Local history book reviews: old ways and byways revisited

There is a restless curiosity about local historians who spend their days raiding archives, rummaging through newspapers and sleuthing around graveyards. The result is a batch of newly published parish histories that combine learning with readability and reflect the daunting task of recording an earlier era.

Writing in the foreword to Gerard O'Rourke's Ancient Sweet Donoughmore: Life in an Irish Rural Parish to 1900 (Redmond Grove Publications, €25), Prof John A Murphy of University College Cork reflects that all history is local history. He suggests that for the historian of the locality, the greatest change has been the digital revolution, as more sources become available and almost immediately accessible.

The hills and boreens in this history-soaked rural area of Co Cork house a wealth of prehistoric monuments and antiquities. Donoughmore’s early Christian church is synonymous with St Lachtin, whose arm-shaped reliquary is regarded as one of the finest examples of 12th-century metalwork in Ireland.

Eleven chapters embrace 6,000 years of human existence, covering, among other subjects, the transformation from paganism to Christianity, the changing nature of the landscape, the Famine and its aftermath, the Land War, and local government reform up to the turn of the 20th century.

Interwoven amid the drama of faction fights, evictions and church attacks that animate this book, a story with a French connection stands out. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the people of Donoughmore contributed a total of £31 3s in aid to the sick and wounded of Paris – a remarkable act of local generosity and solidarity.

Reuben Butler and Máire Ní Ghruagáin adopt a similarly detailed approach in The Story of Newmarket-on-Fergus (Columba Press, €30). The publishers classify the book as microhistory, and, indeed, all aspects of the past are fully explored in this 640-page compendium. Even the exquisite map endpapers are a work of art.

Each of the seven Co Clare parishes, with its cluster of townlands, is given due prominence while archaeological sites, castles and churches are diligently documented. Canon Butler and his co-author draw on The Annals of the Four Masters, Griffith’s Valuation and the Inchiquin Manuscripts. To reflect the truly local minutiae, they quote from a repertoire of storytellers, farmers’ diaries on barley sowing, and cherished folk memories of Mass rocks and funeral traditions. After death, for example, a window was opened to allow the spirit to leave.

Scores of vignettes and delightful nuggets of information on piseogs, beliefs and old customs jump from the pages: in Tradaree, it is unlucky to meet a red-haired woman when driving cattle to a fair, nor is there any luck in the house when there is a whistling woman or a crowing hen.

In his youth, the President, Michael D Higgins, whose father came from Ballycar, lived on a family farm near Newmarket, and in the foreword he recounts warm memories of the area. For good measure, one of the President’s poems, Katie’s Song, is reproduced.

In her study of the north Galway parish, Caherlistrane (Knockma Publishing, €20), Mary J Murphy embarks on a quest for the people who lived there. For many years she has hoarded "driftwood" from an area that is a cradle of music and literature. She uncovers connections with writers, historical personalities and the American actor Vivian Nesbitt. Nesbitt's great- great-grandmother was the Headford- born Mary Eva Kelly (later O'Doherty), known as "Eva of the Nation", a poet of the Young Ireland Movement who emigrated to Australia.

A leitmotif is the gifted Keane family of musicians – Dolores (described by Frankie Gavin as the “Aretha Franklin of Ireland”), Seán, his older brothers Matt, Pat and Noel, and aunts Rita and Sarah. With the family céilí band, they have long been an integral part of the Galway music scene. Seán’s grandmother had a suitcase full of songs, which has led to his new one-man show.

The landscape is also influential. Musicians and writers have been inspired by the distinctive feature of the hill of Knockma, a mere 552ft, while a walking trail, the Golden Mile of Caherlistrane, has become popular with hikers.

The valleys of Wicklow attract walkers as well, and now the longest glacial valley in Ireland has found a biographer. Carmel O'Toole presents a complete historic portrait of the area in Glenmalure, The Wild Heart of the Mountains: A Valley and Its People (€25).

Glenmalure’s tumultuous story is told through war and rebellion, as well as cultural, educational, social and sporting events. The life of Michael Dwyer, a legendary figure of 1798, is well known, but perhaps less so – to outsiders – is the Battle of Glenmalure, regarded as the most spectacular event in the valley’s history. On a single fateful day – August 25th, 1580 – English forces suffered the loss of more than 800 men.

Using eyewitness accounts published at the time, O'Toole paints a vivid description of the fighting and of how a river ran red with blood. A two-page colour reproduction of a dramatic painting of the battle shows firebrand Gaelic chieftain Feagh McHugh O'Byrne in the thick of the action, surrounded by his men armed with lances, claymore swords, halberds and arquebuses. The battle prompted many poems and songs, the most famous being Follow Me Up to Carlow.

This is not a vade mecum to take on a walk in Glenmalure. Rather, it is a meander through time. An authoritative book, it teems with humanity and succeeds in making flesh a Wicklow valley resonating with a remarkable history.

Dip into the book and you will want to pull on your walking boots to seek out landmarks such as Dwyer’s Chair or Art’s Cross, or to explore lyrical townland names – Stump of the Castle, Carrawaystick, Ballinafunshoge – that sprinkle the map of this multistoried landscape.

Paul Clements's book on a journey around the mountains of Ireland, The Height of Nonsense: The Ultimate Irish Road Trip , has just been republished. His most recent book is Wandering Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way: From Banba's Crown to World's End. Both books are published by the Collins Press