Customer Reviews
Brilliant portraits and gripping journalism - By: NM Wilk, 29 Jan 2007 
This is a great two-hander if you like photography books with a little more of the background on their subjects. Fennell's portraits are very good - revealing, touching & poignant. And the stories Bunbury has written for each of the people who appearin the book add an extra, brilliant dimension. Look at the portraits, read the story & then go back & see how much more history you can see writtenin the faces of these beautiful, stoic people.
Rather than whinge about how life might have changedin a modern country, most of those who sat before Fennell's lens accepted their lot with the same grace & charm with which they have accepted hardship, misfortune & tragedy, as they lived their livesin some of the least clement parts of that fair isle.
What impresses the reader most, is the love for life & great joy these people also experiencedin their communities. By focusing on individuals within different hamlets around the country, we get an insight into what life was like long before Ireland became prosperous. It is one of the best treatise I've ever read on how happiness is never measured by the amount of goldin your pocket. That comes from your love of life.
I look forward to reading volume 2
vanishing ireland - By: helpful declan, 07 Jan 2007 
if it is possible to request A. Rogers the recent reviewer of Vanishing Ireland to contact the author of Vanishing Ireland Turtle Bunbury via email at ;tbunbury@gmail.com
Turtle would like to communicate with A. Rodgers,
to discuss some of his comments & ideas,
thank you , declan doyle
Barely Scratches the Surface - By: A. Rodgers, 22 Dec 2006 I bought this book thinking it would be a somewhat detailed chronicling of the traditional ways of lifein Ireland that are rapidly fading away but it doesn't get under the surface of rural, traditional Ireland at all.
This book is very much an outsiders view of what traditional Irish life is like, even if the author is Irish himself it is quite clear he doesn't have much of a conception of the way of life he is trying to depict. It would also appear that he has not spent a great deal of effort trying to really get to know this way of life so that he can better represent itin his book. His book states that it is attempting to show traditional Irish life that is rapidly fading away with the emergence of the Celtic Tiger whenin fact his book is nothing more than a chronicling of some elderly people's lives & a brief summation of their life's history & sometimes their family history. This style which merely describes the lives of some elderly people living out traditional lives is surely not the best way to really get under the skin & really show to outsiders what traditional Irish life is really like. It seems that the author has a certain marketin mind & it is not one that really wants to know & find out about traditional Ireland but rather one which is interestedin a typical clichéd view of traditional Ireland.
The main flaw with the book is that it chooses to depict a traditional way of life through individuals rather than through communities & society. After all this is a large part of what makes traditional life different from modern life, the fact that community spirit was so strongin traditional society. It is simply impossible to represent thatin a book that focuses narrowly on individuals & to a lesser extent their families.
The photographsin the book also follow the same style as the narrative, ie they don't really give an accurate representation of traditional life. Almost all of the photos are of individual people. The people they show are always posingin their best clothes, whether they bein front of some landscape or a house orin their homes. Again to draw a parallel with the narrative the photos take the people out of the communities, societies & livelihoods that they live & show them as individuals.
It is quite ironic that this book's main aim is to depict a rapidly disappearing traditional Ireland & that it fails because it isin fact a part of the "brave new Ireland" that is sweeping it away.
Beautiful - By: Mary. Wicklow, 01 Dec 2006 This book moved me to tears, the prose & photography demonstrate a sensitivity & love of an almost vanished Ireland. They have managed to capture what is left of our soul before we sold it to the Celtic Tiger. A must buy & a magnificent book...
Vanishing Ireland - Excellent ! - By: Denis O'Reilly, 07 Nov 2006 I bought this book last week - MAGIC ! Congratulations
I have read it cover to cover - it is such an excellent account on our true Irish people.
I would hightly recomend this book as it gives a great insight into the real charactors of Ireland who will "Vanish" soon.
