Members of Castleisland District Heritage (CDH) have organised what they labelled: ‘A Night with Tom Keneally’ at the River Island Hotel on Friday, February 24th at 8pm. Admission €20.
Tom Keneally is the prolific, Australian author who visited Castleisland on this day last week on a fact finding mission for a book he’s planning.
On that occasion the district heritage members played host to Mr. Keneally who was accompanied by his wife Judy and his Newmarket, Co. Cork based companions and relatives, Catherine and Danny Culloty.
U.S.Voyage of Discovery
It was in 1982 after a somewhat similar voyage of discovery to America that Tom Keneally returned to Australia and sat down to write a book with the working title, Schindler’s Ark.
His work won the Booker Prize in 1983 and was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction the same year.
Just over a decade later the work came to the attention of the high profile Hollywood film director Steven Spielberg.
Seven Academy Awards
t became Schindler’s List and went on to be nominated for 12 academy awards and eventually won seven at the 1994 awards ceremony.
Tom Keneally’s appearance at the River Island Hotel on the 24th of this month will be compered by Frank Lewis who compiled a Saturday Supplement programme for Radio Kerry on the work of the CDH which was broadcast and the end of December.
Tickets have been printed for the event and they can be had by calling to the CDH offices at the Island Centre.
The Irish Times Feature on Tom Keneally
In the Saturday / Sunday edition of The Irish Times Ticket supplement there’s a two and a half page interview with Tom Keneally in which he reveals that the unfortunate John Twiss and the 1894 Glenlara, North Cork murder of James Donovan are now under his scope.
In the course of the interview with Alex Clark he tells her how the landlord agent, Donovan had evicted James Keneally – his grandfather – who was well known for his dancing, badger tracking and trout poaching skills.
John Twiss of Cordal was hanged – wrongfully as it turned out – in January 1895 for the murder of Donovan. He received a Presidential Pardon in December 2021.
You can read the interview with a Click on the Link here:
You can contact The Maine Valley Post on… Anyone in The Maine Valley Post catchment area who would like to send us news and captioned photographs for inclusion can send them to: jreidy@mainevalleypost.com Queries about advertising and any other matters regarding The Maine Valley Post can also be sent to that address or just ring: 087 23 59 467.
