Book Review, IRELAND, Frank Delaney

In the winter of 1951, a storyteller arrives at the home of nine year old Ronan O'Mara in the Irish countryside. The last Practitioner of an honoured centuries-old tradition, the Senchai, enthrals his assembled audience for three evenings, telling stories of Kings, fabled Saints, of enduring accomplishments and selfless acts. Until he is banished from the O'Mara household because the woman of the house seems to believe he has blasphemed.  The Senchai moves on, but those three nights have made a huge impression on the young Ronan forever, and the experience sets him on a course he will follow for years to come. He goes in search of the elusive, itinerant storyteller with his repertoire of magical drama even in the midst of family bereavement and the subsequent family skeletons which emerge there after.
Frank Delaney was born and raised in County Tipperary, Ireland.  He spent more than twenty-five years in England before moving to the United States in 2002.  His first American book was "The New York Times" best-seller, IRELAND.
Frank Delaney has earned top prizes and best-seller status in a wide variety of formats, from prolific author, a broadcaster on both television and radio, to journalist, correspondent, screenwriter, lecturer, playwright and scholar. He has been President of the Samuel Johnson Society, President of the UK Book Trust and Literary Director of the famed Edingburgh Festival. His second book, the non-fiction, Simple Courage, was chosen as one of the top five books of the year by the American Library Association. Since 2006, he has published five novels of Ireland, all addressing, decade by decade, the 20th century history of his homeland. Delaney lives in Litchfield County Conneticut with his wife, writer and marketer, Diane Meier.