‘Characters’ being sought for book

A book featuring an interview with the late Ennistymon man PJ Davis has been shortlisted for this year’s Irish Book Awards.

Vanishing Ireland – Further Chronicles of a Disappearing World, has been shortlisted for the IES Best Irish Published Book of the Year Award 2010.
Author and historian Turtle Bunbury spoke with the North Clare car mechanic and steel worker two years ago. Born in 1924, PJ passed away last year.
“We literally found PJ by walking around looking for people with interesting faces. I ended up sitting on a wall chatting to PJ. He was that old-style approachable gentleman. He was welcoming and told us about his life working in England and to be honest I was hoping to get back to meet him again,” said Mr Bunbury this week.
Turtle’s interest in listening to older people recount their lives developed at a young age. He began his interviews in Carlow, where he lives.
“I interviewed a couple of local people. Then a couple of them died so I realised how important it was to have these verbal records of people lives. I was glad to have them because the information is very valuable. Then I decided to go on a road trip to the West.
“I had often been there and often ended up in bars talking to old men in caps and really loving it. It was a case of doing that and trying to make a career out of it,” he recalled.
Indeed Clare, and North Clare in particular, proved a rich source of ‘characters’.
“In Clare, it was a word of mouth thing. We started with Robbie McMahon for the first volume. When one person does it they recommend it and you go onto the next character. Clare has such a huge number of these great characters. At first we were just looking for old bachelors, then we moved onto include married men and then I thought ‘what are we doing? What are we missing out on?’ by not including women,” he remembered.
Turtle has already begun work on the third in the Vanishing Ireland series and would love to hear from Clare people with suggestions.
“If readers have any ideas for people with good stories, we would love to come down and meet men and women in their late 70s, 80s and 90s. Just email me at history@turtlebunbury.com,” he concluded.
To vote for Vanishing Ireland to win the Irish Book Awards or to read some of Turtle’s interviews log on to www.turtlebunbury.com.