During a recent enforced rest period I picked up The House on an Irish Hillside once again and like a good wine it does not disappoint! Felicity Hayes-McCoy evokes the interweaving of landscape, language and community ties that those of us who left Ireland for any length of time know in our bones. We may be shy of speaking of it, and at times embarrassed when others do, but this is what we yearn for when separated from it. For we belong to this land, it does not belong to us. And we feel the call of this land even though many of us feel foolish saying it.
Felicity articulates all these thoughts and feelings. We feel that we walk the roads and hear the sea, and smell the flowers as we read her words. We become lost in the world of home.
My favourite chapter has to be 'Who you are is where you come from' where Felicity explores the tapestry of our Irish identity, where it comes from and how we express it. 'When people meet, they try to place each other, and they'r not happy til they find the links that join their story to yours.
As the chapter continues and Felicity tells us the stories of the townlands and villages, the family historian in me becomes excited knowing that out there across the ocean, there are those who belong to Cathar na gCat and Marthain. And they are finding their way home.
So if you call Ireland home, this book is for you, read it slowly, read it aloud, read it more than once and let home enfold you among it's pages.
Felicity articulates all these thoughts and feelings. We feel that we walk the roads and hear the sea, and smell the flowers as we read her words. We become lost in the world of home.
My favourite chapter has to be 'Who you are is where you come from' where Felicity explores the tapestry of our Irish identity, where it comes from and how we express it. 'When people meet, they try to place each other, and they'r not happy til they find the links that join their story to yours.
As the chapter continues and Felicity tells us the stories of the townlands and villages, the family historian in me becomes excited knowing that out there across the ocean, there are those who belong to Cathar na gCat and Marthain. And they are finding their way home.
So if you call Ireland home, this book is for you, read it slowly, read it aloud, read it more than once and let home enfold you among it's pages.
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