We are delighted to have in stock copies of Klaus Laitenberger’s book “Vegetables for the Irish Garden”. The author is well known to gardening enthusiasts from his work as Head Gardener at the Organic Centre in Co. Leitrim, and his restoration of the garden at Lissadell House, Co. Sligo.
He has distilled his knowledge of the craft of vegetable growing into this volume. “Vegetables for the Irish Garden” is a handsomely illustrated book and is full of advice and tips tailored specifically to gardeners working in our Irish climate.
Expert vegetable gardener Joy Larkcom has descibed the book as “…an invaluable source of information for vegetable growers here – novices and experienced alike…”
“Vegetables for the Irish Garden” is published by Milkwood Farm Publishing and is available from Scéal Eile Books at €14.95.
Phone and e-mail enquiries are welcome!
We can be contacted on 065 6848648 or at scealeilebooks@gmail.com
“Vegetables for the Irish Garden” by Klaus Laitenberger
July 31st, 2010Books on County Clare, Ireland, History and People
July 13th, 2010Are you looking for a specific history book on County Clare?
Do you have ancestors from this area?
Would you like to discover more about them, the way of life they would have lead, the folk tales they would have told, their history, dancing and music?
We can help!
We stock a wide range of books about County Clare – these books cover a diverse range of topics from History through to Folklore and Folk-ways, dance, song and anecdote.
Whether you are looking for a paticular book or would like guidance on which books would help you to uncover the story of your ancestors, we can share our knowledge with you.
Contact us via scealeilebooks@gmail.com , phone (00353656848648) or browse our selection of books on County Clare here.
Good luck with your journey into the past!
“Outsider : The Life and Times of a Latter Day Hunter Gatherer” by Del Harding
July 8th, 2010“This book is not for the politically correct.
Nor is it for the po-faced, the nit-pickers, or the followers of the ‘straight and narrow’.
On the other hand, the free spirits among us will welcome it, the older ones with nostalgia, the younger with envy. So also will the lovers of the wild places, the anglers and the outdoorsmen. It is a book for the dreamer, the armchair adventurer, but also for the realist for whom the feel of rain on the face, wind in one’s hair and tang of the sea is the very breath of existence. It is for all those who value the freedom to be who you are without the constraints of society’s straitjacket of conformity.
It is a book of the countryside, fishing, nature, dogs, hunting and survival, but above all it is the true story of a small boy, born a hundred years too late, stubbornly refusing to accept the parameters of the society in which he is growing up. It is a tale of crazy adventures, some hair-raising, some hilarious, concomitant with a footloose lifestyle. It is the story of an ‘outsider’.
A word of warning: don’t let your teenage son read this book, or likely one fine morning he will be gone, his fishing rod and sleeping bag missing, and a note on the mantelpiece, ‘See you in a couple of years – maybe’.
· Have you ever fallen off a 300 ft cliff and survived?
· Have you ever caught a rapist/murderer?
· Have you ever been in a sinking boat at night, miles from solid land?
· Have you ever trodden on a golden eagle?
· Have you ever eaten a mouse, or a fox, or a coypu?
· Have you ever stalked a black panther, or a red deer stag?
· Have you ever survived on shellfish and seaweed for weeks on end?
· Have you ever lived in a cave? Or a windmill? Or slept out under the stars in midwinter?
· Did you ever hitch-hike 40 miles carrying a dead swan over your shoulder?
The author has. It’s all in the book”
Eddie Lenihan – Storyteller.
May 11th, 2010In these days of deepest gloom and doom, when the radio or television can’t be turned on for fear of hearing about the recession, a volcano eruption or (perhaps strangest of all!) an earthquake in West Clare, what better way to escape than into the magical world of our oldest form of entertainer – the ’seanchaí’ (or traditional storyteller)?
For many years now, Eddie Lenihan has been recognised as Ireland’s greatest living seanchaí.
His stories open a window into our imaginative inner world – where we are suddenly and miraculously free from the baggage of the inane and everyday; where the rules of physics and rationality don’t apply – time can expand accordian-like, transforming a day into years, reducing a lifetime to minutes. It is a world where the rules don’t apply; where things happen in threes, in sevens or multiples of these magical numbers; where beautiful and grostesque creatures live side-by-side – or indeed inside the same skin ; where children can be transformed into goblins and old women into beautiful maidens; where the the stream that seperates dreams from nightmares has been muddied; and nothing is as it seems.
This is the realm of Eddie Lenihan.
Within minutes of opening one of his books, the mundane world around us fades and we cross the treshold into his world. It is less escapism, and more of a return to an imaginative landscape we inherited from our ancestors. An experienced not to be missed!
Eddie Lenihan regularly tells stories in Scéal Eile Books, in front of a blazing fire.
He currently has nine books in print – popular titles include “Meeting the Other Crowd – The Fairy Stories of Hidden Ireland” , “In Search of Biddy Early”, “In The Tracks of the West Clare Railway”, “Irish Tales of Mystery and Magic” (beautifully illustrated by Alan Clarke) , “The Devil is an Irishman”, “Strange Irish Tales for Children” and “Long Ago by Shannonside” - signed copies are available of all of these titles from Scéal Eile Books, Market St., Ennis or from our online store. A personalised signed copy can be sent on request.
