Echoes of a Savage Land

by Joe McGowan

presentation copy, Signed by the author, 2001. some light reading wear but a very good clean copy. Echoes of a Savage Land is a magical doorway into lost worlds, a journey through a way of life unchanged for centuries, but now on the edge of Witch hares and Rhyming rats - Blood sacrifice and Burnt offerings - Corncrakes and Blackbird pie - Poteen stills and Fear Gortach - Cutting the cailleach and Harvest knots - Mummers and Wrenboys - Quern stones and Stirabout - Haunted houses and Satanic card games.

Genres: Irish Literature, History

400 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A romantic tour of the old Ireland and its ways, but not a very good read. Jumps all over the place in time and subject matter. Reminds me of visiting a beloved old loquacious relative and listening to story after story after story. I looked up images of many of the tools he describes. Fascinating for a while but the thrill of it only lasts for really dedicated historians. I’ll pass it on so someone with more interest and patience can enjoy it.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It all starts with an old woman cutting a chicken's throat on St Martin's Eve, Bleeding for St Martin. Fromthere we take an extended journey through memory and history, myth and superstition, the mix of pagan and Christian that informs the impoverished hardscrabble rural life that was going into decline as the author grew to manhood. There so much here, from the arts and crafts of rural life centring around the major points of the agricultural year, to stories of saints and kings and fairies and rogues, to nostalgic memories of Christmas and Halloween and packages from America, to building roads or hay ricks or drying oats, to Mummers and Wren Boys, poitin makers and about a hundred ghosts. A poetic meditation on the wealth of life-lore in a small poor community tinged with regret for everything lost. This is a rich treasure trove of a book and I do not want to send it back to the library I want to keep it as a reference on my desk. Invaluable.