A Month of Somedays by Catherine Cleary

What a great idea! Catherine Cleary, award winning journalist, spent a year trying out things she's always wanted to do. A Month of Somedays published by Londubh books, is subtitled How One Woman Made The Most of Now, and Catherine explains in the introduction how being a work-from-home mother of three she dreamt of doing the things she'd always wanted to do- the biggest barrier being time. Wanting to stretch herself and see what she could do, she set about her plan to allocate a small chunk of uninterrupted time every day for thirty days at a time.

With a list of six things she wanted to do; learn to play a flute, work an allotment, take an intensive yoga course, take a fitness challenge, learn Mandarin and start a small business Catherine takes on her own challenge.
She takes flute lessons in a suburban house in Dublin from a teacher who is also a professional flautist in an orchestra. Interestingly the instrument hire shop tells her they have seen a lot of adult learners and ninety per cent have stuck with it. Making a good mouth position on the way home she looks "like a demented plastic surgery victim"!
She takes on an allotment at Weaver Court, 45 metres square to work from scratch. By day thirteen Catherine says "I think I am starting to become a gardener" and on day fifteen they are eating the Swiss chard she has grown. This is one of her more social projects.
The Bikram yoga is intense, poses done in a mirrored and carpeted room at 40 degrees c, the idea being to allow stiff muscles to stretch and to concentrate the mind. By class sixteen Catherine feels something has clicked- she feels flexible and strong.

A thirty day aerobic fitness challenge finds Catherine being checked out at DCU School of Health and Human Performance and also learning about the psychology of exercise. Barefoot running is tried out whilst on holiday in Normandy leading to day two stiffness, but a stint in the rainy weather a couple of days later leave her feeling better for going out, "ravenous and happy". By day fifteen she sees an improvement in her barefoot running.
Mandarin, an entirely alien language sees Catherine heading to a language school in Merrion Square. Difficult but enjoyable, by day nine she can translate some written words but cannot yet understand the spoken word, and no breakthrough moment has come by day fourteen.
Tragically, after this project one of Catherine's friends dies very suddenly, and with a moving elegy to her lost friend her death teaches Catherine "to value the sense of potential in the ordinary everyday world and to see life as an adventure".
In the final chapter Catherine states that everything had been about her and she sets about baking on a grand scale to raise money for a charity.

I love the idea behind this book. we can all identify with the 'I'd love to do that one day' syndrome', and more people could find time for similar projects if they really wanted. I took a degree as a mature student with young kids and you don't think you'll find the time for these projects until you have to.
It is an immensely readable book, and Catherine brings to it her journalistic skills in reporting all the facts and background necessary to make it more than just a thirty day report of her progress in each project.
As Catherine says, "Just do it."

www.londubh.ie

In a Town of Five Thousand People-Frank McGuinness

Frank McGuinness, Professor of Creative Writing in UCD, has just had published by The Gallery Press, a new collection of poetry In a Town of Five Thousand People. With echoes of  'we're not worthy' echoing round my head as I approach the review of such a giant in literature and as his bearded face stares out at me from the back cover, I read of his four other poetry collections, his dozen plays and his twenty adaptations of European classics, with his version of Ibsen's A Doll's House winning a 'Tony' award. But it is we, the public, who are the readers of his work, so taking a breath I dive in.

In four parts, this is a fine collection with many titles being the names of famous actors, literary theorists, place names, cities and Dublin streets. And in truth it's a literary students' dream. With titles such a "Roland Barthes", "Walter Benjamin" and "Jacques Derrida" you don't know whether to run or get out your uni text books again.
Many of the poems are in memory of friends lost, and to a large degree these poems are about looking back - to great artists, designers, authors and actors, looking back on Dublin as he knew it.
From the first poem "How to Build Your Gondola" inspired by Canaletto's rather derelict and dirty view of Venice in his painting 'Rio del Medicanti' he moves into Part One with the poem "The Town Next To Us" which opens powerfully with the statement "Never liked it much-the town next to us."
McGuinness's poem "Francis Bacon" does not disappoint. Gloriously decadent a line from the poem reads, "I see life through the green delicious lens/ of champagne bottles I down with pleasure." and continues on "If I had a sister I'd call her Cassandra./ I'd marry her, were she the marrying kind./ Let her prophesy our incestuous doom!".
Looking back in "The Latin Mass" to the unity in feeling as one with the Latin text, he moves on:

            "and the Prods-`our blesse`d enemy-
             would come to love the Virgin,
             so we'd forgive their trespass.
             Likely as moon transplanting sun."


