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The House on an Irish Hillside
'From the moment I crossed the mountain I fell in love. With the place, which was more beautiful than any place I'd ever seen. With the people I met there. And with a way of looking at life that was deeper, richer and wiser than any I'd known before. When I left I dreamt of clouds on the mountain. I kept going back.'We all lead very busy lives and sometimes it's hard to find the time to be the people we want to be.Twelve years ago Felicity Hayes-McCoy left the hectic pace of the city and returned to Ireland to make a new life in a remarkable house on the stunning Dingle peninsula.Beautifully written, this is a life-affirming tale of rediscovering lost values and being reminded of the things that really matter.
321 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 7, 2012
341 people are currently reading
938 people want to read
About the author
Felicity Hayes-McCoy
34 books548 followersUSA Today bestselling Irish writer Felicity Hayes-McCoy is the author of the 'Finfarran' novels, set in a fictional county on Ireland's West Coast. Marian Keyes calls her writing "a pitch-perfect delight", Cathy Kelly, bestselling author of "Between Sisters" and "Secrets of a Happy Marriage", has described the Finfarran books as "a delicious feast", and "sunshine on the page", while Jenny Colgan, bestselling author of "The Cafe by the Sea", calls them "charming and heartwarming".
Felicity's latest book, a standalone novel, The Keepsake Quilters (Hachette Irl), was published in October 2022 to critical acclaim. Best-selling Irish authors Roisin Meaney and Carmel Harringon called it "the perfect festive read" and "warm and wise ... an absolute joy"; Claudia Carroll and Patricia Scanlan wrote of it as "warm, funny and full of heart" and "a fascinating, beautifully-written generational saga"; and television presenters Barbara Scully and Mary Kennedy have described it as "a gorgeous novel" and "a beautifully-crafted story."
Finfarran #1, The Library at the Edge of The World, was published in June 2016: The Sunday Times called it "engaging, sparkling and joyous" and The Sunday Independent wrote "If you like reading a feelgood novel, take a journey to the edge of the world. An easy, pleasant summer read for fans of Maeve Binchy".
Summer at The Garden Café, the second in the Finfarran series, came out in the UK & Irl May 2017, The Mistletoe Matchmaker, a warm, empowering Christmas story, in October 2017, and The Month of Borrowed Dreams, in June 2018: The Irish Independent's review called it "a heartwarming novel which will leave you longing to read the earlier ones". The best-selling author Marian Keyes said she was "utterly charmed" by Finfarran #5, The Transatlantic Book Club, which was published in 2019.
A US & Canadian edition of The Library at the Edge of The World, published by Harper Perennial in Nov 2017, was chosen as a LibraryReads Pick. The US & Canadian edition of Summer at The Garden Café was published in 2018, The Mistletoe Matchmaker followed in 2019, The Transatlantic Book Club in 2020, The Month of Borrowed Dreams in 2021, and The Heart of Summer in 2022.
Finfarran #7, The Year of Lost and Found, was published by Hachette Irl in May 2021, and praised as "the perfect, page-turning escape" and "the best book of the year so far for me" by best-selling Irish authors Sinéad Moriarty and Claudia Carroll. It was preceded in 2020 by Finfarran #6, The Heart of Summer, of which Ireland's Sunday Business Post reviewer wrote "This works perfectly well as a standalone novel ... her writing sings", and bestselling author Patricia Scanlan commented "Fans of Maeve Binchy will adore it - she just gets better and better!"
The Finfarran novels have been translated into seven languages and can also be purchased in English as ebooks and audiobooks.
Described as 'wise, funny' and 'blazingly beautiful' by actress and writer Joanna Lumley, Felicity's first memoir, The House on an Irish Hillside was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2012. It takes the author to London, where she worked as an actress and met her English, opera-director husband, and back to Ireland, to a remarkable stone house on the Dingle peninsula.
Enough Is Plenty: The Year on the Dingle Peninsula, a sequel to The House on an Irish Hillside, was published by The Collins Press in 2015. Illustrated with photographs by Felicity and her husband, and with a foreword by the best-selling Irish writer Alice Taylor, it charts the cycle of the Celtic year in Felicity's own house and garden.
