VANISHING IRELAND - THE CHRONICLES OF A DISAPPEARING IRELAND: PART 2 BY TURTLE BUNBURY AND JAMES FENNELL
Historian Turtle Bunbury has compiled these further chronicles that recall lives shaped by the past, reminding us of a time when life was more simple. With photos by James Fennel, this is a unique collection of portraits and interviews of 41 men and women. They went to Ireland, Britain and America to track down the people involved from contacts made for the first volume as there is a public appetite for this history.
The old woman on the cover, with such character etched on her face, looks young, perhaps as a result of her simple life. She comes from Co. Cavan where she lives on her own down a three-mile lane in a cottage surrounded by her animals. There is humour and truth in these people's stories and a definite spark in the beautiful photographs.
The authors also made another compilation 'The Irish Pub' a few years ago. Maybe we are hankering after this way of a life being lost, and want to hear more stories about the disappearing world of the last century, and learn things about our current world from their view. My own Grandmother (b. 1900) used to comment : 'Sure the world isn't half settled'. That nearly said the lot, essentially!
Well worth recording, this collection has universal appeal.
www.turtlebunbury.com
www.jamesfennell.com
DON'T SLEEP, THERE ARE SNAKES - LIFE AND LANGUAGE IN THE AMAZONIAN JUNGLE BY DANIEL EVERETT
“To be a good linguist requires not only hours at the desk but also many hours with the people...I would need to study a language in its cultural context.”
In remotest Brazil, along the muddy banks of the Maici River which flows from the Madeira, itself a tributary of the Amazon, and traversed by the Trans-Amazon highway, can be found a tribe known as the Pirahas who inhabit makeshift huts and live by fishing, and from the fruits of the jungle. Linguist, Daniel Everett, with his wife and three children, spent the best part of thirty years together with the Pirahas. This book is the fruit of their labours.
Daniel's task as missionary was to translate the bible into the as yet virtually unknown Piraha language. First, he had to learn it, with only the notes of a few predecessors to go on, who, by the way, had so far failed to convert this people who lacked a Creation Myth.
This relatively short book (279 pages) is destined to become a standard recommended text for Linguistics students as the author clearly describes and de-constructs this remote language. As Daniel grapples with its differences and peculiarities, we can read transcripts of simple sentences and examples of their storytelling. It is nothing like the way I'm writing here, either by way of content or structure.
For one thing, the Pirahas will never discuss anything that they themselves have never directly come into contact with (which he names the immediacy of experience principle IEP). Neither will you find colons, parenthesis, or even commas. They simply don't need them, as there is no recursive or referential speech in their grammar. Everett's discoveries come as a direct challenge to Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar (UG). The implications of his work are enormous for linguistic enquiry. A scholar who read one of his earlier articles about the Pirahas sent a postcard to say that the article hit her like a “bomb”.
I haven't given the book away hopefully. It just has to be read. It is, moreover, an adventure tale, like a trip into deepest South America might be. There is also a spiritual conclusion for the author vis-a-vis his own personal beliefs. Survivalists may find themselves taking notes, as the animal life and natural environment keep you wary and alert. Daniel says of the Pirahas:
“I would come to see them as one of the most resourceful and clever groups of survivalists anywhere in the world.”
Anthropologists will, no doubt, have a field day!
RHINO WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER BY ROSS O'GRADY KELLY
Ross' further adventures! In Hollywood, California!
In this latest installment, Ross has followed Sorcha to the West Coast where she is researching ideas for her boutique in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre. In the land of consumption, there is even greater scope for designer name-dropping while sipping lattés outside the Starbucks on Hollywood Boulevard.
Cillian, his wife's new partner, can't afford to relax with his new rival on the scene, and spends his time tearing his hair out back at the mansion, worrying over futures and derivatives, and banging on about how investors 'cavalier attitude to risk' will spell complete collapse of the world's financial markets. This he's telling Honor, Ross' three year old daughter.
What do the Americans make of our hero? They only put him in a reality TV show and get him a nose job! What's more, Fionnuala, his mother, is there promoting her novel, a bodice-ripper, which disgusts him. When he goes in for some therapy for self-control, his Yogi unlocks his potential, and he can't stop remembering disparate facts he learned for the Leaving Cert! Although wowed again by his own genius, this does nothing to prevent the impending disaster.
The cameras follow them to Las Vegas where Christian, his team mate from the Senior Cup 22, is opening a new casino. When he arrives in Vegas, Ronan, his Northside son, also a genius, is already there with his own bodyguard. He has a mathematical system to predict Roulette, and they are going to bring down the house. The shows director has fallen in love with Fionnuala, and they are planning to get married.....
Ferdia MacAnna says he laughed like a drain at this one. And I've got to hand it to you Ross. Even though you didn't make the Ireland squad, you've got consistency, in fairness to you!