Face facts, will you, ' she kept telling me... 'What happens here means nothing and never will.'"" Cornelius Conlon has been forever growing old. Born at the turn of the 20th century, he has lived through a lifetime of madness, and now must witness his towns demise. He preaches, writes, loves and obsesses of the darkness of the tunnels, of the dangers of the Folly, of the weather but few pay heed. Deeply frustrated, his daughter, Lily, worries for him, but to many in Poulnabrone, he is simply, Con 'The Loon, ' the man who stands on his soap box by the church, his face a cloud of beard and prognostication, his cane pointing as he delivers a sermon. Lily Conlon clings to her mourning. The cracks in the walls of her home run through her heart. Caring for her father brings both comfort and angst, but it is her daughter, Tara, that exercises her, so that she rails at her modern notions and pagan ways. Free spirited, Tara knows what she loves. She's a striking girl, and everyone is drawn to her, for it is as though she has "appeared from the earth and remained speckled, splashed with the freckles of mud that produced her variegated complexion, her colours yet to blend with the work of the summer sun." The drawstrings of her heart bind her, bringing both joy and misery and nightmares that come, "too concrete, too sudden." She listens to her grandfather, and sees that the towns troubles are intimately woven in the lives of its inhabitants. Known variously as "The Leaning Town of Poulnabrone" and "Ireland's answer to Pisa," Poulnabrone is falling asunder. Its walls are riven with cracks and mould, its streets punctured and torn. Like Cornelius, young Malachy understands, but his mind is as fractured as the streets of the town, and greater forces are at play. Vain, and with eyes both "vacant and diffuse," Malachy doesn't know how to feel. His parents tell him he's "had the luxury to be born twice," but he feels he's yet to be born. Overwhelmed by an arbitrary moment of violence, he turns inwards and ultimately on the town itself. The bonds of history are the walls of a river, fraying and broken, loose beneath the earth; an absurd demise beckons. At once both melancholic and magical, The Absurd Demise of Poulnabrone is the debut novel of author Liam Howley. Part comedy, part elegy, and often hallucinatory, it is both a humorous meditation and a dark rendering of a tragic story. Beautifully crafted and with stunning prose, it is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the predicaments of our times.
Poulnabrone is marked by fate; it is falling asunder. A river flows from the nearby hills and disappears beneath the earth. Historical forces are at play.Who will pay heed and call halt to the madness? Who will listen?Everything subsides. Everything decays.
Poulnabrone is marked by fate; it is falling asunder. A river flows from the nearby hills and disappears beneath the earth. Historical forces are at play.Who will pay heed and call halt to the madness? Who will listen?Everything subsides. Everything decays.
What if you could stay young forever? What if you never had to grow old? Ben has no qualms about signing up for the Evergreens project, a controversial new trial.
This is one of a series of guides to an area of academic interest. Aspects of television studies covered in this guide are theoretical perspectives shaping the study of television, Marxism, semiology, feminism, representation, bias and science fiction.
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names of Ireland contains more than 3,800 entries covering the majority of family names that are established and current in Ireland, both in the Republic and in Northern Ireland. It establishes reliable and accurate explanations of historical origins (including etymologies) and provides variant spellings for each name as well as its geographical distribution, and, where relevant, genealogical and bibliographical notes for family names that have more than 100 bearers in the 1911 census of Ireland. Of particular value are the lists of early bearers of family names, extracted from sources ranging from the medieval period to the nineteenth century, providing for the first time, the evidence on which many surname explanations are based, as well as interesting personal names, locations and often occupations of potential family forbears. This unique Dictionary will be of the greatest interest not only to those interested in Irish history, students of the Irish language, genealogists, and geneticists, but also to the general public, both in Ireland and in the Irish diaspora in North America, Australia, and elsewhere.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.