A second memoir, A Woven Silence: Memory, History & Remembrance, described by The Sunday Times as 'a powerful piece of personal and political history', was published in September 2015, also by The Collins Press. Inspired by the lost story of her grandmother's cousin Marion Stokes, one of three women who raised the tricolour over Enniscorthy town in Wexford dur
Felicity's latest book, a standalone novel, The Keepsake Quilters (Hachette Irl), was published in October 2022 to critical acclaim. Best-selling Irish authors Roisin Meaney and Carmel Harringon called it "the perfect festive read" and "warm and wise ... an absolute joy"; Claudia Carroll and Patricia Scanlan wrote of it as "warm, funny and full of heart" and "a fascinating, beautifully-written generational saga"; and television presenters Barbara Scully and Mary Kennedy have described it as "a gorgeous novel" and "a beautifully-crafted story."
Finfarran #1, The Library at the Edge of The World, was published in June 2016: The Sunday Times called it "engaging, sparkling and joyous" and The Sunday Independent wrote "If you like reading a feelgood novel, take a journey to the edge of the world. An easy, pleasant summer read for fans of Maeve Binchy".
Summer at The Garden Café, the second in the Finfarran series, came out in the UK & Irl May 2017, The Mistletoe Matchmaker, a warm, empowering Christmas story, in October 2017, and The Month of Borrowed Dreams, in June 2018: The Irish Independent's review called it "a heartwarming novel which will leave you longing to read the earlier ones". The best-selling author Marian Keyes said she was "utterly charmed" by Finfarran #5, The Transatlantic Book Club, which was published in 2019.
A US & Canadian edition of The Library at the Edge of The World, published by Harper Perennial in Nov 2017, was chosen as a LibraryReads Pick. The US & Canadian edition of Summer at The Garden Café was published in 2018, The Mistletoe Matchmaker followed in 2019, The Transatlantic Book Club in 2020, The Month of Borrowed Dreams in 2021, and The Heart of Summer in 2022.
Finfarran #7, The Year of Lost and Found, was published by Hachette Irl in May 2021, and praised as "the perfect, page-turning escape" and "the best book of the year so far for me" by best-selling Irish authors Sinéad Moriarty and Claudia Carroll. It was preceded in 2020 by Finfarran #6, The Heart of Summer, of which Ireland's Sunday Business Post reviewer wrote "This works perfectly well as a standalone novel ... her writing sings", and bestselling author Patricia Scanlan commented "Fans of Maeve Binchy will adore it - she just gets better and better!"
The Finfarran novels have been translated into seven languages and can also be purchased in English as ebooks and audiobooks.
Described as 'wise, funny' and 'blazingly beautiful' by actress and writer Joanna Lumley, Felicity's first memoir, The House on an Irish Hillside was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2012. It takes the author to London, where she worked as an actress and met her English, opera-director husband, and back to Ireland, to a remarkable stone house on the Dingle peninsula.
Enough Is Plenty: The Year on the Dingle Peninsula, a sequel to The House on an Irish Hillside, was published by The Collins Press in 2015. Illustrated with photographs by Felicity and her husband, and with a foreword by the best-selling Irish writer Alice Taylor, it charts the cycle of the Celtic year in Felicity's own house and garden.
A second memoir, A Woven Silence: Memory, History & Remembrance, described by The Sunday Times as 'a powerful piece of personal and political history', was published in September 2015, also by The Collins Press. Inspired by the lost story of her grandmother's cousin Marion Stokes, one of three women who raised the tricolour over Enniscorthy town in Wexford dur
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 84 reviews
June 9, 2020
Why did the author write this book? This is stated at the book’s end. The author seeks to shine a light on the “ancient Celts’ world view and how they chose to preserve it”.
What is presented is an autobiographical account of how the Irish writer Felicity Hayes-McCoy and her English husband, opera director Wilf Judd, bought, renovated and settled in at their second home, a house in Corca Dhuibhne on Ireland's remote Dingle Peninsula, far out on the west coast. Felicity had fallen in love with the place when at the age of seventeen she had on a scholarship gone to Dingle to learn Irish. On the island, the native language is referred to as Irish, not Gaelic. It is on the western edge where the Irish language is most prevalent and where Celtic traditions are strongest. Settling into the community opened Felicity’s eyes to Celtic traditions, beliefs and ways of life. Backed by her personal experiences with the people of Dingle, she expands on the “Celtic world view”.
