A Family History
I have always been curious about who I am. Although we are shaped by our environment, we are also products of our past. Our genes, the bases for our talents, aptitudes, intelligence and flaws, are inherited from our parents, who, in turn, took them from their parents, and so on. I began the research for this book before Who Do You Think You Are? came to our television screens, and before census, parish and other records became widely available online. Hours were spent in the National Library of Ireland, the National Archives and the Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths, and studying other primary and secondary sources. The result is what you will read in these pages.
The military figures on the front jacket are, on the left, Jimmy Dowling (IRA veteran of the War of Independence, 1919–21), in Irish Free State soldier’s uniform, and Francie Joe Sheridan, who served in the Parachute Regiment of the British army during the Second World War. They are, perhaps, fittings symbols of the centuries-long, complex relationship between Ireland and Great Britain. The wedding photo below represents the two family groups whose stories are told in this book.
SÉAMUS DOWLING
/ Author
Flowers that Bloometh
One of the 78-RPM records that my mother repeatedly played when I was young was Welsh tenor, Walter Glynn singing There is a Flower that Bloometh from Wallace and Fitzball’s Maritana.
The title of the song and the lines:
Oh pluck it ere it wither, ‘Tis the mem’ry of the past, came to me as I searched for a title for this work. I have kept neither diary nor journal; what follows are recollections – flowers still blooming in memory, plucked in my seventies and early eighties, ere they wither.
SÉAMUS DOWLING
/ Author
A History of Engineering at St James's Gate
St James’s Gate is synonymous with innovation in brewing technology. Since its foundation in the mid-eighteenth century, Guinness has been at the forefront of technological change in this area, in storage as logistics, as well as brewing itself. This meticulously researched history, illustrated with more than a hundred images from the Guinness Archive, and numerous line-drawings by the author, is the product of more than twenty years of work. It tells the story of engineering in the heart of Dublin over a period of two hundred and fifty years. In short, it is the definitive record of engineering at St James’s Gate.
Currently available exclusively from the Guinness Storehouse, St James’s Gate
MICHAEL BYRNE
/ Author