The Lone Seagull is a memoir by the late Kate Keane O’Dowd about her life in the Kerry Gaeltacht. Kate moved to Dublin and then to America.
Kate was born in 1912 in the village of Murioch in the Kerry Gaeltacht. Reading her book is stepping back in time to an era long gone, where the ordinary peasant people had nothing, but they had everything, in terms of companionship, neighborliness and love.
Her descriptions of growing up among the last generation of Irish people who spoke no English is priceless . The times were hard, bitterly so, but the closeness of the village and the ability to help each other through thick and thin is beautifully spelt out.
Times were indeed very hard and Kate had to emigrate to America.
“I sailed from sorrowful Cobh on the 23rd of June 1939, shedding bitter tears”.
Our copy is a hardback first edition, with a photograph of the author on the front cover. We are also including an invitation to the book launch in The Blasket Centre 24th September 2001.