Me: Let me just first
say what an honor and privilege it is to finally get a chance to interview you,
me.
Me – Indeed, thank you me – but don’t you mean “honour and
privilege” given that the UK spelling is used throughout the book?
Me: Of course – was it
difficult to keep the spelling consistent?
Me – Brutal – I never realised how many times I would have
to spell “harbour”.
Me: Not to mention realizing you would have to spell
“realised”.
Me- (Nodding head slowly)
Me: But anyway –
you’ve written a book – tell us how that happened.
Me – Well – I go through this in the introduction - a few
years back a group at work decided they were going to do the Ring of Kerry
cycle, which is a one day 180 kilometre ride.
I thought it sounded good when it was first suggested but then realised
that I was saying that I would hop on my bike and basically cycle from Dublin
to Galway.
Me: Wow – that’s
something that people in Ireland get – what about our U.S. audience.
Me – Pittsfield to Boston.
Me: Had you ever
cycled before?
Me- Sure, I used to have a bike when I was about 12.
Me: How far would you go?
Me – Usually from my house to the store.
Me: How far was that?
Me – Hmmm. Let’s see – about 200 metres.
Me: Seriously?
Me- OK – about 150 metres.
Me: So you were not what would be deemed an “experienced
cyclist”.
Me - Not experienced
– no, not experienced. Definitely
not. That would be a “no”.
Me: So you needed to
get back on the bike.
Me – Yeah – for a couple reasons, one, I wasn’t 100%
confident I knew the finer points of biking, like when to change gears. Second – I wasn’t sure that I would actually
be able to pull the ride off fitness wise.
Me: You mean the Ring
of Kerry?
Me – No – I meant the 150 metre ride to the store. I was 100% sure that I couldn’t do
Kerry. At least not yet.
Me: So how does this lead to a book about the Royal Canal?
Me – Well – I got a bike and started looking around for
places to train. If you’ve ever seen the
roads around Ireland – especially Dublin, they aren’t bike friendly. They are often actually bike unfriendly. Not an ideal place for a novice to try to re-learn
cycling, if they want to keep their head attached to their body.
Me: C’mon – they
can’t be that bad.
Me – Wanna bet? – this is a cycle lane in Dublin:
Me: Point taken – so
you went to the Royal Canal?
Me – I did – and it was the best move I ever made. The canal runs close to my house, is without
traffic, forces you to work hard through the grassy stretches while not being
too hilly. It was ideal for training.
Me: But why write
about it?
Me – Because in addition to being a great place to train I
kept running into things that made me ask questions. There was a plaque on one of the bridges that
told of 16 people being drowned at the spot back in the 1800’s. The canal is only about 20 feet across there –
I couldn’t understand why they drowned and wanted to find out how it could have
happened. There was a whole stretch of
the canal that was about thirty feet down below the path – it made no sense as
to why it would be dug that way. I wanted to find out why. There was this old tower out by Maynooth that
stood in the middle of a field – I was curious as to who would build that. And as I asked the questions and dug up the
answers I got more and more intrigued by the canal itself – why was it there,
how was it built, who kept it up – and, as with any trip – what is around the
next bend, and the next one – until I wanted to go the entire length.
Me: And why write about it?
Me – I’ve always liked to write – I do a lot of it at work
but that is usually fairly dry, and I’ll write an occasional blog article. I’d been wanting to write something longer
for years – I even started a book when we first moved over to Ireland.
Me: What was that
about?
Me – It was going to be an “American’s Guide to Irish
History” – I had the idea that I would focus on the things that Irish
American’s often got wrong – you know – like the fact that St. Patrick wasn’t
from Ireland, that the English were actually invited into Ireland way
back in the day (admittedly not something anyone regards as the best idea ever,
a bit like the first Trojan saying “Look, someone left us a horsey!”), that the
Blarney Stone legend really only extends back to the 1800’s and that much of
the rest of what they’ve heard is exactly that – blarney. I actually wrote several chapters before
events conspired to make me put it aside.
First – we decided to stay in Ireland, which meant I had to become
gainfully employed. Next, I went to Barnes
& Noble on one of my trips back to the States and saw about 15 other books,
just like mine, in the remainder aisle.
