Another country: Growing up in 50's Ireland

by Gene Kerrigan

In his highly addictive style, Gene Kerrigan effortlessly reconstructs the Ireland of the 1950s and early 1960s in which he grew up. An adult world of absolute moral certainties, casual cruelties and mass emigration; for children an age of innocence, but innocence hemmed in by fear and guilt. In this brilliant and humorous memoir, Kerrigan tells of a world that now seems as distant as another country. Into the details of school, street and family life, of Christmas, First Communion, school violence, CIE Mystery Tours and the arrival of television, are woven the political background of the day, and recollection of the impact of major Michael O' Hehir, Lemass, Dev, JFK, not to mention Hector Grey, Shane, Davy Crockett and Audie Murphy. It's an account of a happy childhood in a country that was itself far from happy. Other books by Gene Kerrigan Hard Cases Never Make a Promise You Can't Break This Great Little Nation.

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Gene Kerrigan is an Irish journalist and novelist who grew up in Cabra in Dublin. His works include political commentary on Ireland since the 1970s in such publications as Magill magazine and the Sunday Independent newspaper. He has also written about Ireland for International Socialism magazine. He was chosen as World Journalist of the Year in 1985 and 1990, and has written books, including fiction and non-fiction. His book The Rage won the 2012 Gold Dagger for the best crime novel of the year.

http://www.amazon.com/wiki/Gene_Kerri...

Reviews

[Joseph Whelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who grew up in the 60's and 70's in Ireland, I can relate to a lot what of what the author describes. It was certainly a much different country to to the modern, open, tolerant Ireland of today. For those who grew up in that era this book is full of nostalgic references and brings them back to a simpler, stricter, less tolerant time in Ireland. For younger readers it highlights just how far Ireland has come from those harsh, bleak. church controlled days.

[Ronan Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

No coincidence that Kerrigan stands quite possibly alone as a can't-miss columnist in the Irish media landscape and that the background details this fill in situates him in a social background starkly apart from that of most of his colleagues. Here he sticks to the brief in the main, giving a child's-eye view of the Ireland that was; his occasional, inevitable lamentations on the way it lingers on are searing and satisfying to the last.