Comment by James McNamara on August 18, 2013 at 5:05pm

Hi Summer, Nice to get a book like that.  I just won "Dancing with Statues" here on Wild Geese.

I better buy Edna's autobiography while it's still in print.  I am told she is a cousin of mine.  :-)

Comment by James McNamara on August 18, 2013 at 6:31pm

My Cleary cousins in the east Clare area told me she is a cousin.  I haven't really traced out this line and may someday.  Here are the titles I have read:

The Country Girls Trilogy, The Country Girls, The Lonely Girl, Girls in their Married Bliss  Note the Country Girls was her first book which was based on the people she knew that lived in and around the area in East Clare where she was from.

Lantern Slides (a collection of short stories)

In the Forest, a true story  about a murder in the east Clare area (too dark to read even once.)

Mother Ireland 

Regarding the grate, I believe it's just a metal plate to cover the drain pipe.  They use pipes instead of ditches in some of the hilly areas to prevent erosion.

Comment by James McNamara on August 18, 2013 at 6:40pm

Forgot to say, The Country Girls was banned in Ireland and got all her books banned for some time.  This story was considered blasphemous for saying the things she said about priests and nuns.  It was a fictional work, but everyone said they knew who each character was.  One of my cousins stated that her mother never drowned in the Lough, that she died of natural causes.  That may have been why he drove me by her mother's birthplace.

Comment by James McNamara on August 24, 2013 at 11:44am

Hi Summer, the old ways still persist in this edge of Ireland.  I want to say much more but don't dare betray any family confidences. Yes, I think for Edna it was a speak now or forever hold her tongue prospect that would have been an unbearable existence for such a soul.  

If you do go back you will have to finesse an invitation.  I would suggest you contact Mr. Bohan to contact another person to intercede.  He is proprietor of Bohan's Pub in Feakle.   I think his name is Seamus but not positive.  He helped me to contact my last Mac cousin in the local townland where my Macs are from.  Lots of long stories I am reluctant to put here (cast in stone) for all to see in perpetuity.

I can tell you that even in my own family there are deep secrets that no one spoke of and one of the reasons I got into family history. I never met my Mac grandparents who died in 1962 & 1966.  I did find out later that I actually met my grandmother when I was born.  I could tell from the voter's record where I found my parents and my grandmother registered in my birth year, she definitely met me and more than that would just be my own selfish speculation.

All the best.

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