"Durham" begins with a line from the Anglo Saxon poem "Durham"(early 1100s) 'Is theos burch breome geond Breotenrice' , 'This burgh is famous all over Britain', emphasising the importance of the place when this medieval old English poem was written. This is McGuinness's own poem to the city.
"The Abbey Players" is made up of five parts each titled for players who have died in the last 20 years; Marie Kean, actress for 40 years; Donal McCann who died young: Fidelma Cullen, his partner for 20 years who also died young; Joan O'Hara who spent many years in Fair City and Ray McNally. The poem "Ray McNally" has the lines, "There is no secret about great acting,/ no mystery but breath and butterfly-/ it's easier than working down a mine" which perfectly encompasses the no-nonsense attitude of this actor.
"Roland Barthes", for the French literary theorist and semiotician is one that should be read with care, looking for 'signs'. The first two and last two lines are repeated, "The ways of Eros are manifold;/ the whys of Eros are manifold." I can almost hear myself reading it in a ham French accent. This is one of three for the following is "Walter Benjamin", the German Jewish literary critic and the third is "Jacques Derrida" the French Algerian philosopher, the deconstructionist "words are weapons/ of pandemonium" McGuinness states in this poem.
Part Two is titled "The Book of Hours" and is made up of 24 eight line stanzas. A book of hours was an illuminated Christian devotional from the Middle Ages. In this 'book' quite mundane things are considered in each stanza; "Hair", "Lemon's Sweet's", "Stew", "Sisters", all are considered independently. Some of these come together though in the last poem "Water" which opens "The Earth has stopped, and my sister has died."
In Part Three "Rooms in Denmark" is after Hammershoi, the Danish painter of interiors. His work is considered silent and enigmatic and McGuinness draws on this with the lines, "A girl turns her back asking for silence,/ and silence she got to her hearts content,". In "The Old House" McGuinness remembers a house he used to live in.
Part Four has a poem to that event that is still Ireland's pride "Kennedy in Ireland". Opening with "The first man we saw with skin tanned,/ stopping to shake the good nun's hands," and continues on further "We drank him like water in a spring well./ We fetched him his tea in fine bone china."
Coming towards the end, "The Guest House" is soft and gentle, dedicated to Jean, "This is the guest house. The welcome is fierce."
The final poem, for the title of the collection "In a Town of Five Thousand People" is made of three line stanzas, each starting with the "In a Town..." line. Mysterious, repetitive and disturbing, some of it appearing meaningless, it is not a pretty picture. The speaker decides "I'll do a runner and leave well alone."
This is a collection full of literary references and dedication to those gone from McGuinness's life. I'm sure with my couple of readings I have only skirted the surface of my understanding of this collection and look forward to returning and becoming more familiar with the poems that have spoken most to me.
www.gallerypress.com

The High Caul Cap - Medbh McGuckian

Medbh McGuckian's The High Caul Cap is a new collection of over fifty poems with the intriguing title that refers to the old tradition of keeping a preserved caul, a membrane that can cover the newborns head. above the Irish hearth as a charm against drowning. It also served as a symbol and reminder of the birth bond. 'The High Caul Cap' is also the name of a traditional Irish Ceili dance.
Medbh McGuckian, a native of Belfast where she teaches, has won numerous prizes for her poetry. This collection published by The Gallery Press is presented with a beautiful Jennifer Trouton painting on the cover 'Huddled Masses V', a piece of heavy, elaborately embroidered draped silk.

Enigmatic and full of symbolism of nature and the maternal , these are poems that demand several readings to delve into their meanings. With many references to her own mother who "For every line on her forehead I counted the church bells" this is a collection that draws you in to that very intimate mother/daughter relationship with all its inherent difficulties.

In "Her Everyday Comportment" we are exposed to the painful lines, "There were days a few weeks ago when she was impossible/ to reach: today she is findable...", and in "She Wears the Sky";
      
      "I gaze into the sealed eyes of my mother,
        seen, not visited, not forgotten,
        in the centre of her own picture,
        ...
        In her rare low moods
        She remembers the next five days as twelve"

The music and movement in"Sweet Dream Just Before Christmas" is one of those poems that just cries out to be recited, the sound of the words beating in your head as you read them, almost rapping at the word play, "One night she thinks she sleeps, the next not./ She has the God virus, outside the non-God box," and "a lightword, childword, wordflesh of his beautyglory,/ yes, we know, we know, or his glorybeauty."