A reader playing with the idea of purchasing a house or simply vacationing in Ireland will find points of interest. A wide range of stories are told, most of which come down to relaying the message that on the peninsula there exists a strong sense of community—people help each other. The author is happy with her choice. She seems at points to be almost “selling” the spot to others.
Celtic folktales are related. The importance of storytelling is emphasized. Historically speaking, the spoken word has been favored over the written word in Celtic culture. Irish idioms are explained. Local customs and holiday celebrations are depicted.
The author writes well. I like the descriptive quality of the prose. Here follows a quote, relating what Felicity experienced coming home late one night from a party:
“I could still hear the music as I walked the steep road back to the house. It was a windless night in mid-June with light still in the sky. The road bends sharply above the village and looking back I could see the houses below and the luminous ocean beyond. The sky was pale grey tinged with purple and faintly streaked with pink. The curving mass of the headland was charcoal black edged with silver. The deep rhythmic sound of the waves hid the faint sound of the music below in the village. Closer by, in fields on either side of me, I could hear cows shifting and breathing……”
The book ends on a philosophical note. The author wishes to convey a message—about how life is to be lived. She writes,
“Enough is plenty: the essence of health is balance and the route to finding balance is awareness in stillness.”
What she speaks of are ideas prominent in the Celtic worldview.
The author narrates the audiobook. Not just an author of books, she has also been an actress. She began her career with radio. She has studied how best to express oneself vocally. This shows. She knows when to pause. She knows which phrases to emphasize. The intent of her words come through loud and clear. I do not believe anyone else could read this book better than she does. Five stars for the narration!
What is presented is an autobiographical account of how the Irish writer Felicity Hayes-McCoy and her English husband, opera director Wilf Judd, bought, renovated and settled in at their second home, a house in Corca Dhuibhne on Ireland's remote Dingle Peninsula, far out on the west coast. Felicity had fallen in love with the place when at the age of seventeen she had on a scholarship gone to Dingle to learn Irish. On the island, the native language is referred to as Irish, not Gaelic. It is on the western edge where the Irish language is most prevalent and where Celtic traditions are strongest. Settling into the community opened Felicity’s eyes to Celtic traditions, beliefs and ways of life. Backed by her personal experiences with the people of Dingle, she expands on the “Celtic world view”.
A reader playing with the idea of purchasing a house or simply vacationing in Ireland will find points of interest. A wide range of stories are told, most of which come down to relaying the message that on the peninsula there exists a strong sense of community—people help each other. The author is happy with her choice. She seems at points to be almost “selling” the spot to others.
Celtic folktales are related. The importance of storytelling is emphasized. Historically speaking, the spoken word has been favored over the written word in Celtic culture. Irish idioms are explained. Local customs and holiday celebrations are depicted.
The author writes well. I like the descriptive quality of the prose. Here follows a quote, relating what Felicity experienced coming home late one night from a party:
“I could still hear the music as I walked the steep road back to the house. It was a windless night in mid-June with light still in the sky. The road bends sharply above the village and looking back I could see the houses below and the luminous ocean beyond. The sky was pale grey tinged with purple and faintly streaked with pink. The curving mass of the headland was charcoal black edged with silver. The deep rhythmic sound of the waves hid the faint sound of the music below in the village. Closer by, in fields on either side of me, I could hear cows shifting and breathing……”
The book ends on a philosophical note. The author wishes to convey a message—about how life is to be lived. She writes,
“Enough is plenty: the essence of health is balance and the route to finding balance is awareness in stillness.”
What she speaks of are ideas prominent in the Celtic worldview.
The author narrates the audiobook. Not just an author of books, she has also been an actress. She began her career with radio. She has studied how best to express oneself vocally. This shows. She knows when to pause. She knows which phrases to emphasize. The intent of her words come through loud and clear. I do not believe anyone else could read this book better than she does. Five stars for the narration!
