My Limerick Vales

About the Book

Coming soon

About the Author

Denis Barron was born on a sizeable farm in the village of Kilbreedy, in County Limerick, which is known as ‘The Golden Vale’. A little over over a mile away from Kilbreedy lies the the picturesque village of Bruree, remembered as the home of his mother, and also connected with the boyhood of Eamon de Valera. From the age of six, Denis went to the nearby Rockhill National School, and stayed on until he was around sixteen. On the warm, sunny days of summer, he would go to school across the fields and, during his last two years of school, he often played truant, and sat out on the long grass, writing poems and ballads, most of them about his native County Limerick. Some of these youthful verses are included in his book, and one, ‘My Limerick Vales’, was set to music, and has since been recorded by several artists: by Richie O'Shea in America; by T.R. Dallas of Sean Wilson, and, four years ago, on Corbett & Gaynor's first debut album. Ill health dogged Denis during his early years; in his early twenties, he spent a considerable amount of time in a home in Limerick, suffering from TB. His story tells of his growing up in Limerick in the early 30s and 40s, when only the odd motor car could be seen, usually an old Ford 'Tin Lizzie'. Wirelesses too, were a luxury in those days when the horse did the ploughing and mowing, before the tractor slowly found its way into farming technology, at the outbreak of World War Two. His earliest memories are of the death of his grandmother in 1930, and of 1932, when the Eucharistic Congress was held in Dublin to mark the coming of Saint Patrick to Ireland, and the establishment of Christianity. In that same year, 1932, the local hero, Eamon de Valera, took his Fianna Fáil party into power for the first time. There was an open hearth in the house, with log fires and a ‘crane’ above it, where the kettle was boiled, and large iron pots cooked the meals for the family and boiled for the pigs and other domestic animals. On long winter nights, the travelling storytellers would come and sit around the hearth; they told their stories of the Great Famine of 1845 and the Land League days that followed in the latter part of the 19th century, as if they had happened but a short while before! Nightly cross road dances in the open were still held, as were the ‘Gambles’ in houses at weekends, when a turkey or a young piglet would be played for in a card game called ‘25’. In 1956, the author left Ireland to find work in England; he lived and worked in Birmingham until his retirement in 1990. He is married, and has a son and daughter, and three grandchildren. Since his wife contracted Alzheimer’s Disease recently, and is now in a care home, he has lived alone, in the West Midlands district of Solihull.

The author would like to donate a percentage of any royalties that may accrue from sales of this book towards research – and hopefully an eventual cure – for Alzheimer’s Disease.

Denis Baron, August, 2004