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Synopsis
Shortly after the declaration of the Irish Free State, H V Morton goes IN SEARCH OF IRELAND by motor-car and finds, amongst other things, a Norman village in Galway, lobster fishers, a shy girl in need of an apron in Connemara and a great many beds in which Michael Collins is said to have slept. Full of local stories and way-side conversations, Morton's witty and enticing travelogue recalls a way of life not quite disappeared even at the beginning of a new century. Originally published in the 1920s, anecdotal, leisurely, full of character and event, insight and information, this is travel writing of the very highest order.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
A Fleet Street reporter, H. V. Morton (1892-1979) fought in the First World War and was in Egypt in 1922 at the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb. One of the century's most popular travel writers, he wrote books about Spain, Italy and the Middle East as well as the famous `In search of..' series on the British Isles.
Something to remember about Morton's book on Ireland is its historical perspective. In Search of Ireland was first published in 1930, which was a few years after Ireland had become a Free State in 1922. Morton is seeing Ireland in the early stages of independence separated from Britain. He warns the English in his introduction, "We must forget the hosts of prejudiced ideas about her which have accumulated during centuries of strife and misunderstanding...I must stress the point that the new generation of travellers must approach Ireland with the feeling that it is a foreign country." I could not help but reflect on the history he refers to, when England was so often the aggressor, and Ireland the betrayed. Sometimes it seems he relates the events connected with a place without examining the underlying issues, he observes the empty cottages with hardly a mention of the famine or the forced evictions, or that emigration was so often not a choice, but a matter of survival. Nonetheless, Morton's humorous and insightful observations about Ireland, as a traveller in a foreign land, are worth reading and re-reading.
Something to remember about Morton's book on Ireland is its historical perspective. In Search of Ireland was first published in 1930, which was a few years after Ireland had become a Free State in 1922. Morton is seeing Ireland in the early stages of independence separated from Britain. He warns the English in his introduction, "We must forget the hosts of prejudiced ideas about her which have accumulated during centuries of strife and misunderstanding...I must stress the point that the new generation of travellers must approach Ireland with the feeling that it is a foreign country." I could not help but reflect on the history he refers to, when England was so often the aggressor, and Ireland the betrayed. Sometimes it seems he relates the events connected with a place without examining the underlying issues, he observes the empty cottages with hardly a mention of the famine or the forced evictions, or that emigration was so often not a choice, but a matter of survival. Nonetheless, Morton's humorous and insightful observations about Ireland, as a traveller in a foreign land, are worth reading and re-reading.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A wonderful trip through Ireland of 80+ years ago
15 Oct 2006
Format:Paperback
I own a very old copy of this- perhaps even a first edition- that is well worn and loved from reading it again and again over the last 30-some years I have owned it. This is a wonderful trip through Ireland of the early 20th century, a calmer time, in some respects, and early days of Irish freedom. You visit with the author the Guniess brewery (and hear some hysterical stories by the employees about other visitors!), you stay overnight at the Mt.Melleray monastery, and spend time on the Curraugh watching beautiful thoroubred horses. You come to know the Irish people in ways that the average tourist does not, sharing their homes, their meals...and even their mysterious moonshine, poteen.^_^
While reading this book, you will find yourself relaxing and enjoying the surroundings, and living the life and legends of Ireland of that time, and when the book is finished, you will find yourself mourning that this is a bygone era. But it is a book that should have a place on the shelf of anyone who has any interest in Ireland and the Celtic peoples.
While reading this book, you will find yourself relaxing and enjoying the surroundings, and living the life and legends of Ireland of that time, and when the book is finished, you will find yourself mourning that this is a bygone era. But it is a book that should have a place on the shelf of anyone who has any interest in Ireland and the Celtic peoples.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Ah! Love...
7 Sep 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a true story of a love affair.
It is a love at first sight for Morton as he visits Saorstát Éireann and hears the mysterious "silent music of the land" as he visits Connemara, Glengariff and the Curragh and Eire's troubled history. Fascination with the Gaelic tongue induces a longing to understand it more, to be able to sing back an answering verse to the real songs he hears from behind the stone walls.
The country wins Morton's heart rapidly, as do the people and their intense sense of place. Even the animals enchant ...including a curious cow who joins a wake...and the " hens who are all over the world an excitable, suicidal people".
By the end of his book H.V. is so in love with Ireland, and feels so desperately his need to communicate his ardor, and share it with the reader, that he becomes intensely lyrical and even starts to adds a Gaelic lilt to his prose!
To read it is to love it too!
It is a love at first sight for Morton as he visits Saorstát Éireann and hears the mysterious "silent music of the land" as he visits Connemara, Glengariff and the Curragh and Eire's troubled history. Fascination with the Gaelic tongue induces a longing to understand it more, to be able to sing back an answering verse to the real songs he hears from behind the stone walls.
The country wins Morton's heart rapidly, as do the people and their intense sense of place. Even the animals enchant ...including a curious cow who joins a wake...and the " hens who are all over the world an excitable, suicidal people".
By the end of his book H.V. is so in love with Ireland, and feels so desperately his need to communicate his ardor, and share it with the reader, that he becomes intensely lyrical and even starts to adds a Gaelic lilt to his prose!
To read it is to love it too!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
What matters
29 Nov 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
H.V. Morton was one of the finest travel writers of his day. He is cosmopolitan and sophisticated with a solid understanding of history. His commentary is fascinating because he concentrates on his encounters with the people of the region he is visiting. His opinions are informed not only by cultural references and psychological insight, but mostly by an abiding respect and love for the characters he meets. He is a student of the human drama and a feeling participant in the life of those he encounters, however briefly. Therein lies much of the poignancy and attraction of his works. In short, he loves to witness to the "soul" in people. His books are affecting on a deeply human level. Oh, and did I mention, his writing is marvelous?
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