Toibin, Colm

London. 1987. Macdonald/Queen Anne Press. 1st British Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0356128865. Photos by Tony O'Shea. 159 pages. hardcover. . Inscribed by the Author. keywords: Travel Ireland Photography . FROM THE PUBLISHER - In June 1986, Colm T6ibin set off from the city of Derry to walk the breadth of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Walking Along the Border is the record of that journey, a very personal encounter with the landscape, the towns, and the people of the country, on both sides of the border. Toibin's journey takes in an idyllic boat trip on Lough Erne, and a religious pilgrimage to Lough Derg, as well as miles of coping with sore feet and rain-soaked clothes through a quiet and often desolate landscape of hills and bogland. Along the way, Toibin met and talked to clergy, politicians, ordinary working people and small farmers who complained about the bad weather . But most of all he listened — to the stories of the hiring fairs, to the accounts of death, destruction and bitterness prevalent in a land economically deprived and politically divided. For the Twelfth of July Toibin was in Fermanagh, and in Clones on the night of Barry McGuigan's defeat, where despite failure the Irish passion for a hero was seen to be undiminished. His travels led him from a music festival in Donegal to a housing estate in Crossmaglen, before the final walk towards the sea at Warrenpoint and the end of the border. Colm Toibin's account of a journey at times difficult, at times dangerous, at times joyful, is both moving and funny, written with an insight matched only by Tony O'Shea's specially commissioned photographs. inventory #16118 ISBN: 0356128865.