August 15, 2012
Felicity Hayes-McCoy tells a compelling story of the Kerry region that she adopted. Although she gre up in Dublin she went to London to learn and practice her profession (acting, writing, playwriting). Descendant of Galway and Eniscorthy folk, she developed an early love for the Irish language which first took her to the rural Dingle peninsula. Caught up in a busy London career, she purchases an old house and is drawn into the ancient cycles of rural Irish life. Hayes-McCoy's love of the Irish language helps her to explain the customs in a way no travel book ever could. The story is, by turns, thoughtful and joyous. I've heard it said that a good book is an old friend. That is certainly true of this. Take the time to savor it, like a comfortable cup of tea at the end of a long day.
July 4, 2018
Felicity Hayes-McCoy lives on a peninsula on the west coast of Ireland, where living is at a completely different pace and community is vital to everyday life. A place where myth, song and storytelling are not only as ancient as the ocean and hills around them, but just as much a part of today's culture. Filled with profound insights and lovely lessons on living a life of depth and meaning. This book is a gem of a memoir, a definite keeper.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
March 14, 2025
A beautifully written memoir of the writer's life in London and a wild and remote part of Ireland. In vivid language, the author gives life to myths and stories of the past. The prose about places and events effectively immerses the reader.
January 8, 2013
This book is a true love story between Felicity and the spectacularly beautiful Dingle Peninsula. From the day of her arrival as a student of Irish at the age of 17, the magic of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, in the south-west of Ireland filtered into her heart and mind down the years, the incessant ‘pull’ culminating in herself and her English husband buying Tí Neillí Mhuiris – (The house of Nellie, daughter of Muris), a house built from stones picked from the fields and remembered with affection for its once smoke-filled kitchen.
Anyone who has ever crossed the magical Connor Pass, and dropped down into the beauty of the Dingle Peninsula has experienced the unique sense of this place. Few who visit here are not enchanted by the fabulous scenery, the friendly people, the history, the cultural tradition and the wonderful food.
Felicity’s book is beautifully written – flowing along with perfectly chosen words building the word pictures that pervade every page. We are enticed by the ‘polished pewter waves’ and ‘rain-washed mornings with skies like mother of pearl’ and ‘waves shimmering emerald, turquoise and jade’. Dingle is a place that challenges those who wish to describe it, for we simply do not have the vocabulary. My two abiding images are of red hens pecking at watercress and girls cycling to dances with their high heels slung around their necks! It was at this level that Felicity’s writing appealed to me so very much, but there is more.
Felicity has an extensive knowledge and regard for Irish myth and local folklore and these together with the beauty of the place are the ‘weft ‘ on which she weaves a beautiful tapestry of stories of her love affair with Dingle’s people and places. Manannán Mac Lir, the Celtic God of the Sea , Mrs Hurley, Danú the Fertility Goddess, Kath the London neighbour; Spot the neighbour’s dog and the Sun God Lugh – all woven together to deepen the understanding of this place. On these pages you will find present day relevance of Imbolg, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain, the great festivals and turning points in the Celtic year; you will join in on dancing in the kitchen and music by the fireside, celebrate Nollag na mBan and the ‘Wran’ boys. The mythology, the folk-tales the music, song and dance, the living friends and neighbours and the simplicity of things that matter to them, together with the memory of the dead,some of whom died before the author came to live here and some of whose coffins she followed, is all intertwined into a wonderful tribute to all that is Dingle.
This book will I believe, appeal to anyone who has visited Dingle and has been smitten by it and who keeps going back. It will also appeal to people with Irish roots, who have never stood on these shores as it will give them a sense of what it is to be Irish, what it is to be tied into the traditions and myths of our heritage and how these things impact on everyday life. For people who have no ties to this land, this book is a beautiful exploration of getting back to the things that matter and you will want to read it again and again. I heartily recommend it as an excellent read.
Anyone who has ever crossed the magical Connor Pass, and dropped down into the beauty of the Dingle Peninsula has experienced the unique sense of this place. Few who visit here are not enchanted by the fabulous scenery, the friendly people, the history, the cultural tradition and the wonderful food.
Felicity’s book is beautifully written – flowing along with perfectly chosen words building the word pictures that pervade every page. We are enticed by the ‘polished pewter waves’ and ‘rain-washed mornings with skies like mother of pearl’ and ‘waves shimmering emerald, turquoise and jade’. Dingle is a place that challenges those who wish to describe it, for we simply do not have the vocabulary. My two abiding images are of red hens pecking at watercress and girls cycling to dances with their high heels slung around their necks! It was at this level that Felicity’s writing appealed to me so very much, but there is more.
