Five Take Up Creative Writing

© The Authors from
The Snug at 7.30

Full title: Short Stories & Long Lies

Creator / Author: The Snug At 7.30 Writing Group

Item Type / Page count: Book / 101p

When Published: 2012

Publisher / Place of Publication: The Snug At 7.30 / [Not stated], Co. Wicklow

About: A collection of stories, poems, and history-based pieces by a group of five writers, collectively known as ‘The Snug at 7.30 Writing Group’. Deriving their name from the snug at Larry Egan’s pub in Parkbridge, the group came together following a creative writing course in Tinahely in 2010. This is their first collection which was launched at the Business Centre, Tinahely on 12^th May, 2012.

ID number(s): 9781471635748

Contents: Introduction and Foreword / Alison McGuire – Apples / Tara Quirke – The Lane Back Home / Thomas Clare – A Cold Woman / Alison McGuire – Eagle Hill / Robert Duffy – Raheengraney House / Jillian Godsil – Letting Go and Binding Fast [poem] / Jillian Godsil – I’d Almost Forgotten… / Thomas Clare – I’d Almost Forgotten… / Jillian Godsil – Not The Right Lipstick / Tara Quirke — The Interview / Robert Duffy — Simple Things / Alison McGuire – Some Very Alarming Things / Tara Quirke – The Winter of Life [poem]  / Thomas Clare – Journey (in loving memory of John Duffy 1930-2009) [poem] / Robert Duffy – Footsteps / Thomas Clare – The Wrong Girl / Alison McGuire – The Front Line / Robert Duffy – As I Lie Here in my Coffin / Jillian Godsil – Inheritance of Fear [poem]  / Alison McGuire – The Authors from The Snug.

Extra #1: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #2: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #3: The cover photo features a wall hanging from Coolattin House.

Extra #4: Preview this book via Google Books

Berlin Beckons for Baltinglass Detective

© The Publisher

Full title: The City of Lies: a Stefan Gillespie novel

Creator / Author: Michael Russell

Item Type / Page count: Book / 355p

When Published: 2017

Publisher / Place of Publication: Constable / Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DZ.

About: This is the fourth book in a series of historical crime fiction featuring the West Wicklow based Detective Inspector Stefan Gillespie. A number of deadly incidents in 1940 entangles our hero in the intelligence services of Ireland, Britain and Germany and the action gets serious when he is dispatched to Berlin on a sensitive mission.

ID number(s): 9781472121974

WW Connection #1: The hometown of the main character is given as Baltinglass.

WW Connection #2: The author is a resident of the Baltinglass / Kiltegan area.

Extra #1: Opening lines: “The town of Dunlavin sits on the edge of the great, flat pan of fields and fens that make up a large part of the middle of Ireland…”

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Baltinglass Detective Reigns in Spain

© The Publisher

Full title: The City in Darkness: a Stefan Gillespie novel

Creator / Author: Michael Russell

Item Type / Page count: Book / 338p

When Published: 2016

Publisher / Place of Publication: Constable / Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DZ.

About: This is the third book in a series of historical crime fiction featuring the West Wicklow based Detective Inspector Stefan Gillespie. The action ranges from the Wicklow Mountains through Dublin and on to Spain and Portugal. The book is set in the early 1940’s which allows the author scope to use Second World War Europe and the ‘Emergency’ period in Ireland as backdrop to the story.

ID number(s): 9781472121929 / 9781472121912 / 9781472121943

WW Connection #1: The hometown of the main character is given as Baltinglass.

WW Connection #2: The author is a resident of the Baltinglass / Kiltegan area.

Extra #1: Opening lines: “There was barely a whisper of mist on the Upper Lake, a softness in the air where the water rippled among reeds and lapped on the pebble beach at the eastern end…”

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: Read a review of this book courtesy of Irish Examiner newspaper

A Prizewinning Debut Collection

© The Publisher

Full title: Antarctica [short stories]

Creator / Author: Claire Keegan

Item Type / Page count: Book / 209p

When Published: 1999

Publisher / Place of Publication: Faber and Faber Limited / 3 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AU United Kingdom.

About: This is the author’s first collection of short stories and one that became the winner of the Rooney Prize for Literature for 2000. This annual prize is awarded for a body of work that the judges consider to have exceptional promise. The stories are set in the deep south of America and in Ireland, reflecting the author’s experience and assimilation of both environments. The stories were re-published as Book 14 in the Irish Independent Irish Women Writers Collection in 2007.

ID number(s):  9780571203468

Contents:  Acknowledgements — Antarctica — Love in the Tall Grass — Where the Water’s Deepest — The Ginger Rogers Sermon – Storms — The Singing Cashier — Burns — Quare Name for a Boy — Ride if You Dare — Men and Women — Sisters — A Scent of Winter — You Can’t Be Too Careful — The Burning Palms — Passport Soup.

