Cycling around Ireland in search of traditional music, a tin whistle in his saddlebag, David Wilson follows the coastline from Presbyterian Islandmagee to Gaelic Cape Clear and back up north from Dublin to Belfast. Ireland, a Bicycle, and a Tin Whistle takes us on a journey across wild open spaces and through crowded pubs and festivals that pulse with energy and life. This is the Ireland of fiddles, harps and flutes, butterflies on bog roads, Country-and-Irish songs, Ulster Fries, storytelling, yarn spinning, and jigs and reels to the crack of dawn.
Cycling around Ireland in search of traditional music, a tin whistle in his saddlebag, David Wilson follows the coastline from Presbyterian Islandmage...
After a tumultuous career as a revolutionary in Ireland and an ultra-conservative Catholic in the United States, Thomas D'Arcy McGee moved to Canada in 1857, where he became a force for moderation and the leading Irish Canadian politician in the country. Determined that Canada should avoid the ethno-religious strife that afflicted Ireland, he articulated an inclusive, broad-minded nationalism based on generosity of spirit, a willingness to compromise, and a reasonable balance between order and liberty. To realize his vision, McGee became a strong supporter of the "new northern nationality." A...
After a tumultuous career as a revolutionary in Ireland and an ultra-conservative Catholic in the United States, Thomas D'Arcy McGee moved to Canada i...
As he travels through the North, Wilson gets beneath the political surface to portray both the tragedy and comedy of everyday life in the Protestant and Catholic communities. Aware of the polarized image that each side has of the other, he emphasizes the importance of finding common ground and of asserting the middle against the extremes. Just as traditional Irish music is characterized by ornamentations and elaborations on a melodic theme, Ireland, a Bicycle, and a Tin Whistle is full of variations and wanderings on the theme of the trip itself. And just as traditional Irish musicians will...
As he travels through the North, Wilson gets beneath the political surface to portray both the tragedy and comedy of everyday life in the Protestant a...
In the mid-nineteenth century a group of Irish revolutionaries, known as the Fenians, set out to destroy Britain’s North American empire. Between 1866 and 1871 they launched a series of armed raids into Canadian territory. In Canadian Spy Story David Wilson takes readers into a dark and dangerous world of betrayal and deception, spies and informers, invasion and assassination, spanning Canada, the United States, Ireland, and Britain. In Canada there were Fenian secret societies in urban areas, including Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, and in some rural townships, all part of a...
In the mid-nineteenth century a group of Irish revolutionaries, known as the Fenians, set out to destroy Britain’s North American empire. Between 18...
