Acclaimed Offaly author and historian reviews 'Essays From Roscrea'
Birr’s John Feehan reviewed ‘Essays From Roscrea’ by George Cunningham
Renowned Birr author and historian John Feehan has written the following review of George Cunningham’s new book ‘Essays From Roscrea’ which was officially launched in Roscrea last month. Essays from Roscrea is on sale at Dimma Books SVP, Roscrea for €20 with 50% going directly to SVP.
It has been known for some time now that George Cunningham has been diligently at work on his study of Monaincha: which many anticipate will be his magnum opus: a book towards which much of his literary output in recent years might be seen as preparation. He can have little time for anything else in a literary vein, or so we thought.
But in this book is gathered the first instalment of five volumes presenting the accumulated knowledge, observations and reflections of a lifetime: a veritable cnuasacht gathered in from shorter literary forays, many in publications on the margins, bringing them together and making them available not just for those of us already familiar with George Cunningham’s achievements and literary output, but for a new generation.
The essays in this first volume of George’s essays range across the wide spectrum of his interests: in history and archaeology, education and art, sport, landscape, heritage tourism, biography and bibliography.
Some appeared as introductions, forewords or commemorations of notable occasions, but in bringing them together like this, and being able to see them side by side, something new is born from the way apparently unrelated pieces add something to apparently unconnected others, allowing unexpected connections to come into view – between education and natural world, for example.
‘Essay’ in the title may suggest a formality in style envisaged by Charles Lamb, who is generally credited with inventing this particular literary style.
These pieces however have an easier, less formal but no less precise style, more adequately perhaps captured by the Irish word cnuasacht, which can be a gathering of anything, and captures the sense in which everything affects everything else in human life: a sense that pervades these endlessly varied pieces.
The thread that unifies the multifaceted contributions in the book is George’s life-long active engagement with place: the Irish Midlands and the Burren in particular, but in a particularly focused way on Roscrea and District: the title indeed of his first major publication, one that had a profoundly catalytic influence on this reviewer’s own first book on Slieve Bloom.
Several of the essays are about individual people: but although other essays are accounts of occasions, it is individual people who bring occasions to life, and in this way George ensures that their achievements are not lost in now-obscure magazine and newspaper archives distant in time and obscure in location, but now brought to the attention of a new generation of readers.
And for the most part the individuals who people George’s literary landscape are not the the knights and princes of his well-known medieval studies, but men and women keeping their unhelmeted or uncrowned heads down, doing wonderful everyday things with selfless dedication in the service of their communities.
And it is through them that landscape comes alive: especially the local landscape, opening to readers a view that may suggest ways in which they themselves can make a contribution of their unique talents.
In this way, the book is more than a record of past scholarship and more than a point of departure for further enquiry, but a manual of disguised guidelines for personal involvement, enabling readers to ponder their own potential contribution, a contribution (who knows), that may one day (who knows!) merit inclusion in the future cnuasach of a George Cunningham-like scribe as yet unborn.
You don’t have to be from Roscrea to find something special between the covers, because the book has an aura that extends well beyond Roscrea and district.
It is beautifully produced by Dimma Print Services, and has that elegant feel in the hand that characterises all of George Cunningham’s books, a result of his deep involvement with all aspects of book production down the years.
If you haven’t already secured a copy, you can get hold of one in Vincent’s Dimma Bookshop in Roscrea, which still has a few to sell – or at least they did when I last called!
Copies of the new book are still available at Roscrea’s boutique bookshop, Dimma Books, which was created by George and is located in the SVP Vincent’s Shop on Church Street in Roscrea.