WW Connection #1: The author was born and raised in the border area of Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford.

Extra #1: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #2: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #3: A review from Reading Matters

Extra #4: These stories have been translated into, and published in, several foreign languages.

Constable Commits Murder in Dunlavin

© The Publisher

Full title: Running with crows: the life and death of a Black and Tan [a novel]

Creator / Author: DJ Kelly

Item Type / Page count: Book / 284p

When Published: 2013

Publisher / Place of Publication: FeedARead Publishing / United Kingdom

About: This novel is based on a real life person, Constable William Mitchell. He was the only member of the British Crown Forces to be sentenced to death for murder during the War of Independence in Ireland. In this book, the author explores the scenarios around the murder incident and the politics of the era which made Mitchell’s 1921 execution an inevitability.

ID number(s): 9781782991861

Chapters: Foreword – Acknowledgements – The Joy – Monto – Wild Irish Rose – Bermondsey Days – The Mutton Lancers – The Dog and the Rabbit — Mutton Curry – Mutton Chops – The Somme – Rouenation – Alice – The Wicklow Warriors – A Dead Man’s Hat – The Second Man – As the Crow Flies – Epilogue.

WW Connection #1: William Mitchell was a temporary constable in the RIC and stationed in Dunlavin in West Wicklow. He was convicted of the murder of local magistrate, Robert Dixon of Milltown, Dunlavin.

Extra #1: Opening lines: “The sorry ruins of Dublin’s elegant Custom House smouldered still on the quayside, yet the black waters of the Liffey lapped by unconcernedly. The sun was rising and wary citizens began to appear and go about their business as best they could on an otherwise pleasant June morning….”

Extra #1: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #2: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #3: Contains four black & white photographs.

Extra #4: Read a review of this book via the blogs The Irish Story and An Irish Village

Extra #5: Link to the author’s blog

Extra #6: Browse the 1911 Census entry for Robert Dixon in Dunlavin.

Baltinglass Detective in the Big Apple

© The Publisher

Full title: The City of Strangers [a novel]

Creator / Author: Michael Russell

Item Type / Page count: Book / 486p

When Published: 2013

Publisher / Place of Publication: Avon / 77-85 Fulham Place Road, London W6 8JB.

About: Another adventure for the West Wicklow based detective, Garda Sergeant Stefan Gillespie. A suspected murderer of a woman in Dublin becomes a fugitive and our hero is sent to New York to bring him back to face justice. However, that is just the start of the story and when Stefan bumps into an old friend in New York, things take a more complicated turn.

ID number(s): 9781847563477

WW Connection #1: The hometown of the main character is given as Baltinglass.

WW Connection #2: The author is a resident of the Baltinglass / Kiltegan area.

Extra #1: Opening lines: “The storm did not come suddenly. All day the wind from the Atlantic has blown hard and cold and fast against Pallas Strand…”

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: Read a review courtesy of writing.ie

The Big Fellow’s Blessington Buddy

© The Publisher

Full title: Fear Not the Storm. The story of Tom Cullen, an Irish revolutionary [a novel]

Creator / Author: Cathal Liam

Item Type / Page count: Book / 457p

When Published: 2011

Publisher / Place of Publication: St. Pádraic Press / P.O. Box 43351, Cincinnati, Ohio 45243-0351, USA.

About: Tom Cullen was one  of the closest associates of Michael Collins, but also one of the least known. This story of his life and exploits is told in the form of a true-life novel and is the closest we will probably get to a fully-fledged biography. The author has researched his subject extensively and includes several pages of endnotes and a selected booklist.

ID number(s): 9780970415530

WW Connection #1: The subject of this book, Tom Cullen, was born in Blessington in West Wicklow in 1890.

Extra #1: Opening lines: ”Tom Cullen was the fifth child born to Andrew and Anne Cullen. With great anticipation, his mother thought the birth would take place after the New Year of 1891, but by early December, she knew her days of carrying would be very short….”

Extra #2: The book contains more than 50 black & white photographs.

Extra #3: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #4: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #5: Browse to the Census of Ireland entries for Tom Cullen in 1901 and in 1911

Extra #6: This book won the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year in Historical Adult Fiction for 2011.

A Kelsha Summer Like No Other

© The Publisher

Full title: Annie Dunne [a novel]

Creator / Author: Sebastian Barry

Item Type / Page count: Book / 228p

When Published: 2002 and later editions

Publisher / Place of Publication: Faber and Faber Limited / 3 Queen Square, London WC 1N 3AU

About:  A novel about country life, changing times, young and old, relationships, innocence, loss and reconciliation. A whole lifetime of experiences within a single summer.

