The Folks on the Hill - a memoir of people and places

Susan Kinane, a self-published author, was at the Arigna Mining Experience to deliver her memoir - The Folks On The Hill this week.
The cover of the book certainly captures the beauty of the area – Lough Allen, surrounded by Roscommon and Leitrim but what is the story all about and what brought a Dub all the way up here. We put this and other questions to Susan and she was happy to explain.

So, what did bring you all the way here?
Well , back in the early 80’s as a young couple we lived in Blanchardstown, a suburb of Dublin, and we often spent weekends holidaying in the area. Staying in the likes of McGuires Rent-an-Irish-Cottage or with Paschal Mooney’s mother in Drumshanbo.
We liked the outdoor life and we found the walking here was always good, regardless of the weather. After some time we stopped coming heading instead to the likes of Portugal for a bit of sun. But later on towards the late 90’s we wanted to slow down a bit on the work front and we thought about a country cottage.

Our natural leaning was to return to Leitrim as we always liked it and it was within an easy drive to Dublin. So in 1999 we bought our lovely cottage in Crosshill and as far as we were concerned we had hit gold.

Had you any other connections with the area?
No, none at all. We are both Dubs through and through and the only rural blood in either of us is a small splash of Wexford and Tipperary blood.

But to be honest with you as soon as we arrived we felt very much at home and the neighbours and friends we made here could not do enough for us. With all the talk nowadays of people moving out of major cities and relocating to rural areas if our experience is anything to go by I would say – go for it.

So what made you decide to write a book about this?
I guess like a lot of people during Covid we were fairly restricted and had a lot of spare time. As I’m retired now I spent a lot of Covid reading. I got to a stage where my poor brain was bursting with murder mysteries that I felt I could not read another line. So I stopped reading and started to remember people and incidents from our time with the cottage.

One memory borrowed another and on it went. I started to write them down and before I knew it I had collated enough for a small book. It’s a humours look at ourselves and the 15 years we spent there but the biggest part of it is the welcome we received from everyone we met and the friendships we made.

Why did you leave and how did you feel about that?
There is no doubt but this was the hardest decision we had to make. When we bought the cottage we were in our early 40’s, no children and in need of a project.

The cottage and the land around it was perfect for us. Gerry was exceptionally good with his hands and could turn them to most tasks in renovating and maintaining the cottage. We were still working full time in Dublin and as we were getting on a bit our time in the cottage was more about relaxing and some of the tasks were starting to take longer to do.

As we neared retirement we were considering dividing our time between Ireland and Portugal for the winter. So for about two years we debated the various options and reluctantly decided on Dublin/Portugal.

It was never going to be an easy decision as we loved Crosshill and our neighbours there but the cottage needed to be maintained during the winter and it would just not work.

There were a lot of tears when the decision was made and even now when we return to catch up with neighbours we feel like we left a part of us here.

I don’t think I would ever get that same feeling in leaving Dublin.

Thank you Susan for the chat and we wish you and Gerry all the best and we hope the book goes well for you.
It would certainly make a great socking filler for anyone in the area or indeed for any local living abroad in the run up to Christmas.
The book can be purchased from Arigna Mining Experience, Mulvey's, The Reading Room and Trinity Rare books Carrick or from www.buythebook.ie.