The House on an Irish Hillside: A Memoir

I loved this book. She captures the essence of Irish society and put into words things I couldn't get my finger on when I lived them. It made me want to go back to Ireland and explore the back road and spend more time there. I was fortunate enough to live there a decade or so ago and it was life changing. It makes me thinkg an extended stay over a summer to get the feel of daily life again is the right idea.

Neilli Muiris is my Mother's first cousin; their Mothers were sisters. "Lis" was my Mother's niece, daughter of my Mother's sister, Mary (Hoare) Moriarty, whose daughter Treasa married Maurice Leahy from Cuas; their son, Father Breandan Leahy was consecrated and installed on 14 April 2013 as the new Bishop of Limerick, Ireland. My Mother, Elizabeth (Hoare) Kennedy spent her holidays with "Lis" and her husband "Con" O'Sullivan in Tig Neilli Muiris; I often visited there when Neilli and Paddy lived there: Mother and I often visited Neilli in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Dingle, when Neilli first went to hospital and just before she died.I have written to Felicity Hayes-McCoy at Tig Neilli Muiris and enclosed photocopies of photos I snapped on my many visits to Dingle, Ballyvoheen, Ballyferriter, and to Gortadoo, where I spent the summer of 1951, with my aunt and uncle, Mary and Denis Moriarty. I sailed on the "Georgic" (Cunard Line) to and from Cobh and New York, upon my graduation from Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts, where I grew up in an Irish-speaking home! Upon returning from that ocean voyage, I entered the Seminary to begin my studies for the Priesthood. I was in constant correspondence with Neilli Muiris and with my Aunt Mary Hoare Moriarty. The book "The House on an Irish Hillside" brings back so many wonderful memories. I am 80 years "young" now and retired from active priestly ministry. I hope, God willing, to fly to Ireland next summer (2015) with a Priest-friend and take him to see "Tig Neilli Muiris" and, hopefully, to meet Felicity Hayes-McCoy. Father Ed Kennedy

This book describes the author’s gradual transition from London city to Irish country living as she and her husband find and remodel a traditional house in a wild and remote part of Ireland that echoes the past and enfolds memories, myths and old stories of people, places and events into everyday life. As the couple work on making their additional house meet their present needs, they become friends with their neighbors and develop new skills while creating a balance between work and play, the past and the present. Over the years both the author and her husband create a more satisfying life as they develop a deeper, richer relationship with a very specific place and community. This is a gentle, careful, and unassuming account of finding a simple, unique and fulfilling lifestyle that is its own reward.The author writes beautifully, crafting several prose passages that are to be savored if not committed to memory. Her descriptions of landscape and place are fresh and evocative. Her knowledge of Celtic history, myth and folklore is extensive and artfully woven through her experience. This is a lovely book.

Excellent memoir of life on the Dingle Peninsula, explaining the Celltic world view. Lovers of Irish will appreciate this!! Fine writing!

The writing is beautiful, the perspectives insightful and gentle, and the depiction of Back West, Dingle captures what is quintessentially the spirit of the Celtic people. I love the palpable power of place I experience in Ireland. This book captures it better than any I have read.Just 2 weeks ago, I came upon a reading/gathering led by Felicity in a Dingle bookstore. She, her husband, and neighbors were as genuine in person as in her book. They conveyed story, music, and love of place in person as she had in the book. The event was the highlight of my Dingle experience. I sent out messages that " you must read this book" to everyone I know.I savored the author's phase "memory and possibility" as I traveled throughout Ireland. Yet, one does not have to have visited Ireland to enjoy this book, It stands on its own as a story of a couple finding a place to ground themselves in beauty, community and story. In other words, I loved this book.Jeanne Crane, author of Celtic Journey, A Wee Journey to the Heart of It All.

Loved this book, its charm, and its insight into a way of life that could be easily longed for. I thoroughly enjoyed The House on the Irish Hillside, and actually traveled to Dingle in May 2015. I have always loved Dingle, but Felicity Hayes McCoy's lyrical style and gentle respect for the area and its people enchanted me. Upon arrival, I found myself looking out the bus window and seeing clearly through the raindrops what she saw. Luckily, that Friday at the Dingle Distillery, her new book Enough is Plenty was launched, and I had an opportunity to meet her. She is simply as lovely as her words! I have now read Enough Is Plenty as well and strongly recommend it to anyone wishing a beautifully written and illustrated trip through the seasons of the year on the Dingle Peninsula, an antidote to our too-often hurried and stressful lifestyle.

I really enjoyed this book because it reminds me of the way i felt on my first trip to Ireland. It was a reminder to reconsider priorities in life and achieve balance. When her hostess told her she was welcome, it brought a few tears to my eyes because i remebered a similar situation. On our 3rd day, we arrived to our b&b and the hostess greeted us by saying we were welcome! at the end of our stay, we hugged goodbye like we were leaving family. I've been struggling for years with school and work and lost sight of what was really important until i spent a week in Ireland and found peace.

