Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Travel General

An Innocent in Ireland

Curious Rambles and Singular Encounters

by (author) David McFadden

Publisher
McClelland & Stewart
Initial publish date
May 1995
Category
General, Essays & Travelogues, Literary
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780771055270
    Publish Date
    May 1995
    List Price
    $22.99

Add it to your shelf

Where to buy it

Description

When writer David McFadden sets out on a tour of Ireland, he is determined to so do in a relatively innocent state. Using as a guide only In Search of Ireland, a 1930 title by travel writer H. V. Morton, he plans to follow the same route, to try to determine how things have changed and how they have remained the same.

This he proceeds to do – at least at first. But soon he is wandering more and more erratically around the country, poking into any corner and musing over any sight that takes his fancy – from a cozy guest house in Kilcullen to the legendary Hill of Tara, from the south-coast pub run by twin sisters to the windswept reaches of the Ballaghbeama Gap. And increasingly he is drawn to the prehistoric monuments of ancient Ireland. As he goes, he records his very personal impressions in a clear-eyed and wryly humorous way.

Wisely, McFadden also lets the many characters he meets speak for themselves; he loves a good chat and he gives ample space to the various loquacious barmen, shopkeepers, hoteliers, and passersby along the way. And of all the eccentric and appealing characters that he encounters, one of the most intriguing is his travelling companion, the mysterious Spanish chambermaid and poet Lourdes Brasil.

Amusing, quirky, compassionate but unsentimental, An Innocent in Ireland is a treat for any armchair traveller.

About the author

David W. McFadden has been publishing poetry since the early 1960s. Why Are You So Sad? Selected Poems of David W. McFadden (Insomniac Press) was shortlisted for the 2008 Canadian Griffin Prize for Poetry, and Be Calm, Honey (Mansfield Press) was shortlisted for the 2009 Governor General’s Award for Poetry (his third such nomination). In 2013, McFadden won the Canadian Griffin Prize for Poetry for What’s the Score? (Mansfield Press). He is the author of about 30 books of poetry, fiction, and travel writing. McFadden lives in Toronto.

David McFadden's profile page

Editorial Reviews

“Ireland is ancient, magical, and odd, and obviously David McFadden’s spiritual home. Join him on a wonderful journey.”
–Paul Quarrington

“What a wonderful, wonderful book! David McFadden’s humour, erudition, curiosity, his poet’s loving eye, his devotion to every moment and setting in which he finds – himself all these great rare gifts are here in spades. I have been to Ireland, I have written about Ireland, I have family in Ireland! And now that I have read An Innocent in Ireland I have at long last seen the place.”
–Barbara Gowdy

Other titles by

Shouting Your Name Down A Well

Tankas and Haiku

by (author) David McFadden

Mother Died Last Summer

by (author) David McFadden

What's The Score

by (author) David McFadden

Why Are You So Long and Sweet?

Collected Long Poems of David W. McFadden

by (author) David McFadden

Be Calm, Honey

by (author) David McFadden

Why Are You So Sad

Selected Poems

by (author) David McFadden

Writing the Terrain

Travelling Through Alberta with the Poets

contributions by Ian Adam, Robert Stamp, Tammy Armstrong, Margaret Avison, Douglas Barbour, John O. Barton, Doug Beardsley, Bonnie Bishop, E.D. Blodgett, Robert Boates, George Bowering, Tim Bowling, Jan Boydol, Gordon Burles, Murdoch Burnett, Anne Campbell, Weyman Chan, Leonard Cohen, Dennis Cooley, Joan Crate, Michael Cullen, Cyril Dabydeen, Lorne Daniel, Alexa DeWiel, Jason Dewinetz, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Cecelia Frey, Gary Geddes, Gail Ghai, Deborah Godin, Jim Green, Leslie Greentree, Vivian Hansen, Tom Henihan, Michael Henry, Walter Hildebrandt, Gerald Hill, Robert Hilles, Nancy Holmes, Richard Hornsey, Tom Howe, Aislinn Hunter, Bruce Hunter, Laurence Hutchman, Sally Ito, Pauline Johnson, Aleksei Kazuk, Robert Kroetsch, Fiona Lam, William Latta, Tim Lilburn, Alice Major, Kim Maltman, Miriam Mandel, Sid Marty, David McFadden, Barry McKinnon, Erin Michie, Deborah Miller, Anna Mioduchowska, James M. Moir, Colin Morton, Erin Moure, Charles Noble, P.K. Page, Rajinderpal Pal, Ruth Roach Pierson, Joseph Pivato, Roberta Rees, D.C. Reid, Monty Reid, R. rickey, Ken Rivard, Stephen Scobie, Allan Serafino, Joan Shillington, Greg Simison, Carol Ann Sokoloff, Karen Solie, Stephan Stephansson, Peter Stevens, Ivan Sundal, Anne Swannell, Vanna Tessier, Colleen Thibadeau, John O. Thompson, James M. Thurgood, Eva Tihanyi, Yvonne Trainer, Aritha Van Herk, Rosalee van Stelten, Miriam Waddington, James Wreford Watson, Wilfred Watson, Tom Wayman, Phyllis Webb, Jon Whyte, Christine Wiesenthal, Sheri-D Wilson, Christopher Wiseman, Stacie Wolfer, Rita Wong, Richard Woollatt & Jan Zwicky

An Innocent in Newfoundland

Even More Curious Rambles and Singular Encounters

by (author) David McFadden

The Great Canadian Sonnet

by (author) David McFadden
illustrated by Greg Curnoe

An Innocent in Scotland

More Curious Rambles and Singular Encounters

by (author) David McFadden