Tailor And Ansty: The Classic Banned Book from Ireland - Softcover

Eric Cross

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0853420505 ISBN 13: 9780853420507

Publisher: Mercier Press, 1986

Synopsis

In the townland of Garrynapeaka near Inchigeela in West Cork, Ireland, lived the Tailor, Tim Buckley, and his wife Ansty (Anastasia), two of the great characters of modern Irish life. Their Boswell, Eric Cross, made their acquaintance when he came to live for a few years in nearby beautiful Gougane Barra. He and many other people, including the Irish writer Frank OConnor who contributed the introduction to this volume spent many hours in the Tailors cottage or in his field with him as he watched the Cow. Although not wealthy in material things the Tailor himself had what was then called a withered leg since birth the Tailor and his wife possessed riches untold in their generosity, spirit and the gusto with which the Tailor, especially, lived his life. The two mottos which like him became famous were: The world is only a blue-bag. Knock a squeeze out of it when you can and Glac bog an saol agus glacfaidh an saol bog tú: Take the world fine and aisy and the world will take you fine and aisy. (Both the Tailor and Ansty were bilingual in Irish and English.)The Tailor and Ansty spoke frankly about all topics to do with human life, sometimes in a colourful or earthy way, and their comments on human relations and animal reproduction led to the book being banned for being in its general tendency indecent in one of the most shameful episodes of the de Valera era of censorship. The Tailor remained philosophical but Ansty was bewildered and bitterly upset. They are buried together in Gougane Barra, under a beautiful tombstone designed by Cork sculptor Seamus Murphy.

About this title

About the Author

Eric Cross was born in Newry, County Down, in 1905 and was educated as a chemical engineer. He is best known as the recorder of the life of the Tailor and his wife Ansty, who first made their appearance in print in The Bell in February 1941. Silence is Golden, a selection of stories and essays by Eric Cross, appeared in 1978. He died in 1980.

From the Back Cover

The Tailor and Ansty was banned soon after its first publication in 1942 and was the subject of much bitter controversy. It has become a modern Irish classic, promising to make immortal the Tailor and his irrepressible wife, Ansty, and securing a niche in Irish letters for their Boswell, Eric Cross. The Tailor never travelled further than Scotland, yet the breadth of the world could not contain the wealth of his humour and fantasy. All human life is here - marriages, inquests, matchmaking, wakes - and always the Tailor, his wife and their black cow.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

‘In the townland of Garrynapeaka, in the district of Inchigeela, in the parish of Iveleary, in the barony of West Muskerry, in the county of Cork, in the province of Munster’ – as he magniloquently styles his address, lives the Tailor. His small whitewashed cottage, with its acre of ground, stands at the brow of a hill, at the side of a road which winds and climbs into a deep glen of the mountains bordering Cork and Kerry. In the summer you will usually find the Tailor himself leaning up against the bank of the road, minding his one black cow. As you pass up the hill he will have watched you come and sized you up in his shrewd and kindly way. As he stands talking to you, helping you, pointing out this and that to you, you will scarcely believe that he has seventy-seven years put over him. The vigour of his body, in spite of the handicap of his crutch, the firm tones of his voice, the smile of his lively eyes, the thick head of silver hair, all belie the fact of the years. He will most likely invite you inside for a glass of buttermilk or a heat of the tea. Go with him. Let the beauties of Ireland wait. They will still be there when he has gone. Be, as he is, prodigal of time, and sit and listen to him. Forget the rest of your journey as the Tailor forgets the cow. Humanity matters more than either cattle or scenery. You have met a man – finished. Sit by his turf fire at night and learn how to practise his favourite precept – ‘Glac bog an saoghal agus glacfaidh an saoghal bog tú: Take the world fine and aisy and the world will take you

Edition details

• Publisher: Mercier Press
• Publication date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0853420505
• ISBN 13: 9780853420507
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 224