November 23, 2006

November: grey, gloomy and damp, and very Irish.

I've had some down time, and am finally getting the chance to apply my oral history knowledge to interviewing my mum about her childhood years in Dublin. Wow, lots of photos to scan and mysterious cousins to try and trace.


[click to enlarge]

That's my very dapper maternal great-grandfather on the right. His name is P.J. O'Brien and he was Member of Parliament for Tipperary North. If you go to the library and read Hansard for the 1890s you'll find him speaking up about the British government's poor treatment of the itinerant Irish workers who were slaving away on make-work projects and not getting their money. There was still plenty of starvation and poverty 50 years after the famine.

P.J.'s wife Brigid ran the family hotel business in Nenagh while he spent most of his days in the backbenches at Westminster. I adore this man, I think he's lovely, don't you?

I would love to track down the descendants of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Corbet.

Tune in for future updates to the Gallery :: I'm going to post a whole series, including my grandfather, Michael Deegan (not related to P.J.) who was a folklorist and played the ullian pipes.

Woo hoo, lucky me, I get to see Del McCoury again (third time!). Our lovely little showbox concert hall is like a miniature Ryman. It's gonna be a hot time in the old town tomorrow night. Can't wait.

Been taking a break from the guitar for awhile, it makes it all that much better when I get back to it. Something tells me I'll be inspired to larn me some bluegrass tunes after this show...

What I've been reading...
(I'm going for total Irish immersion here)

Remembering How We Stood: Bohemian Dublin at the mid-century / John Ryan
:: A hard-to-find item from my mother's personal library. She was best friends with John's sister Kathleen, who was a big film star and a gorgeous lady who I had the pleasure of meeting in Portugal in 1969. This book ties in nicely with...

The History of the Ginger Man / J.P. Donleavy
:: I finally finished this one. Donleavy paints a wonderful picture of Dublin during and after WWII when he hung out with Brendan Behan and other assorted insane characters, most of whom also knew my mother... ::

Dublin is in the process of transforming itself into the new Praque now... a lot of the old haunts are gone, but it's still an amazing place.

Listening to:

:: Internet radio ::
:: All those I Tunes updates have added a whole lot more free content.
I'm hooked on 60s Brit pop and the vintage soul stations. ::