This is the beautiful and peaceful graveyard of Saint Canice’s Cathedral in Kilkenny. Graves here are decorated by nature with wildflowers like poppies, roses and valerian. Some of the headstones are hard to read because they’re so weathered but tombs inside the Cathedral building date from mediaeval times.
A happy and healthy New Year to everyone!
A happy and healthy New Year in 2022 to you all!
A final few words from ‘In Memoriam’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, longest serving Poet Laureate and favourite of Queen Victoria.
Autumn leaves, abundant fungi and a tragic family story
What time of year do you like? I’m a summer person really. I love the early summer months of May and June best but autumn is the season that comes a close second. Walking in an autumn like the one we’ve just had, with bright blue skies and unusually warm dry weather for Ireland, I find uplifting and inspiring. Read on for a celebration of autumn leaves, deadly poisonous fungi and a tragic family story in Menlo Castle in Galway.
Superstitions in Ireland - a light-hearted look at bad omens
I recently googled to find out which is the most superstitious country in the world, fully expecting it to be Ireland. Surprise, surprise; it wasn’t. It was India. And within Europe the most superstitious people apparently live in Serbia. Perhaps we are beginning to shake off our belief in bad omens in Ireland. I was brought up by superstitious parents and it took me years to abandon their worries about magpies, broken mirrors, spilled salt and peacock feathers, to name but a few.
Victorian-era plant hunters were an intrepid lot
Would you have applied for a job as a plant hunter in the 19th century? The first skill you would have needed was an adventurous spirit. Plant hunting botanists had to survive shipwreck, pirates, numerous accidents and foreign diseases, such as dysentery and yellow fever. Some never came home. I’ve been doing some research on medicinal plants and popular Victorian garden trees and, in this month’s blog, I take a look at a few of the specimens these brave, intrepid men brought back with them that still adorn our gardens today…
Tall ships, tall tales and an Irish female pirate
Have you heard of Anne Bonny - the Irish female pirate?
I've recently listened to two compelling audio books by Daphne du Maurier: Jamaica Inn and Frenchman's Creek, both very different as the first is dark and dramatic and the second is humorous and romantic. Both have du Maurier suspense and both are about pirates in Cornwall.
Cornish pirates inspired me to research Irish pirates and I discovered Anne Bonny. She was a young Irish woman who was born Anne Cormac in Cork at the end of the 17th century. Apparently she was the illegitimate daughter of a well-to-do lawyer and his housemaid. There are many stories and myths about this reckless woman pillaging treasure ships on the high seas.
The Family Shadow is here
It’s been a busy few weeks but The Family Shadow is here and is available as a Kindle ebook, paperback and in Kindle Unlimited. It’s a historical mystery with dual timeline suspense and is set on the sweeping Wexford coast in Ireland in the late nineteenth century and also in 2019.
I’ve always loved that area of Wexford. It’s near Curracloe with its seven mile long sandy beach and dunes, backed by Raven Wood, a spine of Corsican pines. Even on summer days, the beach never seems crowded. Around the far bend is the famous Wexford Slobs wildfowl reserve where geese and swans fly in for the winter months.
New beginnings in January
It’s January, the month of new resolutions and new beginnings. If you’ve made any New Year resolutions, I hope they are going better than mine. However, I’m happy I’ve got three new beginnings to tell you about this month.
The first is my new historical mystery novel, which is due to be published in February on Amazon and other online bookstores worldwide. It has a dual timeline and is set on the sweeping coastline of County Wexford in Ireland, with a modern day story in an old rambling house and a mystery set in late Victorian Ireland in the 1890s. You can read the book description here.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
Festive greetings to you all! I’d like you to meet Archie, a Jack Russell terrier from my new novel The Family Shadow. Archie has been busy making a snowman but he’s also been helping Fiona Foley solve a Victorian mystery and dig up long-buried family secrets.
2020 has been an unforgettable year for all of us. As Charles Dickens says: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity.” (A Tale of Two Cities) Imagine looking at the newspaper headlines we are bombarded with now and turning back the clock one year. We simply would not have believed what we are going through.
But 2020 wasn’t all bad. I am lucky to live in the country and have animals and a garden. I have to tell you that our normally unruly garden here has never looked so tidy. Even the lawns have neat edges now! And I’ve had plenty of time to write without distractions.
Five Ghostly Tales for Halloween
It’s Halloween or All Hallows’ Eve. I have to admit that I’ve never seen a ghost – at least not knowingly - but I’ve met people who claim they have. Ireland is apparently alive with phantoms and spirits. I went to visit an elderly man in England, once married to my great-aunt who died young. His second wife told me she visited Ireland on one occasion and would never risk it again. I thought this was an unusual comment and asked her why. She said it was because she could see spirits and was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers that appeared on Irish roads wherever she and her husband went. I have five ghost stories for you today and I’ll start with the one in our Victorian house in Dublin.