The hard words of "Seated Woman" are affecting in their honesty of how a parent-child relationship can change and be so challenging: "Her cheek clenched like a leathery butterfly,/ She remains hard to love, heartless sometimes/ as fruit painted sullen red on coffee cups,...". What a wonderful description of the old silk wrinkled skin.
And the sadness of decline is charted in "Dormition: Madonna with Trees": "Our mother, who never seemed to sit down,/ takes nothing but broth;/ She has crazed eyes, her singing voice out of tune"

Medbh McGuckian deals with her mother's death directly in the poem "The Blood Trolley" and then beautifully in "Notebook of Sleeps":

        "Happily, still quick,
         my mother departed to God,
         her last sleep scented
         by the herbage of her breast,
         the faint red roof of her mouth
         and her grave with its leafy lips."

There is beauty and stillness in Medbh McGuckian's poetry. I am already finding myself thinking of lines again in my head as I move about, and return to be sure of exactly what I feel she is conveying. Some revealing themselves slowly, others with strong questioning words of wisdom, such as "Receiving Non-rebirth": "How do we question rocks forever in one place?/ I take their silence for granted,". Yes,how do we? And why don't we?
The strength of Medbh's final poem, "The Flower of the Moment of What Comes Easily", in particular the final lines, are words that linger with meaning and truth long after you have closed the page:

       "When someone refuses to meet
         one's eyes, in the long now,
         across my face stripes the forever
         tangible gaze of my late mother."

A moving collection, one that will be returned to frequently for further insight and revelations.
www.gallerypress.com

Little Italy, Dublin 7

It's a cold damp evening but I'm heading to where all will be warmth and good cheer. It's Little Italy's Christmas Event. Based on North King Street, Dublin 7, just behind the Old Jameson Distillery, they caught my eye at the Fallon and Byrne Event with their perfectly crunchy almond biscotti and now I'm off to see more of their super merchandise.
 
As I arrive I'm welcomed in to a busy bustling atmosphere of shopping and hugging and beautiful looking food everywhere. How did I not know about this place? Providing food and wine to about 100 restaurants and hotels in the Dublin area and further afield, you can also walk in as a retail customer to purchase their lovely produce. They stock everything your little Italian-cooking heart desires and having been shown around by Robyn, bumping into Nana and mummy on the way- it's a family affair here tonight- I work my way around to do a few tastings.

Minini wine distributors were there with tastings. I tried the Valpolicella, light and clean tasting, and the Merlot, round and full flavoured. Minini supply to the restaurant trade but can be bought from the shop. The wine in the shop is very reasonably priced, from €6 up, with 10% discount on a case.
On another table are Lazzaroni Cantuccini, what I was calling biscotti, in almond and chocolate. Lazzaroni is the oldest renowned Italian bakery and confectionery company.
  
Also out were delicious praline Pernigotti Gianduiotti chocolates.
Working my way around the room I spotted dried porcini funghi, often hard to get hold of, in a fair size bag for €4.75. On the shelves are beautiful Sapori gift boxes of  of dessert wine and almond cantuccini- a present anyone would be happy to receive. the cantuccini come in various size boxes and bags and there are tins and big bags of amaretti biscuits, both good to buy for over Christmas. Robyn explains to me that their Christmas stock arrives late October/early November.
 
Tasting some lovely crunchy nutty nougat, Mandorlato by Pernigotti is the most traditional it is explained to me, I also spotted some lovely big bags of very good priced bread sticks-always useful at parties- these were with red onion, con cipolle. Julie Walker of the Traditional Cheese Company (www.tradionalcheese.ie) was there serving Galbani mini mozzarella balls, the most preferred brand in Italy, with sundried tomatoes-delicious, and creamy goat cheese with chorizo.
  
Over at the 'Italicatessen' counter there was lovely Levoni Salsiccia Mantovana Italian sausage sizzling away to be tasted, full and meaty, and there were also tasters of cheese and black pepper and with chilli and also a lovely smoked cheese from Pughlia, all served with a tray of 'Mother-in-Law's-Tongue' bread crackers.

Stocking all the speciality flours: semola, polenta and instant yeast for Italian baking/pizza etc, Il Valentino Bakery and Cafe based at Grand Canal Harbour (www.ilvalentino.ie) had a beautiful array of breads. I tasted a lovely light and crunchy ciabatta with some gorgeous chestnut honey and also with the Italian chocolate paste Nero Gianduia, definitely one for the grown-ups!
Little Italy also makes up lovely Christmas hampers starting at €25. After a thoroughly lovely time spent tasting cheeses, biscuits, breads and wine it was unfortunately time to leave. Heading back into the cold Dublin streets to the Luas, I told myself I would definitely be back.
www.littleitalyltd.com
www.facebook.com/littleitalyltd
Address: 139 North King Street, Dublin 7
With thanks to the hospitality of Robyn Keleghan.

