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No One Shouted Stop
Healy, John. No One Shouted Stop ! / Formerly published under the Death of an Irish Town. Foreword by John Hume. Achill Island, The House of Healy,
- GenresHistoryIrelandNonfiction
108 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 17, 2023
A powerful book. Angry, compassionate, thoughtful. Healy witnesses the erosion of an established, though barely sustainable, rural way of life in the West of Ireland. Hard earned money sent back by emigrants helped hold things together but depopulation, aging, and Dublin's firm intent to package small holdings into economically sustainable land units were the deciding hammer blows. But Healy doesn't just say 'No'. He gathers his thoughts to show that regeneration of the West through regional development can help reverse the drain of people and talent. This book was first published in 1968. John Healy speaks for the West of Ireland but his words resonate far wider than that beautiful region.
January 23, 2020
This is an interesting discussion of the decline of a rural community (Charlestown, Co.Mayo) in the west of Ireland from the persective of a journalist from the town, written in 1970. Needless to say, the dated nature of the material may limit it's relevance to some readers. A lot has changed in 50 years.
More problematic are the writers beliefs and assumptions, or perhaps I should say prejudices, which have dated badly, and his overly sentimental view of small town life in the west before the outbreak of the second world war, which not coincidentally happens to coincide with his own childhood.
The text is riddled with these prejudices: the idea that "God-given sexual joy" is only awakened in marriage, that masturbation (referred to obliquely) is a sin, that the church is a source of "intellectual and moral weight", that heroes are sporting achievers (GAA, handball) and that boys who instead idolise Batman (brought into good Irish catholic homes by the evil of TV) need a good kick up the arse. He characterises the emigrants of the '40s as 'dumb' and 'pitiful'. And so on. There are many examples throughout the text. Healy may have been seen as modern & progressive at the time, but this book now reads like it's written from the point of view of a conservative Irish catholic. And one small gripe: he refers snidely to the disinterest/disdain "up in Dublin" when, in geographical and altitudinal terms, Charlestown Co. Mayo is both further north and more elevated than Dublin city (Charlestown is 53.9640° N and approx 60m, while Dublin is 53.3498° N, its elevation varies from sea level upwards, but at the seat of government on Kildare Street - the target of these snipes - it is 18m. QED).
The books strengths lie in its discussion of Irish social history, the urban/rural divide, and the causes and consequences of long term emigration. It takes in politics, both local and national, land reform, education, and is very good on small town attitudes and social hierarchy and how these helped maintain a status quo to the detriment of the community. As someone who emigrated 20 years after this book was published, a lot of this still rang true.
I imagine a much better book on emigration and the decline of rural Ireland can be found if you do some research. I read this one simply because the paperback turned up in my local secondhand bookstore and at 90 pages approx its a very quick read.
More problematic are the writers beliefs and assumptions, or perhaps I should say prejudices, which have dated badly, and his overly sentimental view of small town life in the west before the outbreak of the second world war, which not coincidentally happens to coincide with his own childhood.
The text is riddled with these prejudices: the idea that "God-given sexual joy" is only awakened in marriage, that masturbation (referred to obliquely) is a sin, that the church is a source of "intellectual and moral weight", that heroes are sporting achievers (GAA, handball) and that boys who instead idolise Batman (brought into good Irish catholic homes by the evil of TV) need a good kick up the arse. He characterises the emigrants of the '40s as 'dumb' and 'pitiful'. And so on. There are many examples throughout the text. Healy may have been seen as modern & progressive at the time, but this book now reads like it's written from the point of view of a conservative Irish catholic. And one small gripe: he refers snidely to the disinterest/disdain "up in Dublin" when, in geographical and altitudinal terms, Charlestown Co. Mayo is both further north and more elevated than Dublin city (Charlestown is 53.9640° N and approx 60m, while Dublin is 53.3498° N, its elevation varies from sea level upwards, but at the seat of government on Kildare Street - the target of these snipes - it is 18m. QED).
