A Book about Going Away and Coming Back

It’s over thirty years since Dublin-born Felicity Hayes-McCoy came to Corca Dhuibhne, on a scholarship to learn Irish. She crossed the Conor Pass on a rattling bus, travelled on from Dingle town and stayed back west on Hurley’s farm at Kilcooley in Ballydavid.

'From the moment I crossed the mountain I fell in love. With the place, which was more beautiful than any place I’d ever seen. With the people I met there. And with a way of looking at life that was deeper, richer and wiser than any I’d known before. When I left I dreamt of clouds on the mountain. I kept going back.’

The House on an Irish Hillside is a memoir of the author’s life - from her Dublin childhood and first experiences of seanchas and béaloideas, sitting on her Galway granny’s bed, to a hectic career as an actress and writer in London and her return visits to Corca Dhuibhne where, twelve years ago, she and her husband found their own home, and contentment, in a remarkable house back west.  

‘There is something entirely Irish about her writing: fresh, daring, curious and blazingly beautiful. Whatever she turns her bright eye on comes alive: the soft wild country of Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula, old half-remembered stories, and the pattern of life in rural Ireland. As you read on you begin to believe that you own the house on the hillside, that you are part of the smoky circle of musicians, that the seaweed you spread on the earth will produce a fine crop of potatoes. Wise, funny and touching, this book is a portrait of friendships, customs and folklore of Ireland; but what stays with you is harder to catch, like smoke or running water. It is the taste of something we all once knew, ever-present if only you look for it. Completely enchanting.’     -   Joanna Lumley

For links to RTÉ Nationwide’s feature on The House on an Irish Hillside, the book’s Youtube traliler, stunning pix and more, checkout the book’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TheHouseOnAnIrishHillsideByFelicityHayesMcCoy