The Children of Castletown House by Sarah Conolly-Carew

With a foreword by Desmond Guinness and a handsome dust jacket photograph of the fine Castletown House and the four Conolly-Carew children; Diana, Patrick, Sarah and Gerald in tweed caps and jackets we know this book is going to be a splendid insight into the lives of a privileged family.





Starting the story with their great grandfather, born in 1823, Sarah Conolly-Carew takes us through twenty packed chapters covering finding a bride, the Second World War, 1950s estate workers, the IRA, Dublin Horse Show- with a final chapter 'Decision to sell, a failure and Desmond Guinness.'
All the family stories are here.
Their parents arrival at Castletown in 1938 with baby Patrick was reported in The Tatler and they were photographed in hunting gear, dogs at their feet and shooting rifles cocked. As the family grew seaside holidays were taken in Malahide and Blackrock.
Sarah recognises and acknowledges the role played by ,in particular, the O'Neill family, estate workers for nearly four generations and in the house, the nursery routine is recounted as this family lived as one of the last generation of the 'Upstairs/Downstairs' life with a full compliment of staff.

With great pony-club and horse trials stories, with the first ever Pony Club Championship in Ireland being held at Castletown House, the children were all talented prize winning riders, competing at the highest level including the Olympics.
But the upkeep of such a house is expensive and constant repairs became overwhelming and finally the awful decision was taken, in 1963, to sell the house. The original buyers never presented the money, and it stood empty for two years, which is how Desmond Guinness came to be involved. Stepping in, he renovated the house with the help of students and established several international Irish Georgian Society chapters to raise money. Now owned by the State in the Office of Public Works, as Sarah says to close, "The great house is in your hands."
This book would be enjoyed by those who like Irish history and personal memoirs and particularly horse enthusiasts for its great detail about the family's involvement with Ireland's competitive horse-riding history.

www.thehistorypress.ie

About Time:Surviving Ireland's Death Row by Peter Pringle

You probably haven't heard of Peter Pringle, but this is his story. Launched officially by Colm O'Gorman, Executive Director of Amnesty International Ireland and published by The History Press Ireland, Peter Pringle's story is of facing in 1980 a sentence of death by hanging, changed to forty years without remission for the crime of capital murder. As the book tells us, the problem was that Peter did not commit this crime. The bleak black and white cover photograph of a cell bed with sheet and pillow with wired window is a grim warning of the story we are about to learn.

The clever double meaning title; 'about' the 'time' he spent in prison and trying to prove his innocence and 'about time' when he was eventually released and given the chance to tell his story and set the record straight. Peter acknowledges the help of the Human Rights Lawyer, Greg O'Neill and also Lorna Siggins who wrote an article about him in The Irish Times.
Opening with a converstion by his jailers in Portlaoise Prison in December 1980, in Peter's hearing,
where they discussed the hanging procedure and their involvement, the book then provides an account of Peter's life up to the fateful evening.
Born in Dublin in 1938 and leaving school at fourteen after defending a pupil being beaten by a Christian Brother he entered the world of work. Joining Sinn Fein at sixteen, excited by resistance to British rule in Ireland, a year later he joined the IRA. First arrested in 1956 at eighteen for nothing more than being on a weekend training exercise before imprisonment he was offered the chance to work for Special Branch informing on his fellow inmates for a salary. Refusing he was taken to Mountjoy but with the arrival of internment he was transferred at the end of his sentence to The Curragh Military Camp. Electing OCs and Camp Councils living here with "men of like philosophy was educational" to Peter. Gradually they were released, as was Pringle- he was still only twenty. On release he tried to re-establish his Dublin IRA unit and was apponted OC. Joining a unit in the border area he found himself back in Mountjoy, released again in 1962.

Married in 1963, Peter and his first wife lived in Luton as pub landlords, then returned to Dublin. But Peter became depressed and was drinking and he left his wife and children and went to London. Returning to his family he became active in the IRA again and moving for work to Donegal, close to Derry made it easier to be supportive of the Official IRA there.
Bloody Sunday- 30th January 1972. British Army paratroopers in Derry fire on peaceful civil rights marchers killing thirteen. Living now in Killybegs, with a change in the political atmosphere Peter is always now under the eye of the Special Branch. By 1975 Peter has become victim of the demon drink again and his wife tells him to leave.
Moving on to 1980, and leaving to talk to his wife, he stops to buy a bottle of whiskey which became a twelve day drinking binge, losing his car in the process. His drinking pal Paedar had heard the Gardai were looking for Pringle in relation to a bank robbery and shooting in County Roscommon where two Gardai were killed on the day he began his binge. Peter was arrested a couple of days later for the murder of a Garda.
This is when his nightmare began.

