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Book Review: The Preacher and the Prelate: The Achill Mission Colony and the Battle for Souls in Famine Ireland | The Irish Story
By Patricia Byrne Published by Merrion Press, Newbridge, 2018 ISBN: 9781785371721 Reviewer: Gordon O’Sullivan “His was a crusade that failed to touch the sinews of empathy, as a powerful vision dissolved in sectarianism and a praiseworthy idealism was seduced by the commercial dictates of landlordism and property
— Read on www.theirishstory.com/2018/07/20/book-review-the-preacher-and-the-prelate-the-achill-mission-colony-and-the-battle-for-souls-in-famine-ireland/
Conflict and the Colony
BOOKS ‘The Preacher And The Prelate’ is a riveting read about the impact of Rev Edward Nangle on Achill Island life during famine times
— Read on www.mayonews.ie/living/32212-conflict-and-the-colony
TheJournal.ie – The fascinating story of the Achill Island preacher, the Famine, and the Prelate
TheJournal.ie – The fascinating story of the Achill Island preacher, the Famine, and the Prelate
— Read on www.thejournal.ie/preacher-prelate-patricia-byrne-4033791-May2018/
Walk in Paul Henry’s Achill Footsteps
You can walk in the footsteps of the artist Paul Henry, following the shoreline from Dooagh to Keel, as part of the May bank-holiday Achill Walks Festival. There are a half-dozen walks, some on the island, some on the north-west Mayo mainland in Ballycroy National Park and the Nephin mountain range.
A century ago Paul Henry and his wife Grace first came to Achill on a Midland Great Western Railway train and stayed on and off for a decade. The area between Kell and Dooagh, taking in Pollagh and Gubelennaun, was the focal point for much of Henry’s painting. The Achill walk will include the bog road made famous by Henry in one of his Achill landscapes.
Henry’s autobiography, An Irish Portrait (1951) is mainly about his experiences on Achill Island and his artist’s desire ‘to express a life that has never been expressed’.
Literary Mayo and A Half-Dozen Texts
It looks like good weather for the holiday weekend in Ireland. Time for breaks and trips. I like to link text and place when travelling. As I’m heading off to County Mayo, I thought I would pull together – in a fairly random way – some of my favourite texts linked to some wonderful Mayo places. So here they are – the texts and the places:
Heinrich Boll’s Irish Journal: Head to Achill Island’s Deserted Village and read Boll’s account of how he came upon this ‘skeleton of a human habitation’ that nobody had mentioned to him and where ‘the elements have eaten away everything not made of stone’. There’s a new edition of Irish Journal out with a fine Introduction by Hugo Hamilton.
J. M. Synge Travelling Ireland: Take this book to Erris and read the essays Synge wrote when he visited there in 1905 with Jack Yeats – travelling by long car from Ballina to Belmullet. This edition of the essays – edited by Nicholas Greene, with fine illustrations – was published in 2009.
Paul Henry’s An Irish Portrait: Take a boat from Blacksod to the deserted Inishkea Islands off the Mullet Peninsula where Henry travelled while a visitor to Achill in the early nineteenth century and wrote a graphic account of the whaling station. Paul Henry’s book is out of print but is available in many libraries and can be purchased on-line.
Michael Viney, Wild Mayo: Take a journey through Mayo’s landscape and wildlife with this wonderful account packed with great illustrations from the writer/naturalist who lives in Thallabawn.
Michael Longley, A Hundred Doors: In his latest collection the Northern Ireland poet brings a fresh perspective to the place he has long frequented – the Mayo townland of Carrigskeewaun: ‘Where sand from the white strand and the burial ground / Blows in.’
Graham Greene, The End Of The Affair: It is sixty years since this book was first published. Inspired by the affair Greene had with Catherine Walston, the cottage they occasionally shared still stands in Dooagh, Achill at the very edge of the Atlantic Ocean.
I would love to hear stories of other texts linked to favourite Mayo places.
Patricia Byrne 
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