Local History:Nuggets of local history are often found in the layers of personal memoirs and biographies. Such is the case with the life-story of rural Irish doctor Louis Courtney (1878-1985), whose son, also Dr Louis Courtney, has compiled an account of his father's life in I Go Alone: Memoirs of a Rural Irish Doctor, 1878-1985 - from tape recordings, notes and memory, writes Richard Roche.
Another son, William, contributes an epilogue. Their father was no ordinary GP, and his story spans what is arguably the most important century in modern Irish history. Qualifying in 1915, he was a close friend of Thomas MacDonagh and Joseph Mary Plunkett, the 1916 leaders; he visited James Connolly in his prison cell before he was executed and he witnessed Eamon de Valera surrendering in Mount Street, Dublin, at the end of the Rising. But it was as a rural doctor in Co Tipperary that his story is at its most interesting to local historians. He records country customs, mythical "cures", folklore and personal memories that will spark interest in places such as Nenagh, Dromineer, Limerick and Clare.
Words, songs and photographs, recalling the life experiences of people in two distinct parts of Ireland, fill the pages in the next two books - On a Rock in the Middle of the Ocean, which deals with the songs and singers of Tory Island; and Bíbeanna, a collection of memoirs (in Irish and English) by 20 women from the Dingle Gaeltacht. Of the two volumes, Lillis Ó Laoire's is the more explorative, delving into the question of why people sing, and looking at their lyrics.
Bíbeanna, on the other hand, is a recounting by 20 "strong" women of their rites of passage, in a disadvantaged region, from poverty to comparative affluence. Weddings, funerals, seasonal customs and tragedies are recorded in both languages, with individual photographs of the narrators and a particularly evocative picture of Neilí Tom Nic Gearailt on the cover. In addition there are reflections on the women's stories by four eminent commentators - Dr Maureen Gaffney, Mary Henry MD, Prof Angela Bourke and Prof Ivana Bacik - and a foreword by Mary Hanafin. The title, incidentally, refers to the "bibs" or aprons used by many women in rural Ireland in times past.
Fortunate, indeed, are the many Co Meath and Co Westmeath folk who are interested in the history of their native area - fortunate in having such a wealth of it on their own doorsteps, and in having such a model annual journal of that history in Ríocht na Midhe. With 300 pages of varied topics, book reviews and notes, ranging from research into St Wendelin's origins and his links with Delvin, Co Westmeath, through a lengthy study of Henry II's grant of Meath to Hugh De Lacy in 1172, to an oral history of Gibbstown Gaeltacht and 11 other equally learned contributions, this year's journal is as rewarding as ever. In his introductory article on Co Meath's Heritage Plan, editor Séamus MacGabhann sounds a warning about our loss of identity, quoting Seamus Heaney: "The whole of Irish landscape is a manuscript which we have lost the skill to read." Promoters of motorways, especially near Tara, please note.
Nine years after its bicentenary the rising of 1798 continues to inspire research and concomitant publications. A good example of this continuing process, involving a fresh approach and reliance on folk memory and contemporary sources, can be found in Stephen Dunford's In Humbert's Footsteps - Mayo 1798, compiled in collaboration with Dr Guy Beiner, who has also provided some of the illustrations. This colourful collection includes ballads about 1798, maps and reproductions of contemporary documents. In all a most worthy local history book, yet with a wider interest.
Arguably it is in Co Wexford that the rising of 1798 is most indelibly remembered, and the vast numbers of local history journals and parish magazines published during the bicentenary and since are fit testimony to that. One of the more outstanding publications to emerge from that torrent was Nicholas Furlong's biography, Fr John Murphy of Boolavogue, 1753-1798.
This has now been reprinted to meet a continuing demand and is again recommended as the best account to date of the rebel leader.
Richard Roche is a local historian, author and journalist
I Go Alone: Memoirs of a Rural Irish Doctor, 1878-1985, Compiled by Louis Courtney. NPG
On a Rock in the Middle of the Ocean, By Lillis Ó Laoire Cló Iar-Chonnachta, Conamara. €35
Bíbeanna, Edited by Brenda Ní Shúilleabháin Mercier Press. €20
Ríocht na Midhe, Edited by Séamus MacGabhann, Meath Archaeological and Historical Society. € 22
In Humbert's Footsteps: Mayo 1798, By Stephen Dunford Fado Books, Killala, Co Mayo. NPG
Fr John Murphy of Boolavogue, 1753-1798, By Nicholas Furlong Distillery Press, Wexford. €15