Ireland '23 - bibliography
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Below is a list of books which were pertinent to my trip to Ireland:
Fodors Ireland, 2013 was my main guide besides online resources. A few items were out of date, but not many.
The Most Beautiful Villages in Ireland, w/252 color illustrations, 2000, by writer Christopher Fitz-Simmon, and Photographer Hugh Palmer, Thames & Hudson Ltd., London, Publishers. I bought this attractive photo book on a whim 2 years ago and once our itinerary was planned, I was glad to see I'd be staying at three of them: Knightstown, Kenmare, and Carlingford.
Family Walks Around Dublin, a Walking Guide, by Adrian Hendroff, 2017, Collins Press, Cork, Ireland. This excellent book was the info source for the Grand Canal walk.
Cork, Kerry & Southwest Ireland Road Trips, 2020, Lonely Planet Global Limited. This small guide has great maps that show the most scenic drives along the entire south coast, from Limerick in the west to Cork in the east.
Jonathan Swift, His Life and His World, by Leo Damrosch, 2013, Yale University Press. I first read this book in 2021, and after this trip read it again. Swift is one of the most interesting persons I've ever read about; maybe that's why there's so much info on the Day 2 page.
note - see way below for the story about Swift & Stella.
Lessons from the Bench, Reflections from a life spent in Ireland's Criminal Court, by (retired) Judge Gillian Hussey, Gill Books 2022. This book covers a wide spectrum of social issues as seen over the last 40 years, from a Judge's perspective. I bought it on a whim at the National Art Museum gift shop and this book gave me a completely unexpected (cultural) perspective on the city of Dublin.
An Unsung Hero, Tom Crean - Antarctic Survivor, by Michael Smith, 2000, Collins Press. It does not take long before you realize you are reading one of the greatest outdoor adventure/survival tales ever told.
Having read it 5 years ago, this book kept me company for the last week of the trip
Tom Crean was so humble that even his own daughters & grandchildren knew so little about his Antarctic exploits and it was this book that finally elevated Tom Crean to the status he deserves.
Neolithic Britain, The transformation of Social Worlds, by Keith Ray and Julian Thomas, 2018 Oxford University Press. This book, written by two of Britain's pre-eminent Neolithic era archeologists, reads a bit like a textbook, and when I read it in '22, I learned about passage tombs like Tara, Nowth, and Newgrange & it was my intro to the Neolithic era.
Neolithic "passage tombs" were constructed in Ireland, the UK, France, the Orkneys, and parts of Norway. This shows a wide-spread belief in annual rebirth, and a Solstice-based religion, before a time of written language ? A mystery...
AllTrails online was a great resource in looking for walks in Dublin, Killarney, or on the Ring of Kerry. I re-did my itinerary to allow for walks on the RoK, but crappy weather intervened.
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The story of Stella (or Hester Johnson), who Dean Swift was buried next to, is also a mystery, but there's no doubt that Stella was a huge part of Jonathan Swift's life and his main emotional support, and they spent decades together under the same roof.
Swift first met Hester when he was a fresh Oxford grad and tutor to a wealthy Uncle's offspring and some of the servants, one of them being Hester, 16 years younger than him. Over a decade or more they formed a deep bond, and once Swift became Dean, people assumed they were married, yet no formal records survive. Over time a change occurred after which they lived separately, in the same house, according to Journal entries made by his friends.
Author Damrosch writes that modern biographers of Swift have made an educated guess that once together for some time as a couple, Jonathan & Stella put 2 + 2 (on the family tree) together, and realized they were both probably the offspring of the same Uncle, who was apparently sexually active for a long time, although they likely had different Moms.
When Stella died, years ahead of him, from a chronic condition, Swift's closest friends said he was desperate in his grief.
Final historical note about Jonathan Swift and the time he lived in - the Damrosch book shows a Parcel Map for the Dublin neighborhood where the Cathedral was, from the 1740s, and, each house had an attached plot of land, long & thin, like an acre or two, for gardens & fruit trees.
As a result, all houses 'front' onto the street, while out back it was like a big open space park. Walking through the city blocks surrounding the Cathedral today, it is hard to imagine this !
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