TWO WORKS, one a historical account of reactions to the Famine, another a historical novel set in Mayo, are to be launched in Galway.
Spellbound By Sibella, the debut novel by Paul B McNulty, will be launched in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop tomorrow at 6pm.
This historical novel, full of romance, witchcraft, and rebellion, portrays the turbulent liaison of Sir Harry Lynch-Blosse of Balla, Mayo, and Sibella Cottle, a woman with spellbinding powers. Sibella bore three boys and four girls by the seventh Baronet and lived with him, a practice that scandalised the local community.
A native of Tuam, Paul discovered this story when researching the genealogy of the Anglo-Norman Lynches who settled in Galway. Club Lighthouse CLP, Canada have published the book in print and e-book format.
The Famine was one of the most devastating humanitarian disasters of the 19th century. In only five years, Ireland lost 25 per cent of its population. How could such a tragedy have been allowed occur at the heart of the vast, resource-rich, British Empire?
This questioned is examined in Charity and The Great Hunger in Ireland by Christine Kinealy, and published by Bloomsbury, which will be launched by The Irish Times’ Fintan O’Toole in Kenny’s Bookshop, Liosbán, on Monday November 18 at 6pm.
The book focusses on the extent to which people throughout the world mobilised to provide money, food and clothing to assist the starving Irish, and considers how newspapers reported on the suffering.
