Extent: Paperback
Pages: 208
Size: 210 mm x 210 mm
Publisher: Beehive Books
This book is a winner. A bit of Irish history and a tea room in Wicklow. I loved it.’ - Kathleen Watkins
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Tales from a Wicklow Tea Room, 1898–1960 will surprise and delight its readers with the intriguing insights into the lives of those who stopped to take tea and sign the visitors’ book at the remarkable institution that was McGuirk’s.’ - John Quinn
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‘In an era where we leave our digital imprint on the world countless times a day, it’s remarkable how a simple signature in a visitors’ book can reveal so much about the social, historical and sociological life of Leinster in the first half of the twentieth century.’ - Manchán Magan
***
‘Michael Fewer describes, in a most humorous and erudite way, what almost seems like a parallel universe to those who go hillwalking and climbing in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains today. A description of a totally vanished cohort of Irish society has been painstakingly constructed from sixty years of signatures.’ - Éanna Ní Lamhna
Tales from a Wicklow Tea Room, 1898–1960 tells the story of a tiny cottage in Glencree in the Wicklow Mountains and the tea room run there by the McGuirk family from the 1880s to the 1960s. It is about those who met and took tea at McGuirk’s during the most momentous years of Ireland’s history, and the world they inhabited. The author Micheal Fewer has written numerous books, on history, travel, architecture, and the natural world and countryside. He is a regular contributor on television and radio programmes, particularly RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday Miscellany.
Over one of the most formative period in Irish history, the cottage became a meeting place for poets, artists, writers, scientists, politicians, lawyers and, indeed, representatives of every aspect of Irish society, including some of early-twentieth-century Ireland’s most influential people. Among the host of visitors were William Beckett, Denis Devlin, Ellen Duncan, Oliver St John Gogarty, Arthur Griffth, Hugh Lane, J.B. Malone, Constantia Maxwell, Robert Lloyd Praeger, J.M. Synge, Mervyn Wall and Ella Webb. Among ringing endorsements from Kathleen Watkins, John Quinn and others author and conservationist Éanna Ní Lamhna has praised this lavishly illustrated and creatively presented publication saying ‘Michael Fewer describes, in a most humorous and erudite way, what almost seems like a parallel universe to those who go hillwalking and climbing in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains today. A description of a totally vanished cohort of Irish society has been painstakingly constructed from sixty years of signatures.’ A delightful book to dip into and stir the imagination as well as the teacup.
- Reviewer: Paul Clayton-Lea
Intercom, February 2024
Customer Reviews
This book makes for such interesting reading particularly if you know the Wicklow mountains. I visited this Tearoom as a child and can still capture the ambience unaware that it held a deeper albeit historic past. The author takes us back to simpler times when people had time for conversation, poetry and interaction. To think that this little Tearoom pitched high in the valley welcomed so many noted scholars & artists through its doors...and all the while the Visitor's Books held the secrets. A fabulous read & well done to the author for creating this captivating read.
— Marian Teehan
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Description
Tales from a Wicklow Tea Room, 1898–1960 tells the story of a tiny cottage in Glencree in the Wicklow Mountains and the tea room run there by the McGuirk family from the 1880s to the 1960s. It is about those who met and took tea at McGuirk’s during the most momentous years of Ireland’s history, and the world they inhabited.
Over this most formative period in Irish history, the cottage became a meeting place for poets, artists, writers, scientists, politicians, lawyers and, indeed, representatives of every aspect of Irish society, including some of early-twentieth-century Ireland’s most in uential people. Among the host of visitors were William Beckett, Denis Devlin, Ellen Duncan, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Arthur Gri th, Hugh Lane, J.B. Malone, Constantia Maxwell, Robert Lloyd Praeger, J.M. Synge, Mervyn Wall and Ella Webb.
About the Author:
Micheal Fewer has written numerous books, on history, travel, architecture, and the natural world and countryside. He is a regular contributor on television and radio programmes, particularly RTÉ Radio1’s Sunday Miscellany.
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