Originally assembled and written by John Edward Henry, with additions by his son Eamonn, Historic Tales of Mayo (History Press Ireland, £9.99) is an anthology of quirky jottings and reminiscences. Stories of people and places recall evictions and emigration, old charms and customs, rebellions and cross-country cart rides, many handed down through the oral tradition.
East Mayo was one of the last Irish strongholds of the custom of playing games at wakes. Some were trials of strength such as tug-of-war with a brush handle over a chalked line on the floor or jumping over and back across a stick while holding an end in each hand. As most farms had a flock of geese, a cross gander was feared by young children while one in the river Moy put foxes and stray dogs to flight.
Henry recalls the era of the bellmen, or town criers, who were the chief sellers of ballads and had sidelines in peddling matches, shoelaces, pins, needles and other household necessities to eke out a living. John Forde, who carried a bunch of oaten straw for which he charged his ballad customers a halfpenny each, gave them a free ballad saying, “I’ll sell my straw and I’ll defy the law”.
Renowned for its mountainous scenery, lakes and rivers, Mayo is also rich in heritage sites, public art and architecture. The diverse strands of its outdoor life are brought together in a lavishly illustrated book, Exploring Mayo by Bernard O'Hara (Killasser/Callow Heritage Society, €20).
The book divides the county into eight tours, including islands, and is designed around specific regions. From the Knockshanbally wedge tomb or the ruins of Cloonagashel Castle to the Aasleagh waterfall or the Great Western Greenway, there is much to appreciate. Many nuggets of information are scattered through this essential guide, best kept handy in the car glove compartment.
Eagles
Mayo is also famed for its wildlife, and Eagle Country by Seán Lysaght (Little Toller, £15) is a discursive quest into its inaccessible places. The author is a poet who has roamed all over the county, and other remote parts of the west, in search of areas where golden and sea eagles nested before their extinction in the early 20th century.
A lyrical and knowledgeable guide, he takes the reader across the mountain and bogland of Nephin and Mweelrea, into the cliffs and corrie lakes of Croaghaun on Achill, always with an eye for flora, birds or a secret beach. His search concentrates on the places associated with iolar, the Irish word for eagle, and throws up evocative names such as Droim Iolra (eagle ridge), Carraig an Iolra (eagle rock), or Barr Nead an Iorlaigh (the peak of the eyrie) all found in Mayo.
There is hope that following successful reintroduction programmes the birds may return, but unfortunately in Lough Derg this year the female eagle, Shannon, died of avian flu. At the end of his journey, which included parts of Cork, Kerry, Clare and Donegal, Lysaght was rewarded for his efforts when he saw a sea eagle flying to Lough Mask. There is a wealth of nods to his ornithological predecessors such as Caesar Otway, Lloyd Praeger and Robin Ruttledge, so a bibliography and index would have been welcome.
Pirates
In Ireland's Pirate Trail by Des Ekin (O'Brien Press, €16.99), a chapter is devoted to one of Mayo's most charismatic historical characters, Grace O'Malley, or Granuaile. On a road trip around the Irish coast, a wandering odyssey leads to what the author calls "Grania mania" where he debunks no fewer than seven myths about her. He dismisses the meeting between O'Malley and Queen Elizabeth as a "propaganda story" from the 1700s, saying it is "extremely unlikely" that they met, and suggests that cutting her hair pretending to be a boy is an invented myth.
A former journalist, Ekin is a concise writer who laces his work with humour but still manages to rigorously source the crucial details. On his trip, which takes in 30 locations, he uncovers new information seeing through the glamorising of these swashbuckling adventurers and revealing stories of lesser-known pirates whose bloodstained careers are forgotten.
Another female pirate, Anne Bonny, was a strong and determined woman from Kinsale, who was forced to emigrate, achieving notoriety all along the coast of the Caribbean as a piratical scourge of shipping. She married the pirate Calico Jack Rackham (believed to be the inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow) who was later hanged. Bonny too was sentenced to be executed but was paroled because she was pregnant, then reprieved and remarried going on to have another eight children.
Bonny had to disguise herself, dropping the final “y” from her surname. She chose the alias of Anne Bonn, which as the author points out, could thus have enabled her to say: “The name’s Bonn. Anne Bonn.”
