Description
Our 13th Anthology now on sale
40 of the best stories and memoirs featured
THE 13th Ireland’s Own Anthology of Short Stories and Memories 2022 has been published, and it includes 40 winners and highly commended entries from almost 500 participants in the long-running Ireland’s Own magazine writing competitions.
The stories cover many facets of Irish life, including the perennial recurring themes of bereavement, emigration, the love of home, and often complicated tales of romance.
The memoir pieces recall old time street fairs, the cat who upset a champion baker, old time wakes, a letter to radio agony aunt, Frankie Byrne, chats with a 102 years old mother, a special mission to the Child of Prague, etc. The major winners included in the book are: Overall Short Story: Proper Bread and Other Vittles, by Seamus O Garabhain from Foxford, Co. Mayo. A young lad living on the family farm was constantly reading and daydreaming about the Wild West and a trip with their red-roan mare allowed him to give full rein to his imagination.
Memories: Learning the Rules by Brian Togneri from Co. Down, tells of his first experience of the 12th of July parades which he found exciting and colourful but also confusing as he was too young and innocent to understand the unwritten rules that governed the occasion.
Beginners Short Story: Past Present by Carina Dunne, Rathfarnham, Dublin, who draws on her experience of working in nursing homes to tell a touching tale about a woman in the throes of Alzeimers and dementia who recalls fragments from her past life but can make little sense of her current reality.
The inaugural Frank McDonald Memorial Prize was won by Patrick Doherty from Two-Mile-Borris, Tipperary, for his memoir, A Grafted Rose, in which he reflects on his long life, 70 years of which he shared with his beloved wife, Nora. Sadly, both Paddy and Nora passed away earlier this year and his family wished to go ahead with publication as a poignant tribute to their memory.
The Foreword is contributed by one of Ireland’s best known writers, Colm Tóibin, international best-seller and multi-award winner. His ‘The Blackwater Lightship’, was made into a film starring Angela Lansbury and ‘Brooklyn’, partly set in his native Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, was winner of the Costa Novel of the Year and became a successful film starring Saoirse Ronan.
On sale now.