Felicity has an extensive knowledge and regard for Irish myth and local folklore and these together with the beauty of the place are the ‘weft ‘ on which she weaves a beautiful tapestry of stories of her love affair with Dingle’s people and places. Manannán Mac Lir, the Celtic God of the Sea , Mrs Hurley, Danú the Fertility Goddess, Kath the London neighbour; Spot the neighbour’s dog and the Sun God Lugh – all woven together to deepen the understanding of this place. On these pages you will find present day relevance of Imbolg, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain, the great festivals and turning points in the Celtic year; you will join in on dancing in the kitchen and music by the fireside, celebrate Nollag na mBan and the ‘Wran’ boys. The mythology, the folk-tales the music, song and dance, the living friends and neighbours and the simplicity of things that matter to them, together with the memory of the dead,some of whom died before the author came to live here and some of whose coffins she followed, is all intertwined into a wonderful tribute to all that is Dingle.
This book will I believe, appeal to anyone who has visited Dingle and has been smitten by it and who keeps going back. It will also appeal to people with Irish roots, who have never stood on these shores as it will give them a sense of what it is to be Irish, what it is to be tied into the traditions and myths of our heritage and how these things impact on everyday life. For people who have no ties to this land, this book is a beautiful exploration of getting back to the things that matter and you will want to read it again and again. I heartily recommend it as an excellent read.
June 13, 2013
i was able to read this while i was living in the exact location that the story takes place, Dingle, Ireland.
i would have enjoyed this book regardless, but being able to walk the roads where the story takes place, certainly influenced me. This is a well written book, well researched and honest to the culture of the location. This is a memoir and travel book. If you have been to Dingle, or are going to Ireland this is a good book to read. And if you just want to go to Ireland.... but can't.... this is the book for you!!
i would have enjoyed this book regardless, but being able to walk the roads where the story takes place, certainly influenced me. This is a well written book, well researched and honest to the culture of the location. This is a memoir and travel book. If you have been to Dingle, or are going to Ireland this is a good book to read. And if you just want to go to Ireland.... but can't.... this is the book for you!!
February 2, 2018
I didn't realize until I started reading that it wasn't a story, it was true...I only managed to get to page 25 and was so bored I just had to stop because life is too short.
November 29, 2022
The subject of this book is not the titular house on an Irish hillside but the progress of the author in 're-engag[ing] with the sense of empowerment' (274). Had this trivial pursuit been flagged in the introduction I would not have read any further. As it is, I should have known better than to read a book subtitled 'a true story of rediscovering what really matters'. The author's prose offers a pastiche of Fáilte Ireland advertising copy and pale purple passages of good-life ballyhoo. The mantra 'enough is plenty' ignores the counter-evidence that a single income earned in scenic Kerry does not sustain the rural idyll she presents. The book is presumably aimed at a US or UK readership rediscovering their roots or declaring their new-found rootedness. Ironically, Hayes-McCoy's panegyric on the pleasures of the Dingle peninsula can only contribute to the blight of hideous new houses, now most likely airb&bs, 'with their large plate glass windows star[ing] blankly out at the raging Atlantic' (9) already disfiguring the landscape. Each man does indeed kill the thing he loves; some do it with insensitive building, others with a metropolitan lifestyle that underwrites their Damascene conversion to the good life. The author's version of rural resettlement is enabled by multiple air and road miles between London, where she and her partner earn their living, and the carbon-fuelled house on an Irish hillside. (But who am I to shatter the verdant image of glás houses when mine is also dependent on its traditional solid fuel range?) The book does concede that communities can also thrive outside Celtic tradition; additionally, it provides useful explanations of Irish legends and literature, customs, phrases and place names, all of which will be appreciated by newcomers. (In the absence of inclusion on Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage list, however, carbon neutralisation and the current enthusiasm for sourdough may consign traditional buttermilk-rich soda bread to culinary history.) Where Brinsley MacNamara offered an exceedingly jaundiced view of provincial Ireland a century ago, Hayes-McCoy presents a deceptively green and pleasant land. Others will doubtless value in her bucolic vision of utopia what I do not.
