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Writing about writing my book
There is nothing this writer likes more than writing about their writing process. A recent visit to the Coming Home Famine Art exhibition at Dublin Castle prompted these thoughts about the the writing journey for my new book which has the famine experience at its heart. Thanks Writing.ie for sharing my thoughts.
Sweet as Honey
Nothing sweeter for this writer than reader feedback and this piece of enthusiasm from Mary J Murphy came early, with the new book barely born:
Well bless my booties Patricia Byrne, how thrilling it is to be associated with such an original, beautifully written, intensely researched book that reeks of Achill’s complex past between every line & delves fearlessly into the complicated, multi-layered history of Edward Nangle’s Mission Colony in Dugort. I’ve been enormously impressed by the lengths to which you have gone to be fair, balanced & impartial as you walk your reader through the minefield of competing religious ideologies in The Preacher and the Prelate, & have been haunted by Eliza Nangle’s personal story since I read it, thinking of how she buried one infant of hers after another, as Edward ranted and raved in the public arena.The level of detail in it is dizzying in its expanse, exactitude & breadth, & it is a work of which you should be inordinately proud because your years of effort have paid off most handsomely.
That it came with this wonderful pic against the backdrop of Achill Island mountain Slievemore, the location of my story, makes it even more special. 
New Book hurtling towards book shops
Delighted that today my new book is hurtling towards book shops across Ireland. So exhilarating is the feeling that I feel like climbing the iconic Achill mountain Slievemore that features on the cover.
The book will launch in Achill on the slopes of the mountain on 4 May at 8pm as part of the splendid Heinrich Boll Weekend.
Like a rock in the sea, islanded by fields…..
Reading Mary Lavin’s story ‘In the Middle of the Fields’ in the recent anthology of Irish Women Writers The Long Gaze Back, I was reminded of a visit to East Walpole on the outskirts of Boston several years ago. I had travelled along Washington Street which seemed to extend forever in straight lines south-east of the city. I remember the harsh-sweet smell of hot asphalt when I reached the sleepy town.
It was here that Mary Lavin, the only child of Irish parents, was born in 1912 and passed the first nine years of her life. At the brow of a hill on the town’s edge, I entered the Francis William Bird Park which slopes down to the Neponsett River across which was the mill where Tom Lavin worked. Here the the small black-haired child was thrilled by parkland, flowers and water, imaging that she flew over the place like a bird. In October 1921, Mary Lavin left East Walpole and crossed the Atlantic to Ireland with her mother for a new life.
The shadows were lengthening when I departed William Bird Park to a chorus of bird song, soon facing the long stretch of Washington Street back to Boston. Next day I crossed the Atlantic through turbulent skies. 
All In The Cooking 70 Years On
Anna Browne is 97 years old. She was one of the compilers of the Cathal Brugha Street publication All In The Cooking for the college’s Domestic Science students almost 70 years ago. Anna writes the Foreword to the delightful reissue of the book by O’Brien Press. Could this be Ireland’s very first cookery book? And not a glossy photo in sight!
Patricia Byrne 
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