Three Cds are currenly available which showcase Eddie’s inimitable style of storytelling – “Storyteller 1 & 2″ (Double Cd), “Fionn MacCumhail and the Púca / Fionn MacCumhail and the Dark Pool” (Double CD), “Saint Patrick was a Gentleman”.
Launch of “Sliabh Aughty Ramble” – by Gerard Madden
April 14th, 2010I was delighted to be invited to the launch of a new book on County Clare last week.
Ger Madden is a well-known local historian. His previous titles include “A History of Tuamgraney and Scariff Since Earliest Times” , “History of the O’Maddens of Hy-Many” and “History of the O’Gradys of Clare and Limerick” (a book which, incidentally, was presented to Muhammad Ali from the stock of Scéal Eile Books on his visit to Ennis last year- in the hopes that his family would have some interest in reading about his O’Grady roots in Co Clare!)
Entitled “Sliabh Aughty Ramble”, Ger Madden’s latest offering is an ode to the East of County Clare, as the title suggests.
The book is sub-titled “Musings on the folklore, history, landscape and literature of the Sliabh Aughty region” – written in a casual, conversational tone Ger Madden takes us day-by-day on a yearlong journey through a landscape he truly is an expert on. It is a book peppered with historical fact as well as images, anecdotes and information about the local flora and fauna – not to mention the distinct local characters who have inhabited the area! Wide-ranging in scope, this guide captures the distinct flavour of East Clare – a part of the world which has long been overlooked in favour of celebrated West Co Clare.
In the words of the author himself:
“A wealth of historical, archaeological, spiritual and visual surprises await the adventurous traveller in this forgotten country. It is a magical, mystical and mysterious place, part of a unique cultural landscape that has not been lauded by many poets, painters, travel writers or composers. It is not promoted or referred to in tourism brochures and even the cartographers have on occasion omitted it from maps…”
Let’s hope that with the help of this guide, the first of its kind, the mountainous region will be discovered for the first time by many intrepid travellers, and indeed rediscovered by people closer to home.
Sliabh Aughty Ramble costs 20 euro and is available to buy instore from Scéal Eile Books, and online at our abebooks store.
Thoughts on the Riches of Ireland
March 9th, 2010” Our object in building up the country economically must not be lost sight of. That object is not to be able to boast of enormous wealth or of a great volume of trade for their own sake. It is not to see our country covered with smoking chimneys and factories. It is not to show a great national balance sheet, nor to point to a people producing wealth with the self-obliteration of a hive of bees. The real riches of the Irish nation will be the men and women of the Irish nation the extent to which they are rich in body and mind and character. “
- Michael Collins
Ré Ó Laighléis and Fred Johnston Read Multi-lingually in Scéal Eile Books – Ennis Bookclub Festival 2010
March 8th, 2010Ré Ó Laighléis reads at Scéál Eile Books
This clip features Ré Ó Laighléis reading from “The Great Book of the Shapers” as part of the Ennis Bookclub Festival, 6-8th March 2010. Fred Johnston also read at this event which was tri-lingual: English – Gaeilge – Francais. A big thank you to both authors for providing a most lively and interesting afternoon’s entertainment in Scéal Eile Books!
You can read more about this event by following the links below:
A New Decade, A Blank Page
January 5th, 2010One good thing about facing into the New Year is that we are all in the same boat: between the past- and future-tense, in the dead centre of nowhere, held transfixed in liminality.
To be honest, I’ve always felt comfortable being in this liminal state, I like the chance to rethink my old patterns, to distance myself from the thread of mundane routines and thoughts that hold my days together throughout the rest of the year. It’s a rare opportunity to take stock, re-evaluate and attempt to scry into the new year, see what fortune it could bring. The borderland between the old and the new year is a place ripe with hopes, wishes, dreams and fears.
The traditional Irish New Year was Samhain, October 31st – modern Hallowe’en. One of the many rituals was to drive the livestock towards a bonfire, forcing them to leap through time/space from the old year into the new. This was thought to secure their health and well-being in the New Year, fire was considered a purifying element. I hope that this transition into 2010 has burned away all the bad, grim elements of 2009 and that we land square on a blank page of possibilities!
I hope that 2010 brings more magic, laughter and happiness into all of our lives, more kindness, dreams, love and wisdom, lots of wonderful books, and the chance to curl up with them!
Chapter One : I am born!
June 12th, 2009Or: a blog is born. I myself was not born today. Or even yesterday. Although in the world of books, it does often feel that way, there is so much to learn that it’s dizzying.
In fact, myself and my father opened our bookshop doors to the public over three years ago now. We are based in Co Clare in the west of Ireland, and we sell second-hand books, rare books, new books of local interest and any interesting book or book-related object that we can get our hands on! Since that autumn day in September 2006, we have been (literally) up to our eyes in books- living, breathing, dreaming them (more on the dreams later….). And now can’t imagine being any other way.
This blog is an attempt to record the happenings in Scéal Eile Books, the treasures we find, the characters we encounter and what we learn when our noses are in a book and outside of one.