ID number(s): 0571203043 / 9780571216444 / 0571216447 /0670031127 / 9780670031122

WW Connection #1: The book is set in West Wicklow, particularly around the Kelsha area of Kiltegan.

WW Connection #2: Author has resided in West Wicklow, including the Tinahely area.

Extra #1: Opening lines: ”Oh, Kelsha is a distant place, over the mountains from everywhere. You go over the mountains to get there, and eventually, through dreams.”

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide

Extra #4: Link to the Publisher’s website.

A Bygone Christmas Gift From Hollywood

© The Publisher

Full title: Ballymore Eustace and Hollywood Chronicle

Creator / Author: Maurice Browne P.P (editor) & contributors.

Item Type / Page count: Journal (Complete issue) / 103p

When Published: Christmas 1972

Publisher / Place of Publication: [Parish of Ballymore Eustace and Hollywood] / [Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare].

About: This is the second issue of the parish magazine, produced some twenty years after the inaugural issue. The driving force behind both was Rev. Fr. Maurice Browne, P.P. of the parish. Fr. Browne also authored several books and other items under the pen name of ‘Joseph Brady’. This issue gathers together articles of contemporary and historical interest. It is not certain if any further issues were ever published.

ID number(s): None

Contents: Cover photograph: The bridge over the Liffey at Ballymore Eustace — Frontispiece: Adoration of the Magi [photograph of a painting from the Beit Collection] – Foreword / Maurice Browne P.P. — Fords and bridges over the River Liffey [extract] / Archdeacon Sherlock — Commentary on extract from ‘Fords and bridges over the River Liffey’  — Parish Priest comes of age / Maurice Browne P.P. – I remember Ballymore / Captain Spencer Freeman — The Beit Collection of pictures [extract from the Beit Collection] / F. J. B. Watson — Eight years hard in a Dublin Pawn-office / Tom Whittle — Six months for potheen [short story] / Paddy Wolfe , told to him by Capt. John Walshe –Through Bible lands / Mick McDonald — From Bluebell to Hollywood / Thomas Kearney C.C. — Hollywood [poem] / Bill Evans — The station in the mountain: Turlough Hill — The Liffey Water Supply / Gus Murphy — Pages from diary of a pilgrimage to The Holy Land / Joseph Brady — Ardenode Stud / Margaret Mullion — Footnote to ‘Ardenode Stud’/ Maurice Browne P.P. – Paroiste Bhailemor na nIustasach / P. Ó Brosnacháin – The new curriculum / Michael Conway – Work in progress in the infant school / Patricia Kennealy – Picnic abhi againn [duais aiste] / Bríd Ní Chuillin – The Ghost [prize poem] / George Murphy – Prize essays Ballymore School, Senior Class – Punchestown races [prize essay] /  Matthew Dooley – When I grow up [prize essay] / Martina Nolan – Through the eyes of a child: visit of the Archbishop to Ballymore school – Ballymore Eustace I.C.A. / Mary Connolly – St. Vincent de Paul Society Ballymore Eustace – Corpus Christi procession at Ballymore Eustace [photo essay] – Paddy Kerr’s beagles / Louise Kerr – The Poulaphooca hare [poem] / Sean Mackey – Ballymore Handball Club / Matt Purcell – Boxing in Ballymore Eustace / Bill Evans – The Badminton Club / Claire Doyle – “Fairway to success” / Pauline Daly – The judgment of Ballymore [poem extract] / Dick Hynes and Anon – The imaginary menagerie.

Extra #1: Contains several black & white photographs throughout the text.

Extra #2: Contains several period advertisements from local businesses.

Extra #3: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #4: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide

Baltinglass Detective Does His Stuff

© The Publisher

Full title: The City of Shadows [a novel]

Creator / Author: Michael Russell

Item Type / Page count: Book / 468p

When Published: 2012

Publisher / Place of Publication: Avon / 77-85 Fulham Place Road, London W6 8JB.

About: A thriller which ranges from Dublin to Danzig and across the Dublin / Wicklow Mountains. The hero is Detective Stefan Gillespie who tries to solve the interlocked mysteries of two murders and a missing woman amid a city reluctant to reveal its darker secrets.

ID number(s): 9781847563460

WW Connection #1: The book is partially set in the hills of West Wicklow and the hometown of the main character is given as Baltinglass.

WW Connection #2: The author is a resident of the Baltinglass / Kiltegan area.

Extra #1: Opening line: ”The moon shone on the Liffey as it moved quietly through Dublin, towards the sea…”

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: Read a review courtesy of writing.ie

Hat-Tip: Thanks to the Carlow Nationalist Newspaper of 26/02/2013 for bringing this publication to our attention.