Non Fiction: General Interest

The Irish Aboard The Titanic, Senan Moloney

100 year ago the western world was reeling from the news that the world’s largest and most luxurious liner, Titanic, had sunk in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. There were 2,200 souls onboard. 1,500 died. It is a story that is intrinsically linked with Ireland and it has fascinated many of us ever since.

Although few of us have had quite the fascination that author Senan Molony has. A political correspondent by trade, Molony says that his interest in Titanic is possibly in his blood. He had an uncle that was shipwrecked twice World War 2, another who was a flag officer with the Irish Naval Service, another who travelled on the outward journey of the Lusitania and his paternal family survived the famine because they were ships chandlers in the Clare town of Miltown Malbay. This latent interest was fired up properly by the news in 1985 of the discovery of the wreck. As a result he has written several books on the subject. In 2000 The Irish Aboard Titanic was published. It has been revised and republished to mark the centenary which occurs on the 14^th/15^th April.

The Irish Aboard Titanic is a meticulously researched piece of work detailing the lives of each of the Irish passengers, both those who were lost and who were saved. “Fundamentally there is little to beat the old fashioned journalistic legwork” Senan tells me. He spent a lot of time in the National Library studying contemporaneous newspapers for reports but he also sourced reports from local papers in the USA from locations where the survivors finally settled.

Although at first glance, this book is a perfect ‘dip in and out of’ one, be warned – I found it most compelling. With each story adding a little piece of information to the overall mosaic of Titanic’s tale, it was very hard to put down. The stories of the Irish Aboard Titanic are varied and almost all are interesting, so, I wondered, which ones are Senan’s favourites? Without hesitation he picks that of Eugene Daly, which certainly is one of the most enthralling. Daly gives a graphic account of shooting by officers onboard and of his own escape jumping into the freezing water. “Some of his imagery lives on in the mind for a long time afterwards, such as the women’s hair floating into his face.... He survived by getting onboard an upturned collapsible boat.” Daly is also interesting because his picture features on page 2 of Senan’s book where he can be clearly seen playing his uileann pipes on the tender from Cobh out to Titanic. “His uileann pipes were found in 1987 in the debris field.... on the seabed... They are now one of the artefacts that are now going to be sold as a complete lot, this April for $200 million.”

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Just Follow the Floodlights, Brian Kennedy

A writers life can be a lonely one, but worst still - frustrating. Trying to keep sane when the words won't come, taking a break with your cousins Jim Beam & Jack Daniels in-between and wondering whether it is your best work before you rip it up and start again.

But as writers, we love it. Our work is the means of expression we want to show the world, but there are easier job choices!  The journey you are brought on whilst writing a book, for me anyway, is this bi-polar existence where you’re delighted with the first three chapters yet tearing your hair out trying to finish it. You feel the elation of getting a solid start only to find out you’re about as good at spelling as Attila the Hun would be holding peace talks with the Roman Empire.

I’ve always had an interest in writing. I’m pretty sure I was born with a pen in hand, looked up at my mum and jotted down “Out of warmth. Met with screaming woman. Please put me back in.”

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Dead Interesting: Stories from the Graveyards of Dublin

Death is one of the things we in Ireland do very well. We also sit very comfortably with our dead especially in Dublin where we have the largest graveyards in the country. Largest of all and most well known in Glasnevin Cemetery on the northside of the city, which occupies over 120 acres and is the final resting place to over 1 million citizens.

I recently paid my first visit to Glasnevin to meet with historian and tour guide Shane MacThomáis to talk about his new book Dead Interesting – Stories from the Graveyards of Dublin.

Like many Dubliners, I had regularly driven past the high stone walls of Glasnevin but had never actually visited the graveyard and even though it was a miserable, damp and grey morning, I was most surprised at just how beautiful a place it is. Dominated by the well known landmark of the Round Tower (marking the crypt of Daniel O’Connell) and the beautiful curving lines of the modern visitor centre, arriving into the cemetery was more like arriving at a well cared for national monument than a graveyard. But as MacThomáis told me, Glasnevin tells the story of our city and indeed our country and so perhaps the analogy of a well cared for national monument is entirely appropriate.

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David Branigan - Ocean Fever

Irish sports journalist David Branigan’s debut novel, Ocean Fever, traces the high-risk career thus far of Kerry sailor Damian Foxall. High risk, extreme weather, knife-edge decisions, rivalries and challenges in the toughest environment are all in a day’s work for this exceptional Irish sailor. From a remote bay in Kerry to the Southern Ocean, Damian has raced around the world eight times. Co-authored by Damian and David, Ocean Fever was recently launched by Collins Press to high acclaim.

Based in Dublin, David’s writing career all began with his passion for marine sports. His creative talent revealed itself at a young age, when English was his best subject at school. Over the years, he has been the author of articles for the Irish Times, the Irish Independent and the Irish Examiner, all thanks to his astounding skills as a sports photographer. It was only by pure coincidence that he entered the field of journalism in the first place.

'Photography was, and is, my principal activity,' he says, 'but writing came about when several editors remarked that they would like to use my pictures but had no specialist writers available. So I thought, ‘Why not?’ and I was given a quick class on the basics of newspaper reporting.'

David believes that his love of sport and writing was a natural progression of his work: an inevitable combination that would change his life. 'At the time, the National Union of Journalists, of which I am still a member, was very strict on mixing disciplines, but it was accepted that as a specialist writer there was no conflict.' Sports journalism, for him, is like 'being the ultimate fan, with often unique and privileged access that also carries certain responsibilities on behalf of the reader'.

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