March 14, 2013
This clever memoir writing seems like an indulgence. The book takes you to Felicity's home and to numerous story scenes. There are contrasts in setting and peoples but always a warmth and the feeling of being welcome.The rich writing handles description of places and traditions remarkably well and intertwines that with the use of music and word.You can almost hear the ocean and smell the mountain air of Western Ireland.She talks of a landscape representing memories that shouldn't be destroyed and of a slice of cultural history.I've never actually been but it sounds most inviting.
She takes us back to a time when people lived their lives as part of communities that stood or fell together in hard times.Then she talks of seeking an awareness and details beautifully how she and her husband achieved this; living between London for work and culture and Ireland for stillness and leisure. This was an outstanding opportunity for a pleasant escape.
I received a free copy for which I was most grateful.
She takes us back to a time when people lived their lives as part of communities that stood or fell together in hard times.Then she talks of seeking an awareness and details beautifully how she and her husband achieved this; living between London for work and culture and Ireland for stillness and leisure. This was an outstanding opportunity for a pleasant escape.
I received a free copy for which I was most grateful.
July 24, 2017
I loved this book and would happily read it again. Felicity Hayes-McCoy tells her life tale along with that of two places, time, and the memories and myths of those places across time with marvelously vivid imagery.. As I read, I felt peaceful, adventurous, and inspired. A feat which no book has driven me to in a long time. Hayes-McCoy masterfully wove together so many threads of her life into this piece.
January 19, 2016
I loved this memoir of the author's life on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, a most beautiful land! I loved how she weaves in Irish mythology, Celtic lore, and observations about the landscape.
This was my bedtime story book to give me sweet dreams of Ireland!It took me right there!
This was my bedtime story book to give me sweet dreams of Ireland!It took me right there!
November 7, 2018
I enjoyed this book very much, because it brought me to an area of Ireland that has captured my heart. If circumstances in my life were different I would choose to do exactly as Felicity and Wilf have done and make Corca Dhuibhne my second home. I feel like I’m home every time I go there.
January 19, 2020
2020 bk 24. A re-read. I picked up this title about 4 years ago and fell in love with Felicity's world of Dingle and the Basket Islands. If you need a short hand course in Irish mythology then Felicity does an excellent job of the telling of these stories and drawing parallels to her own life and the people around her. There is a glow that comes to a non-fiction book when the author knows, loves, and shares her favorite home, but doesn't hammer it in as "the only place to be". this book has that glow. It is a comfort to read of an author and her husband coming home.
April 2, 2018
Poignant and clear headed. Read it.
July 16, 2019
Fascinating look at southwest Ireland, from an author who clearly loves its wonder. Filled with historical background and wondrous stories of peoples who inhabited the area. Would love to visit!
February 3, 2015
I loved this book. I wish I had a better word for it than "love," because it took me right back to the two weeks we spent on Slea Head a few years ago. Everything I felt about Dingle and Slea Head and Dunquin and Ventry and all of the little villages surrounding Slea Head and the Blasket Islands...all of it is in this book.
The Dingle Peninsula is a magical place, and I really wasn't particularly familiar with all of the Celtic history, but Hayes-McCoy gives a good history of how those traditions still affect life on the peninsula today. I only wish she'd given a little more history of the Blasket Islands, but since no one lives there today and the islands are basically abandoned because of their remoteness, it probably wasn't all that relevant to this tale.
The Dingle Peninsula is a magical place, and I really wasn't particularly familiar with all of the Celtic history, but Hayes-McCoy gives a good history of how those traditions still affect life on the peninsula today. I only wish she'd given a little more history of the Blasket Islands, but since no one lives there today and the islands are basically abandoned because of their remoteness, it probably wasn't all that relevant to this tale.
July 17, 2013
I bought this book in the Dingle Bookshop as I left the peninsula, and read it in airports and aeroplanes on my way back from Ireland to New Zealand. It was a lovely way to name all the things I love about home and it brought the realisation that what's important is bringing the quality of life that Felicity describes to whatever place you live in. Life here in rural NZ is not the same as life in Corca Dhuibhne, the strands don't overlap and weave together in the same way as they do there. But still there's great joy in it; the turning of the seasons, the pleasure of friends and the partnership with place. These are the treasures she writes about, and I think the core of this book is her voyage find that in the place she lives in, be it London or Corca Dhuibhne.
