Authors: Kevin O'Hara
ISBN-13: 9780765309846, ISBN-10: 076530984X
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
Date Published: February 2005
Edition: REV
Kevin O'Hara has spent the last twenty years working as a psychiatric nurse at the Berkshire Medical Center. He lives in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
A heartwarming story of a man who journeys to the land of his people to discover what kind of man he is . . . and, more to the point, what kind of man he could become
Kevin O'Hara was a man who was at the crossroads of life. Newly married to a beautiful woman, Kevin found himself full of rage and pain. A former soldier, he had seen the horrors of war and was unable to let those sorrows go . . . and his pain threatened to destroy not only his own happiness but any chance of a happy life with his wife. If he couldn't fix what was broken in his own heart, he'd be lost.
In desperation Kevin traveled to Ireland, the land of his people, to seek some sort of balm for his pain. It was there, amid the impossibly green fields, open skies, and glad hearts of his friends and relatives, that Kevin began to see the possibilities of joy again.
And it was there that he formed a wonderfully daft plan. The age-old method of traveling by donkey cart was beginning to disappear from the Irish countryside as modern life crowded in. What better way, Kevin thought, to experience the beauty of Ireland than to travel the length of the land in the old way-man and donkey, drinking in the sights and sounds of the country.
Among the Irish, opinion was divided as to whether Kevin was a madman . . . or a saint. Bets were made, and most of the locals near his grandmother's farmhouse predicted that this strange American wouldn't even get out of the county, much less circle the entire island.
But Kevin had a vision in his head, and a goal. He wanted to make things right for himself, heal his heart, and return to his beloved wife. And so, with Missy, the shaggy brown mare by his side, he set off on that long mad walk, an eighteen-hundred-mile trek that would take months.
Along the way Kevin would meet some incredible characters, endure hardships (and moments of high drama . . . and very low comedy), and find the Irish in all their glory. And he would find himself.
A witty, whimsical walk around an Ireland before the 'Celitc Tiger' of the European Union found its economic legs, before the roads were improved, and before battalions of Audis and Mercedes replaced the donkey carts, farmers, and unhurried pedestrians of another day.
Acknowledgments | 11 | |
Introduction | 13 | |
1 | The Donkey Proposal | 19 |
2 | Talk of the Parish | 25 |
3 | Jimmy Mac, the Horseman | 31 |
4 | Missie and the Fleetwood | 35 |
5 | The Apprenticeship | 40 |
6 | The Kilteevan Report | 46 |
7 | A Birthday Visit to Knock | 52 |
8 | The Commencement | 57 |
9 | A Gift of Hazel | 62 |
10 | Old Coach Road to Galway | 68 |
11 | The Hollow Bright Fog | 73 |
12 | A Worldly Man, Indeed! | 81 |
13 | Joe McHugh's Pub | 87 |
14 | The Grass Widow and Bottle Scrubber | 93 |
15 | Old Country Cures | 99 |
16 | Crossing the Shannon | 103 |
17 | A Breather in Ballybunion | 110 |
18 | Dead Cut of a Weasel | 118 |
19 | On the Dingle | 123 |
20 | Up the Conor Pass | 129 |
21 | Celtic Starlight | 133 |
22 | A Souper's Kitchen | 142 |
23 | A Night with the Travelers | 148 |
24 | A Rock Soars from the Sea | 154 |
25 | Faery-Waxed in Ballybrack | 161 |
26 | The Memory Stone | 167 |
27 | The Road to Kilmakilloge | 174 |
28 | Lord Tim of the Holly | 180 |
29 | A Wasp's Dying Sting | 186 |
30 | A Run to Mizen Head | 192 |
31 | Wood of the Pilgrims | 198 |
32 | Over the River Blackwater | 204 |
33 | Washerwoman from Tramore | 211 |
34 | The Cock and Hen | 217 |
35 | Going Widdershins | 226 |
36 | A Green Martyr | 234 |
37 | Brother Malachy of Mount Argus | 241 |
38 | Approaching the Dragon | 247 |
39 | The Kingdom of Mourne | 253 |
40 | Ship on the Sea | 258 |
41 | Nursery of Blackguards | 264 |
42 | Knock Sunday in Belfast | 269 |
43 | The Glens of Antrim | 277 |
44 | Faery Kingdom of Dalriada | 284 |
45 | Gandie's Goats | 293 |
46 | A Celebrity in Derry | 300 |
47 | The Questions of Children | 307 |
48 | Close Call at The Beach | 315 |
49 | Mary Hanna's Pub | 321 |
50 | All Hallow's Eve | 325 |
51 | Missie's March to Drumnacart | 331 |
52 | Glengesh Pass | 336 |
53 | Glen of the Saint to Aerie of the Bishop | 342 |
54 | A Walk to Ballyshannon | 349 |
55 | Beneath Maeve's Crown | 356 |
56 | Between Shamrock and Harp | 364 |
57 | Mary Cleary's Pub | 373 |
58 | From Achill to Clare Island | 381 |
59 | Hazel to Holly | 388 |
60 | Rounding Roundstone | 395 |
61 | Lamplight to Streetlights | 402 |
62 | A Bonfire in Ballygar | 410 |
63 | A Proper Pair of Pilgrims | 416 |
64 | A Christmas Ceili | 419 |
65 | Fingerpost to Ballagh | 425 |
Epilogue | 427 |