It was fairly obvious that the world didn’t need another book like that.
But the itch to write something was still
around. Once I started finding out about
the various aspects of the canal I found the hook I needed to make this book
different, to emphasize the “story” part of history, because, in addition to
being a guide that is what the book is – a collection of stories.
Me: Stories about
history?
Me – Some of it, sure.
I think there is probably a way to tie in to almost every aspect of
Irish history somewhere in the book.
Prehistory when I talk about what has been dug up out of the bogs along
the canal, the War of Independence when you go by Croke Park, the Irish aristocracy
when the canal passes Carton House, the English Pale, the Land League,
Ribbonmen, Daniel O’Connell, Charles Stewart Parnell – they all make
appearances. But not in linear,
chronological order, like most histories.
Instead each topic comes up where it fits in the journey down the canal,
and not all the stories are what would be considered classically “important” –
they’re just as likely to be an offbeat, unexpected or strange story that comes
up because it happened somewhere along the canal.
Me: What are some
examples of off-beat things you found?
Me- One of my favourite ones ties back in to where I grew
up. I’m from Western Massachusetts, a
very rural area. There are two towns out
there, right next to each other - one called Lenox, the other Richmond. While researching the book I found out that
the canal ends at “Richmond Harbour”.
When I checked to see where it got its name I discovered that it was
named after Charles Lennox, the Duke of Richmond. Originally I thought it was just a
coincidence – but it kept bugging me. So
I checked to see where the American towns of Lenox and Richmond got their names.
Me: Was it from the
same guy.
Me – Nope – it was his uncle – the prior Duke of
Richmond. Both towns were named after
him. It seems when Lenox split off from Richmond (somehow the spelling got
changed) they didn’t want to be “South Richmond” or something like that, but
they did want to continue to honour the same guy. So they named themselves after the family
name rather than the title. The people
in Richmond would tell you they’re named after a Duke – but the people in Lenox
are just named after some guy named Charlie.
Me: Perfect - but why would American towns be named after
a British Duke?
Me – Well – this particular Duke was the strongest and most
vocal supporter of American independence in the British parliament – so strong
he was called the “radical Duke”. The
townspeople in Massachusetts obviously appreciated the effort. It seems that other people did as well – when
they went through his papers a few years ago they found an old parchment that
had been partially eaten by a mouse. It
turned out to be one of the original printed copies of the Declaration of
Independence. Someone had sent him the
copy and it sat around in a folder somewhere
in England until it was rediscovered. That story is in the book.
Me: Cool – why did
they name the harbour after his nephew?
Me – The nephew had a government job and they wanted to get
some money out of him.
Me: Got it – some things
never change. So is it just history that
these stories are about?
Me – No – look – you can’t write a guidebook these days that
is just about how far it is from point A to B, or who things are named
after. Not because those things aren’t
important - they are - but pretty much everyone carries a guidebook that’ll do
that in their back pocket nowadays. It’s
called a smart phone – and with Google and its maps they can cover all those
details. What the phone can’t do is tell
you a ghost story (the book has that), or discuss what constitutes the world’s
funniest joke (according to an academic study), or talk about the Red Sox,
friendship, repeat journey’s, Presidential rodeos, why not having to worry
about traffic can lead to remembering eclipses, Tom Jones, Jack Nicholson,
Irish political parties, why you shouldn’t have to pay a tax on your damn
water, Annie Oakley’s husband, the greatest mile relay ever run or any of the
sorts of things that make this a book not just about where you should go
down the canal – but why you should go down the canal.
That all comes up in the book - and while you can cycle the canal now there are still some fairly rough patches. If the government would just finish the damn greenway that's been promised there would be a fully complete natural destination available for people to come to Ireland and experience the same sort of thing for themselves. Like I say in the book - it would be a "bucket list" ride for people who like that sort of thing. And there are a lot of people who like that sort of thing.
Me: OK – that’s quite
a rant.
Me – Sorry. I’ll shut
up now. Hope you enjoy the book.
"Along the Banks - Cycling Ireland's Royal Canal" is due for publication within weeks. Stay tuned for more details.
"Along the Banks - Cycling Ireland's Royal Canal" is due for publication within weeks. Stay tuned for more details.
