The editor of Ireland of the Welcomes casts a wide net in her task of presenting this country to the world at large - including its own people. The magazine is cunningly composed to lure the tourist in, of course, but it also gives the home reader a new impetus to go out and see what lies around him or her, often bringing the thought: "Why haven't I been to see that before?" For example, there is in the July/August edition an article by Turlough Breathnach on Willie Pearse, brother of Patrick and a teacher at St. Enda's school in Rathfarnham, now a museum. He taught art there. Two of his sculptures are well reproduced here, one being Mabel Gorman, his loved one. A good place to walk and think, St. Enda's Park, Rathfarnham. But, more to the business of getting tourists to come to this country. An article "Our Irish Coastline" by Jo Kerrigan, with photographs by Richard T Mills, who has an eye for beauty and the unusual. We have a sandy beach that appears to stretch forever, we have slightly daft-looking birds - puffin and chough, caught beautifully, and all complementing the writer's zest for the wildlife and the wild coasts. There are little white cottages and in the summer "the crimson of the fuchsia can transform an entire stretch of road into a dramatic stage set.".
The Willie Clancy summer school is about to begin, and Teresa Jennings gives it its due and of course, lovely pictures. J. P. Donleavy is visited in his home near Mullingar by Patrick Byrne and the author of The Ginger Man and many other novels gives us this nugget of wisdom: "I've always interpreted fame as being the fact that you're in a pub somewhere drinking and three other people in your company know who you are." Good lively stuff, in which he mentions two recent novels of his: Wrong Information is Being Given Out at Princeton and The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms.
There is a huge spread on Raymond Piper and his paintings of orchids. His first wild orchid he found on Cave Hill, Belfast. But his ability to find the Fly Orchid in Clare (he stopped the car 13 times and always was beside one) led his friends to say: "Are ye in league with the angels?" A magnificent feature. Alf McCreary wrote the words. The photos by Brian Lynch. Abbeyleix is given a great show. More another day. Y