An Irish Country Childhood: Memories of a Bygone Age

One of 14 children, Walsh was born in Attymass, County Mayo, in 1929. She tells of her life on the family farm and fondly recalls childhood experiences such as catching trout with an old sack, talking to a tree to comfort it before cutting it down and watching the local parish priest read his breviary while taking a drop of Irish whiskey to help his prayers along. There is a strong sense of nationalism and church as Bearla-English-is forbidden to be spoken on school grounds and everyone looks forward to missionaries coming to preach the gospel. There are tales of neighbors, ghosts, poteen (moonshine), wakes, the local bogeyman and church holidays such as St. Patrick's Day. This delightful memoir of Eamon DeValera's rural, Catholic Ireland of the 1930s and '40s is a paean to a gentler, simpler epoch. (Mar.)