Daffodils and other spring bulbs are pushing forward with the winter sun–what a difference from last year’s snow.The sun is shining beautifully on the lake, Heres hoping for a warmer spring and summer to come

Lough Rynn Blackberries, my flowers and Apple & Blackberry Jams

I I am so pleased that my jams were enjoyed by my guests with fresh scones

 

Liz's water feature as demonstrated by Vinnie & Carina

We had Vinnie & Carina staying from Dublin and here they are showing a water feature I received as a present from Liz! A lovely addition as the flow of water is very relaxing to listen to as we gaze over the deck to the lake

Phil and Steve recording in our HallMe and my little 'baby'

Steve and Mark

Our son Mark and Steve a fellow band member were down for a few days with their friend and producer Philip to record a few songs .

The weather was pleasant and there was often a guitarist wandering about the garden. The beauty of our place is they could make as much noise and of course music as they liked without disturbing anyone.

Also this week-end we were entertained with a spectacular fireworks display. It lasted about 20 mins and we had a great view from our deck and it lit up the whole lake. Thank you to those who arranged it.

Laura Lake

The road from Mohill to Laura Lake (also known as Laragh Lake but appearing on maps as Rowan Lake – such are the local ways!) begins well enough until turning off at the sign for Keshcarrigan.

Marie our B&B landlady had been kind enough to scout it in advance or I doubt we would have found the house of Madeline McGahern, John’s widow.  That They May Face The Rising Sun (the title in the US was By The Lake), John McGahern’s final novel, was, like most of his fiction, strongly autobiographical.  There can be little doubt this house he and Madeline had shared for thirty years was the home of the main characters – Joe and Kate Ruttledge .

Seeing the place for the first time, many of the scenes in the book came to life. The meadows are beautifully wild.  Doubtless John, as Joe did, would have harvested them and tended a few cattle here.

In Memoir, reflecting on the routine of his daily walks to and from school with his mother John says:

I am sure it is from those days that I take the belief that the best of life is lived quietly, where nothing happens but our calm journey through the day, where change is imperceptible and the precious life is everything.

And in That They May Face The Rising Sun, that belief is beautifully realised in the steady progress of the four seasons. The novel covers a year in the lives of Joe and Kate, Joe’s Uncle, their neighbours, and some of the local folk. Nothing dramatic happens, but you grow to understand each of the characters as though you had known them since they were children.

The McGahern house is approached along a narrow rutted road.  A half turn of the steering wheel would see your car in the lake.  I had written in advance to Mrs McGahern asking permission to photograph the outside of the house and the land and promising not to disturb her; she graciously consented.  I spent a happy ten minutes roaming the meadows, taking pictures and video and, listening to the birdsong.

In That They May Face The Rising Sun, Joe’s description of the flora and fauna is elegiac, and birdsong often features.   There are rural acres close to where I live in Scotland but the variety of birds and the clarity and brightness of their song around Laura Lake seemed like a full orchestra against a few buskers in my home fields.  It was striking and one of the most precious memories I took from the trip.

Laura Lake is more symmetrical than the skinny supermodel that is Lough Rynn. Its outline is similar to that of a fly-swat, the narrow ‘handle’ to the south west.   Walking its shores, you get a strong feel for its potential  to seethe and spit with white-capped breakers in a stormy winter.

I left Laura Lake and the little McGahern farm on the low hill above it with mixed feelings of reluctance and fulfilment.  That They May Face The Rising Sun is my favourite novel of John’s and I felt like a character who had arrived when the party was over and everyone had gone home, never to return. But I am so glad to have been there.  Thank you to Madeline McGahern for letting me walk her land and take, and publish, the pictures you see here.

Joe McNally

The small farm on which That They May Face The Rising Sun was probably based

A view of the lake the fictitious Joe and Kate would have seen from their garden

Memoir tells not only of John’s deep love for his mother, Susan, but the traumatic upbringing at his violent father’s hands after the death of his mother when he was only ten years old.  The interviewer suggested that the scars of that upbringing must have affected John throughout his life: ‘Not at all,’ John said, ‘I refused to let it affect me. People have their own choice to make about how they allow things to affect their lives.’

I bought Memoir, and read it in one sitting. I then read John’s first novel, The Barracks, followed by That They May Face The Rising Sun. Each book fuelled my desire to visit the places John describes in such detail in his books.  Here is one passage from Memoir when John reflects on walking the lanes he used to travel as a child with his mother. . .

There are many such lanes where I live, and in certain rare moments over the years while walking in these lanes I have come into an extraordinary sense of security, a deep peace in which I feel that I can live forever.

I wanted to walk these lanes myself, see the flowers and hedgerows so vividly described in Memoir, hear the birdsong and try to get some sense of what his life must have been like.

Over the coming days, I will post more about my journey, along with some pictures.  I am grateful to Marie for allowing me space on her blog.  Thankful also for the help she gave me in finding John’s last home by the lake. Gratitude too for Padraig’s fine breakfasts each morning which kept my wife Margy and I going well past lunchtime.

More soon

Joe

We

Joe (pictured here, on our decking) is keen to write about his visit in my blog and I’m happy to offer all the space he wants for a few ‘guest’ blog posts.

I hope you enjoy them.