This is just THE BEST, the nicest, the most enjoyable 'auto-biography' I have ever read, even though it only really covers the move to Ireland in any depths. I may have loved it more than the actual novels, but maybe only 'as much but in a different way'. I love these "A Year in Provence" style stories where the writer moves to and gets involved in a much more rural environment and community. Annie Hawes's 'Extra Virgin' series would be another great example. To a degree they match our own story of living the dream, but I am in awe of Felicity Hayes-McCoy's ability to tell the tale. The back cover sums it up well - with the Irish Independent's comment "a style that's poetic but not showy, finely honed but easy and unforced". I love the way the story builds. The author leads us through her early contacts and fumbling beginner experiences, introducing us gently to the characters, places, social events and locally important culture, all the more richly for her fluency in Irish. I have no Irish (perhaps I should say 'had') but by the end of the book I am seeing Dingle peninsula written as Corca Dhuibhne and my ear is hearing "curk-uh-gwee-nuh". Her house is now "Tí Neillí Mhuiris" to me and I know how to say that and I know how the place got it's name. I love, too, her descriptions of things seen and heard as she wanders about and the little memories or stories we get throughout the build-up, so that by the end a paragraph is just the author reminiscing and listing memories each as a simple phrase. We remember and know them all as if we were there; the voices and greetings at the door, Louis singing by the window, The jokey argument about yeast-buying, the sheepdog sneaking off with a crab-claw, the cat that ate cabbage and so on. Thank you so, so much, Felicity.

In this book the author has developed her refined and detailed attention to the written word. That only comes about with years of study. The Irish language was developed to be spoken, it is culturally rich and expressive and difficult to write about as it reflects a people who still live as well as a people who have passed on.I found, in this read, the author re-introduced me to my heritage, bringing to life the legends and incorporating them into everyday sightings ... bringing her own experiences alive with the use of Hiberno English without the 'diddly diddly' and weeping of 'hard times'!We know times were hard, they still are, but in a different way. What Felicity Hayes-McCoy does is to show you how to appreciate your surroundings, learn from your ancestors, and re-learn to love Ireland all over again.Beautifully crafted wordsmith, generous in her appreciation of others and a love of her surroundings makes this book one of my all time favourite reads, in fact I appreciated it so much I'm going to the place she writes about to see it all with a fresh perspective.In my own humble opinion, if an author can make me want to travel a hundred miles just to see something I've already seen - that's a gift. It's her gift to her reader, it's like she says "Here, have a closer look" ... and I will.If you're Irish it's a must read, if you have Irish connections, it's a must read.If you're not Irish and have no interest in Ireland at all .... it's a must read!

Bought this on another visit to the stunning West of Ireland peninsula Hayes-McCoy (and husband) decide to live in and attempt to learn more about, from its history to present day. The location subject is a place of awesome natural beauty and spiritual depth which can, (and does), use its magic to draw one back to it, time after time. Undoubtedly, one can feel some spiritual connectivity with all life, past and present, in this place, and the writer gets in touch with the peninsula's "otherness" quite well. Enjoyed the book, despite some passages of repetition in the narrative. My criteria for books of note is, "Am I willing to lend this to anyone?" (...for fear of it not being returned). All I can recommend is that you get your own copy!

For those of us with connections to Ireland, we have seen and met so many of these country folk heard their stories of times gone and all the people who lived in what were really quite harsh conditions. Babies born who didn't survive and have no marked graves.,and Oh the stories much laughter and tears. How lovely to put it down on paper lets hope future generations appreciate their heritage.

This book is a sheer delight. It's a wise and meditative love letter to the Dingle peninsula and its people and its past. Joanna Lumley's review (above) brilliantly catches the spirit of the book and its enchantment. The author has developed a special archeology of local life: she traces the way that the values and aspirations of past generations are still inscribed in the countryside and the stones. Stories and tunes waft into the book accross the eons through the fragile and partial memories of individuals. But this writing shows how resilient the collective memory can be. Oral fragments of thoughts, wishes, myths, courtesies and past kindnesses are carried by the songs, the sayings, the homes, the worn paths, the recipes, the cups of tea, some strands of seaweed. She manages to capture in print some of the best of Ireland's unique character.Anyone interested in the power of tradition to enhance and enrich everyday life, anyone fascinated by the way a people's culture develops, how each of us is related to our community, our time and our place will love the observations, insights and lyricism of this writing. Curiosity, kindliness, and at times a waspish wit - a delicious combination of flavours!Reading this gem of a book is truly a sentimental education. I felt so much better equipped to read the sounds, signs and even the silences of the world back west which I went to visit immediately after finishing the book - and the experience was so much enriched by this author's thoughtful and funny perspective. She is deeply appreciative of what she has seen and enjoyed, and this book will be warmly appreciated in turn by its readers.