Joseph Riley
Joe Riley:
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My name is Joe Riley, and I was born in North Yorkshire in a small town sandwiched between Stockton and Middlesbrough on the Tees River, Thornaby on Tees. At an early age I was taken to the West Coast of Ireland and spent my childhood there. Being separated from my family has had a profound effect on my life. The west coast of Ireland is wild and rugged, its beauty is something special and it greatly influenced my autobiography (Life in Kilrush 1940/50s). Kilrush is a quaint rural town at the mouth of the Shannon Estuary. Like most towns in post-World War II Ireland, it was tired and worn from being on war’s periphery. I have no formal training as a writer and profess to be anything but my own perspective, there is no pretense with me, I am retired, eighty years of age.
My book is my experience of my life, it is a story of my childhood and that of a caring family who took the responsibility of a child who was not their own. A story so profound with happiness and at times sadness. A young English boy aged 4 years old abandoned in a small town on the West Coast of Ireland in 1945. A time when memories were fresh in the minds of people. Memories of the atrocities suffered by the Irish people by the Black and Tans English army. Upon reflection not a time for an English protestant to be abandoned in a culture steeped in hatred of the English. This is the story of a small boy in need of a mother and a mother who lost her son tragically wanting to fill that empty space in her life. How this lady adopted a child and treated him as one of their own.
The racist approach of the Christian brothers and how they treated a young boy who was a protestant from England, something that the brothers taught pupils, hatred of the English because Ireland was suppressed for 800 years by Britain.
I left Ireland and arrived in England at the age of 15 years of age into a strange family of many brothers and sisters some of them I had never met.
The Rock and Roll years were special, I played guitar and joined groups in the time of Merseyside domination of music in the late 50s and early 60s.
My nursing career started at Walton Hospital, Liverpool in 1962 and traveled the world as a director for American Medical International, eventually spending many years at Hospitals in UK, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and eventually made a family home in Melbourne, Australia.
Studied at Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd.
Degree in Education, Psychology, Anatomy, Physiology 1973 - 1976
• Grade: Honors
I came to the Philippines in 2000, divorced and remarried.
Set up a foundation for poor children and helped them through life.
These days I am a self-taught artist live on the Island of Boracay in Asia. Acrylic and Oil are my mediums of choice; I love the vibrancy and quick drying aspect of acrylic; it is a daily challenge to me when painting.
Living on a tropical island with coconut trees, white beaches, little island boats and outriggers, it is not difficult to find inspiration all around you. The sunsets on this magical island cannot be described by mere mortals, and when you see photos and images of it, you will wonder at the mystical magic of nature.
At age 80 I am content with what I have done and proud of my achievement’s, if others have issues with what I have done then it is there problem not mine
Latest book Life in Kilrush - by Joe Riley - YouTube
Ghost of Kilrush by: Joe Riley - YouTube
Beneath A Kilrush Sky Official - YouTube
Pope who was a Mason
Amazon.com: Pope who was a mason eBook : Riley, Joseph: Kindle Store
