
Warmest wishes from Maeve Binchy