June 6, 2014
My enthusiasm for this book may be partly due to the fact that I picked it up from an Eason's in Carlow, and read it while traveling to and around the locations where it is set on the Dingle Peninsula. It is a lovely memoir, incorporating elements of Irish history, mythology and anthropology with the very personal story of finding, purchasing, and renovating a traditional cottage, learning the wisdom of a specific place, and becoming part of a small community "out back" in the Gaeltalk village of Corca Dhuibhne.
November 2, 2016
This is part memoir, part history, part love story from an author who was born in Ireland went to live, work and establish herself in London, then returned to the remote, Irish speaking area of the Dingle Peninsula. She found community, friendship, wisdom, a deep love of the Irish and their/her true language, as well as a great peace of mind from learning to live slower in her little stone cottage with her husband Wilf. Here she finds her place in the remembered/retold history of the hills, her cottage and the forebears who lived there before, long before.
September 10, 2018
This was a rich, layered story of an Irish woman and her English husband, discovering a place of beauty, stories, and community. They restored a house on the western end of the Dingle pennisula and became part of an ancient place with legends, music, and the history of dependency on the land and survival in hard times. Hayes-McCoy weaves all this together with some of the beloved Irish language thrown in. It's a story you live in and then come back out into a very different place, longing to return to "Corca Dhuibhne".
June 19, 2014
I loved this book! I read it after visiting Dingle and the area surrounding it even though I had it before then I chose to see the area first then read it. I couldn't put it down. She tells about the area in a way a true story teller should, bringing culture, people, government, economy and traditions all together. She describes the people and land everyone can relate to and made me love the area even more.
April 21, 2015
I read this immediately it was published and loved every minute of it. I've just been prompted to comment here while reviewing her most recent book. This is a wonderful description of a journey to a less stressful existence, memories of story-telling, making new friends and learning old ways on the western-most tip of Ireland. It is a great read, I highly recommend you take a look - I'm sure you'll enjoy it as much as I did.
August 26, 2015
One of my favorite memoirs of all time. Inspirational, beautiful in imagery and scenery, and full of life and music. I love the focus on the seasons, the ancient stories, and on community. I can't wait to go back to the Dingle Peninsula and I'm hoping to meet the author, Felicity Hayes-McCoy, on my next trip to Ireland.
January 28, 2015
Beautifully written, bringing to life the sights, sounds and smells, rooted in tradition and a rich community life. All perfectly described as to paint a glorious picture, leaves one feeling like they have just visited an enchantingly loving time and place and coming away perfectly rested and restored by the beauty of the earth.
April 19, 2019
I'm just done and I want to read it again!
So now I've mentally been to Ireland! If you armchair travel as I do, you'll appreciate the story-telling of this book. It weaves "now" and "then", country and city, food and music and hard physical work. I found myself pulling for Felicity and Wilf in all their plans. A good, solid read; nice writing style.
So now I've mentally been to Ireland! If you armchair travel as I do, you'll appreciate the story-telling of this book. It weaves "now" and "then", country and city, food and music and hard physical work. I found myself pulling for Felicity and Wilf in all their plans. A good, solid read; nice writing style.
February 27, 2013
i loved this book! it was so beautifully written and, to put it simply, it made me smile. i could visualize everything as i read and it made my heart ache to be there, to live a life filled with beauty, community and memories. this book is a true treasure.
June 8, 2013
This is a lovely memoir, gentle and caring. Anyone who loves Ireland, especially the west coast and Kerry, will enjoy it. Felicity Hayes-McCoy mixes Celtic myths, Irish traditions and tales of modern living in a wonderful, sometimes humorous book. I recommend it.
March 25, 2016
Loved it. Been to Dingle twice and her descriptions of the people and their ways helped me understand my own parents ways. They left Ireland in the late 40's to come to America but kept their ways and good naturedness and humor.
May 18, 2019
I loved this book, have read it twice and know I will enjoy reading it again. Beautifully described, a wonderful story of a house in Ireland and of the history, culture and language. A book to cherish.
October 12, 2016
Well-written and very engrossing. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a lovely blend of personal experience, history, and folklore. I'll definitely read more if I can find them.
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