The books strengths lie in its discussion of Irish social history, the urban/rural divide, and the causes and consequences of long term emigration. It takes in politics, both local and national, land reform, education, and is very good on small town attitudes and social hierarchy and how these helped maintain a status quo to the detriment of the community. As someone who emigrated 20 years after this book was published, a lot of this still rang true.
I imagine a much better book on emigration and the decline of rural Ireland can be found if you do some research. I read this one simply because the paperback turned up in my local secondhand bookstore and at 90 pages approx its a very quick read.
December 31, 2023
John Healy has written a fine piece of mid-century investigative journalism into rural degradation or, as he puts it, the Death of an Irish Town, as this book was once called. The book has the air of a memoir, which I found to be particularly interesting as I had lived briefly in Charlestown as a child and still visit my parents there. On Church Street there is a mural honouring John Healy and this book. Happily, on a recent visit to my parents I happened upon a copy at a used book store and so finally got the opportunity to understand the mural.
Originally written as a series of articles in the Irish Times in 1967, Healy later published the series as a book called Death of an Irish Town and later changed the name to No One Shouted Stop. My copy was printed in 1988 and contains an additional preface, prologue, and epilogue. It being fifty-five years old, contains some dated moral panics like one of little boys loving Batman more than local GAA heroes. In reality, I'd say GAA heroes are still adored happily alongside such superheroes, but I imagine Healy would argue that the impact is different.
Otherwise, much of what Healy prophesied has come to pass. Albeit much more slowly. Charlestown now no longer even has a bank branch. They're lucky they still have a post office. There is now only one restaurant in town. And with Ireland now in the throes of one of Europe's worst housing crises, it's hard not to wonder how we could have shouted stop, if anyone had wanted to.
I was surprised to find in the 1988 epilogue so much Euroscepticism. It's been a given all my life that Ireland is apart of the EU, so reading of someone's early scepticism was fascinating. Healy isn't anti-Europe by any stretch, he merely questions whether a European parliament will be able to care about dying towns in Ireland at all. The proof is in the pudding, I suppose.
Originally written as a series of articles in the Irish Times in 1967, Healy later published the series as a book called Death of an Irish Town and later changed the name to No One Shouted Stop. My copy was printed in 1988 and contains an additional preface, prologue, and epilogue. It being fifty-five years old, contains some dated moral panics like one of little boys loving Batman more than local GAA heroes. In reality, I'd say GAA heroes are still adored happily alongside such superheroes, but I imagine Healy would argue that the impact is different.
Otherwise, much of what Healy prophesied has come to pass. Albeit much more slowly. Charlestown now no longer even has a bank branch. They're lucky they still have a post office. There is now only one restaurant in town. And with Ireland now in the throes of one of Europe's worst housing crises, it's hard not to wonder how we could have shouted stop, if anyone had wanted to.
I was surprised to find in the 1988 epilogue so much Euroscepticism. It's been a given all my life that Ireland is apart of the EU, so reading of someone's early scepticism was fascinating. Healy isn't anti-Europe by any stretch, he merely questions whether a European parliament will be able to care about dying towns in Ireland at all. The proof is in the pudding, I suppose.
June 7, 2017
On the one hand, this is a journalistic and biased opinion of the last throes of country life in the west of Ireland. On the other, it is a sentimental memoir on life in Charlestown, Co. Mayo, and how Ireland failed to stanch migration from the countryside and from the country in the 1960s. A stronger book when it falls more into the latter, and prophetic at times of where this migration would eventually lead the country.
June 26, 2025
Having first read, and been moved by this book in the late 90s, it's profoundly disappointing to see that, in 2025, rural Irish towns and villages are still losing their young people to the cities in Ireland and abroad. The imbalance between Dublin and rural Ireland is getting worse. Ireland seems to be much more Dublin-centric now (in 2025) than when Healy wrote this book. He was prophetic. No one still shouts stop...
June 5, 2025
Unfortunately as true and pertinent now as it was when it was first published. Rural Ireland's demise continues, untrammelled, and it's being let continue.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews