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The Fields of Athenry: A Journey Through Irish History
The Fields of Athenry A Journey Through Irish History Author:James Charles Roy In The Fields of Athenry, James Charles Roy leads us through the Irish past and present with the central theme of his own personal experience with the renovation of a run-down castle -- really a crumbled tower -- that he purchased more than thirty years ago. Moyode Castle, located near the County Galway market town of Athenry, was built... more » in the sixteenth century by the Dolphins, an Irish-speaking family directly descended from French-speaking Norman adventurers who had invaded Ireland four centuries earlier. This old tower house and the rich agricultural lands it guards has witnessed every strand of Irish history, from the heroic exploits of Celtic warriors long celebrated by Yeats and Lady Gregory, through the Easter Rising of 1916 when IRA insurgents used the building as a lookout. .. Roy leads us to question what attracts us -- or perhaps more aptly him -- to the rubble of a castle from Irish days long past.« less