According to Shanagarry potter Stephen Pearce there may be as many as 200 books available on William Penn, but none deals adequately, if at all, with the time the great man spent in the scenic east Cork village.
His aim is to right that wrong. Penn was, among other things, the man who gave his name to the American state of Pennsylvania.
Penn lived from 1664 to 1718. But the question is how much time he spent in Shanagarry.
Stephen Pearce has entrusted the research to Ms Jane Hayter-Homes, a London-based historian. It is hoped to publish a pamphlet by next June showing what the initial foray into the archives has produced. Within two years we should see on the bookshelves a fuller volume re-creating Penn's time in Shanagarry, and opening a window on what life was like in a small east Cork village at the time.