There is no doubt that Peter Pringle had been involved with the IRA in his life, but we must remember that this was the early IRA of the 1950s and 60s and not the IRA of latter years. Half of this book is Peter's story setting out his life, the life of the boy imprisoned at eighteen for going on night exercise with his army colleagues. A miscarriage of justice from the start, one amongst many, but we must now look forward and celebrate his release and persevere in the fight for those still held.
This story is immensely readable. We see Peter admit his weaknesses and recognition of where he made poor decisions, his battle with alcohol as well as the pride and love he has for his family.
The History press has done well to publish this story because it is one that deserves to be told. the background that Pringle provides in relation to various laws brought in to deal with the IRA are a lesson in the history of the State and the way in which it attempted to deal with these issues.
Of interest to those who like memoirs, Irish history and anyone who just likes a good read- all these and more will get great satisfaction from this book.
(In his post script Peter tells us that Pat Mc Cann and Colm O'Shea remain in prison.)
www.thehistorypress.ie

Salt Sugar Smoke by Diana Henry

A new cookery book out called Salt Sugar Smoke by Diana Henry is subtitled how to preserve fruit, vegetables, meat and fish and as as you venture inside you will see that is exactly what it does teach you, in a gorgeous way. Published by Octopus Books it is beautifully bound and packed with attractive tasty-looking photographs.

Chatting with me at the Fallon and Byrne Christmas Extravaganza where she was promoting her new book, she explained how she grew up amongst jam makers and preservers but had not been able to find a book that filled that gap between the WI jam maker books and the other extreme of 'man-guts-and-smokes-a-whole-animal.' There was no book about how she wanted to approach preserving and felt it was something for experts with rules. And so she set about rectifying this. Diana spent three years in her kitchen trying out different recipes and drawing on her food experiences on her travels to France and Sweden.  Also commenting on the desire to make jams with different ingredients and using less sugar to produce a looser texture as in France and even more so in Sweden, Diana is enthusiastic about the subject and confident resulting from her wealth of knowledge. She has produced from this time spent a really beautiful book. Easy to chat with and possessing a warm friendly personality she was generous with her time to talk about her new project. This book will be a useful addition to any home cooks library of cookbooks.

The book has eight chapters: jam; jellies, curds + fruit cheeses; sauces, pastes, mustards + vinegars; under oil; smoked; cordials, alcohols, fruits + spoon sweets; salted, cured + potted and chutney, relishes + pickles, with each chapter introduced with a chat about the subject. Setting out the basic equipment she bought in the introduction, Diana mentions that one piece was a storage box bought from IKEA for brining!
Some of the most useful tips are the ways Diana suggests ways in which to eat what might be an unfamiliar recipe. The first example of this is the delicious sounding purple fig and pomegranate jam as seen on the cover, which Diana suggests you put on top of toast with Labneh, a middle eastern yogurt cheese ,which I'm sure we could find a similar product to or you could make yourself from another of Diana's recipes here in the book.
The scarlet pepper and chilli jam recipe accompanies a tasty photo of lamb chops where Diana suggests its use at summer barbecues- yum! New York sweet cranberry mustard, those curious red berries that arrive at Christmas that we don't really know what to do with, is photographed alongside a few carved slices of a luscious looking roast chicken.

There are antipasti recipes galore and at the smoking section where you may speed up Diana assured me that it wasn't difficult and didn't need loads of equipment-she has used a wok before.
The aperitif section certainly caught my eye; vin d'orange, apricot liqueur and damson gin amongst others. I loved the idea of sweet-tea brined chicken as I have brined a turkey successfully one Christmas, and the beautiful photograph of the red beetroot-cured gravlax had my mouth calling out for the clean salmon and grated beetroot flavours. The Zuni Cafe's red onion pickles, adorning a beef burger in toasted ciabbata looked too good for words.
Coming towards the close is the beautiful photograph of bobbing pink pickled turnips. Yes, you read that right- Middle Eastern pickled turnips or torstoi which Diana tells us is "one of the most popular Middle Eastern pickles and much more delicious than it sounds." Using a wedge of raw beetroot and baby white turnips they become pink from the juice.

This book couldn't fail to encourage you to get launched into one of these projects, even if you start with some of the simpler antipasti recipes. Launch yourself into Diana's world of Salt Sugar Smoke.
www.octopusbooks.co.uk