The Hurley Maker's Son
  • Published: 24 March 2016
  • ISBN: 9781473540361
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

The Hurley Maker's Son

Formats & editions
EBook
24 Mar 2016
Paperback
15 Mar 2017
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An evocative, lyrical memoir of grief, love and renewal.

Patrick Deeley's train journey home to rural East Galway in autumn 1978 was a pilgrimage of grief: his giant of a father had been felled, the hurley-making workshop silenced.

From this moment, Patrick unfolds his childhood as a series of evocative moments, from the intricate workings of the timber workshop run by his father to the slow taking apart of an old tractor and the physical burial of a steam engine; from his mother’s steady work on an old Singer sewing machine to his father’s vertiginous quickstep on the roof of their house. There are many wonderful descriptions of the natural world and delightful cameos of characters and incidents from a not-so-long-ago country childhood.

In a style reminiscent of John McGahern’s Memoir, Deeley’s beautifully paced prose captures the rhythms, struggles and rough edges of a rural life that was already dying even as he grew. This is an enchanting, beautifully written account of family, love, loss, and the unstoppable march of time.
  • Published: 24 March 2016
  • ISBN: 9781473540361
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256
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About the author

Patrick Deeley

Patrick Deeley was born in the townland of Foxhall, outside Loughrea, Co. Galway, in 1953. He has published six highly acclaimed collections of poems with Dedalus Press including Decoding Samara, The Bones of Creation, and Groundswell: New and Selected Poems. In addition his poems have appeared in many leading literary outlets in Ireland, UK, USA, Canada and Australia, been widely translated and won a number of awards. Patrick is married to the artist Judy Carroll Deeley and they have two children.

portrait photo of Patrick Deeley

Praise for The Hurley Maker's Son

A courageous and heartfelt work, a lament and an act of recuperation, deceptively artless and engagingly plainspoken.

George O'Brien, Irish Times

Gloriously poetic . . . Every sentence counts in this beautiful, evocative memoir. The prose shimmers. I adored it.

Sue Leonard, Irish Examiner

A wonderfully evocative memoir.

Sean O'Rourke, RTE Radio 1

Touching and poignant . . . Captivating . . . his rhythmic prose ensures you'll keep turning the page right to the end.

Irish Farmers Journal

Powerful remembrance of things past . . . very impressive.

RTE Guide

A delightful book written in poetic language.

Irish Catholic

A wonderfully visual and evocative book, written by someonewho really observes the world.

Connacht Tribune

Deeley’s memoir of his childhood in Galway is a moving, memorable elegy not only for his father but for a time of rural life now lost except in memory and in the words of an exceptional writer. Deeley’s bright, sharp style pays homage with humour and respect to dark times of aching grief and light days of redeeming love.

Saga Magazine

A lovely, melancholy account of an Irish country childhood . . . an elegaic glimpse of a time that's long gone.

Sunday Express

A glorious book, a perfect elegy, a gorgeous tumble of memories of life, death, love and, above all, family.The Hurley Maker's Son is suffused with warmth and joy and an ineffable sadness. The closing passages, like many in this book, are exquisite and almost unbearable.

Donal Ryan

There is something both eerie and deeply convincing about Deeley's re-inhabiting of the landscape that formed him, the family that shaped and nourished him. Every sentence rings true, like an axe biting into seasoned wood, a hurley striking the ball cleanly.

Theo Dorgan

Beautifully written.

Michael Harding

Affecting and important . . . a masterpiece of memoir-writing.

RTE Ten

A magnificent book . . . like the very best books, it creates an atmosphere that is entirely unique — an atmosphere that never really leaves you.

Irish Examiner