Book publishers and literary scouts are always on the look-out for the next Patrick Kavanagh, John B Keane, John McGahern, Seamus Heaney, Francis Ledwidge or John Connell. Every week, a huge range and variety of books come into Irish Country Living for review and promotion, many written by farmers. This is a good dipstick of the vast pool of writing talent in rural Ireland today. And now a retired dairy farmer from Co Louth, Tom McGahon, looks set to join this elite group.Faithfully and accurately observing and recording for posterity, the traditions and lifestyles of rural Ireland is a talent, that for the last 50 years, Tom McGahon has been fine tuning.
Book publishers and literary scouts are always on the look-out for the next Patrick Kavanagh, John B Keane, John McGahern, Seamus Heaney, Francis Ledwidge or John Connell. Every week, a huge range and variety of books come into Irish Country Living for review and promotion, many written by farmers. This is a good dipstick of the vast pool of writing talent in rural Ireland today. And now a retired dairy farmer from Co Louth, Tom McGahon, looks set to join this elite group.
Faithfully and accurately observing and recording for posterity, the traditions and lifestyles of rural Ireland is a talent, that for the last 50 years, Tom McGahon has been fine tuning.
Most countries in the world have their own well-known chroniclers
or anyone who wants to know anything about life in rural Ireland before the electric light – and the time Gay Byrne introduced sex to Ireland – there is one unique information source, specifically, they need look no further than the poems and short stories of Tom McGahon.
Recording and chronicling farming and rural life traditions was always something story tellers and seanachies did for a hobby and as a pastime. Most countries in the world have their own well-known chroniclers.
America has John Steinbeck and Wendell Berry; Russia has Lev Tolstoy and Anton Chekov; England has William Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter and Laurie Lee, and more recently, James Rebanks, The Lake District Shepherd. The works of these writers are enduring classics that are best sellers, some even turned into Hollywood box office cash cows earning Oscars. But undoubtedly, Ireland has the biggest number of the best writers in this genre in the world today.
Writer Tom McGahon published his book Fleeting Memory in 2018 and a beautiful new book of poetry called Yuuth which was launched in November 2019.
Tom McGahon’s latest literary works come in two new volumes of poetry and short stories. His new poetry book is called YUUTH and contains some seminal poems on par with Patrick Kavanagh’s best. Fleeting Memory is McGahon’s latest book of short stories. In my opinion, like John McGahern’s and John B Keane’s iconic classics, Tom McGahon’s Fleeting Memory does what it says on the tin too!
McGahon reads a very eclectic range of books himself. His favourites include John B Keane, Bruce Catton and anything by Solzhenitsyn. His interest in reading and writing books started in 1952. At that time, the Sunday Press published a column entitled Books from my shelves by David Hogan.
Sadly the Sunday Press is long gone, but Tom McGahon is still writing and still farming. YUUTH and Fleeting Memory, are now on sale in Eason Mullingar and Cavan and all good book shops in the midlands.
Keep an eye on our “A Week in the Country” page where we will print a selection of Tom’s poems over the coming months.
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