Little Cliffs Of Moher

Cliffs Of Insanity

Surfing in Ireland was once considered little more than a fringe and slightly lunatic pursuit. The treacherous coastline and ice waters of the Atlantic did not sit comfortably with the stereotype of surfing as the favoured pastime of the bronzed and privileged. But with the discovery in the past few years of the gargantuan Aileen’s wave at the Cliffs of Moher and other heavy waves, the Irish coast has become one of the worst kept secrets in world surfing. In Cliffs of Insanity, the Irish Times sportswriter Keith Duggan tells the story of a dedicated group of surfers in County Clare whose lives revolve around the pursuit of Ireland’s wildest waves. The book traces the evolution of Fergal Smith, the young Mayo man whose intuition for big waves has earned him a serious reputation and explores the world of Mickey Smith, the roving Cornish man who discovered Aileen’s and whose breathtaking surf photography has caught the Irish landscape in an entirely new and original light. Bitter cold days, broken bones, busted boards, scars, near drownings and countless hours in the freezing water trying to read the ocean is the price they pay for those few transcendent seconds when they master a wave. Cliffs of Insanity is about the importance of pursuing what matters in life but it is also about community and friendship, and the passionate pursuit of a way of life that flies in the face of everything championed in Ireland over the last decade.

A Hand Book for Travellers in Ireland ... corrected and enlarged

Midlife Irish

At times funny, poignant, and heartbreaking, Midlife Irish draws on the universal themes of love, loss, and laughter that have kept the Irish both miserable and happy--often at the same time--throughout the years. If Bill Bryson set off for Ireland to discover his roots, then you'd have Midlife Irish--an illuminating, entertaining, and heartwarming look at one man's search for where--and who--he came from. Irish-American. What does this vague term really mean? Millions of people describe themselves as Irish-American, but beyond celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a drunken zeal, how many of them know really anything about their cultural ancestry? It is this curiosity that got the better of Frank Gannon--the son of a couple of straight-off-the-boat Irish immigrants. His mother and father, who never spoke about life on the Emerald Isle, raised him in New Jersey, thousands of miles from Ireland. But after both his parents passed away, he realized he knew nothing about whom they really were and where they came from--and in effect, where he came from. Now at the half-way point in his life, Gannon decided to fill in the blanks. He embarked on a journey to Planet Green and slowly pieced together the lives of his parents. Before long, he discovered much about his mother and father, and just as much about himself. This story of one man's search for his cultural identity will have phones ringing off the hook at the Irish Board of Tourism, as readers will want to take off