Well-Remembered Days : Eoin O'Ceallaigh's Memoir of a Twentieth-century Catholic Life: Amazon.co.uk: Arthur Mathews: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

Well-remembered Days is the hilarious rendition of the putative life of one Eoin O'Ceallaigh, a 20th-century Irish Catholic, written by Arthur Matthews, better known for his role as co-writer of the Channel Four series Father Ted. With one foot in surrealism and the other knee-deep in the muck of an Irish bog, this series of comic sketches echoes with the voices of Ted and Dougal and touches on all the same themes of sexual repression, racist abuse, sexist caricatures and alcoholic mishaps. Told by the 90-something Eoin, once-raging founder of the League of the Mother of God Against Sin and most active employee of the National Censorship Board, most of the tales are carried off with an impish satire that veers between fondness for the Irish and viciousness at the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. Some might think the stories far-fetched but only recently priests in the South were advising farmers to sprinkle holy water on cattle and themselves in a bid to stop the spread of Foot and Mouth. Eoin begins his reminiscences with a very funny attack on the extremities of Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes.

The poverty that McCourt harps on about was confined to a handful of malcontents (probably no more than 10 or 12), who, if pressed, would probably admit that their lot was not so bad after all.... My own memory of Ireland... is that everyone was blissfully happy all of the time.

Rather than mourn the loss of one of her children, his own mother says, "So feckin' what?" He muses that the notorious Black and Tans were "very unpopular". Introduced to nude wrestling by his Christian brother teacher, he goes on to scribe a pamphlet which outlines the spiritually confused Protestant mind and wonders why it is deemed fascist and not distributed further. He's relieved to marry Noreen, an ugly woman "with the sexual urges of a corpse", whose illnesses plague him for the rest of the book. The highlight of his life is being thrown off "The Late Late Show" by the Gardai and welcoming Pope John Paul II to Ireland in the 1970s, upon which he declares, "It's hard to think of a more momentous moment in world history." With sardonic swipes at Fergal Keane, Sinead O'Connor, Ru Paul and "feminesbian" poets, Mathews brilliantly captures some of the bizarre, absurdist quality of Ireland in the midst of a cultural and economic boom. --Cherry Smyth --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

A hilariously satirical fictional satire on 'Oirishness' by the creator of Father Ted; Eoin O'Cellaigh: writer, poet, nationalist, playwright, civil servant, commentator (non-sport) - above all a defender of the traditional values of Ireland. The 'land of saints and scholars' has produced another grand voice. A true renaissance Catholic, Eoin O'Cellaigh has witnessed nearly a century of stirring events in the history of Ireland. This is his autobiography. O'Cellaigh enthrallingly recounts the key moments in his rich life, such as his success in bringing Pope John Paul II to Ireland, or his founding of the League of the Mother of God Against Sin, which kept jazz and modern dancing out of Irish life for most of the century. The young O'Cellaigh was marked for life by his meeting with that mythical battler for Irish independence Michael Collins, for whom he once his sausages under the bed. As he grew older he was drawn towards the important work of censorship and campaigning against sex. In the words of Frank Sinatra, he did things, 'swell.'

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

Possibly the funniest book I've read this year.... 15 July 2002

By Phil T

Format:Paperback

Those of you who are familar with Father Ted will find similarly-styled surreal elements of that superb comedy series in this first novel by one its co-writers.

It's ostensibly the 'autobiography' of an Irish Catholic activist & poet, Eoin O'Ceallaigh, born in the early years of the 20th century, but seeming to possess a mindset stuck somewhere in the 18th. He had a sexless marriage (his wife died a virgin) and finds the modern world distasteful and revolting, bemoaning the changes in the Ireland of his childhood.
And he's an unashamed bigot: Protestants, feminists, blacks, gays, women's rights, the British, rock music, you name 'em, he HATES 'em. He also hates modern writers, playwrights and poets (including W.B. Yeats)and so (naturally enough) he gets a position working in the censorship department of the Irish government

It all happens to him: the fight for Irish Independence, the Civil War that followed, the Pope's visit to Ireland. Even an alien abduction...

Now, if this doesn't sound funny, I can assure you it is absolutely hilarious. It works primarily because ultimatly, Eoin is a parody of certain personalty types (I was brought up in a fundamentalist PROTESTANT household and met many people like him) rather than the Catholicism itself.

I do however, get the feeling that Arthur Mathews, as a modern Irish writer may be venting certain personal issues & angers here. If so, he lacks the bitterness that would have made this novel a lot less funny, and settles instead for a faint echo of sadness that helps rather than hinders the humour.

So, If you must read only one top-notch, well-written, very funny book this year, make it this one.

Ah, go on...

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

I chortled, and I'm a Protestant 18 April 2001

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I challenge anyone to read this book and not laugh out loud. It is a genuine 'side-splitter', quite the funniest thing I've read since casting my eye over the lyric sheet of "All That You Can't Leave Behind". Arthur Mathews (yes, he spells it with one t!) has written an affectionate spoof of Ireland, and in Eion has created a truly funny character. To quote one memorable line... "Already the 1914-1918 war was raging in Europe and many Irishmen had gone to "The Front", a pub on the quays, where they would discuss the latest news from the battlefields and argue about the rights and wrongs of volunteering for service."

As excellent as Father Ted and Big Train (new series soon, please!)

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

Great stuff from a Father Ted genius 24 Jan 2002

Hugely enjoyable spoof autobiography from one of the creators of TV's superb Father Ted.
The surrealism and pathos of Eoin O'Ceallaigh's "recollections" mask a cutting satire on 20th Century Irish history and conservative mores.
It made me laugh so much on a crowded Tube train that two complete strangers came up to me and asked where they could buy this book!