Serious Sounds

A wonderful walk through the story of Moriarty's childhood growing up on a small farm in north Kerry, and his lifelong engagement with traditional Catholic sacraments, taking as his point of departure Philip Larkin's poem 'Church Going' – a richly meditative essay of extraordinary resonance that begins with a visit to the island of Inis Fallen on Loch Leine: 'People say we live in a time of ritual deprivation. Not so people of my age born into Christian Ireland. From three days' of age I was inducted onto the Christian sacramental road, and that journey I rehearse in this book.' 'The connection between psychic pain and religious ritual in Catholicism is done beautifully. More than any other, this was very personal and profoundly moving.' – Michael Harding John Moriarty is author of Dreamtime (1994), the trilogy Turtle Was Gone a Long Time: Crossing the Kedron (1996), Horsehead Nebula Neighing (1997) and Anaconda Canoe (1998), Nostos, An Autobiography (2001), Invoking Ireland (2005) and Night Journey to Buddh Gaia (2006).