Last of the Donkey Pilgrims - Hardcover

O'Hara, Kevin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765309831 ISBN 13: 9780765309839

Publisher: St Martin's Press, 2004

Synopsis

Some people search for the truth of their lives in their families and in their past. Some go back to their roots in an effort to discover who the people were who helped shape their lives. Kevin O'Hara did just that. A Vietnam vet, Kevin was left with unanswered questions and a gaping hole in his heart. So he went home, home to Ireland. Not the place of his birth, but his mother's homeland. He went to try and sort out the sort of man he was and try to find a way back. Kevin's journey began as a mad lark: who in the world would convince themselves that they could circle the entire coastline of Ireland in a donkey cart. Along the way, Kevin meets some of the more colourful examples of Irish wit, humour, (and temper), and through adversity, sheer folly, and some joy, finds out just the sort of fellow he'd become.. And the man he could be. Told with humour and love, The Last Of The Donkey Pilgrims is a book for those who need to make the journey of the soul.. And those who wish they could.

About this title

Review

"One of the finest books about contemporary Ireland ever written...In a style evocative of Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, O'Hara writes memorably of his most unusual way of touring his ancestral home of Ireland." --Library Journal

"A witty, whimsical walk around an Ireland before the 'Celitc Tiger' of the European Union found its economic legs, before the roads were improved, and before battalions of Audis and Mercedes replaced the donkey carts, farmers, and unhurried pedestrians of another day." --Boston Globe

"A delightful book to be enjoyed by everyone on a life pilgrimage." --Catholic Library World

"Kevin O'Hara is neither a madman nor a saint; he is an original. The story he tells will be an inspiration to any person who has ever tried to patch a broken life." --Morgan Llywelyn

"Skillful piece of travel-writing; like the Irish fog, it's both glowing and lightly pushed by an unacknowledged melancholy." --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Kevin O'Hara is the author of Last of the Donkey Pilgrims, an autobiographic telling of his travels around the coastland of Ireland with his beloved donkey Missy. He also wrote a memoir--A Lucky Irish Lad--detailing his experience growing up as an Irish-American in the shadow of the Second World War. A psychiatric nurse for more than 25 years, O'Hara still resides in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the place to which his parents emigrated.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0765309831
• ISBN 13: 9780765309839
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400