CHRISTY Killeen has unveiled his new book, Musings Miscellany Clare, at a recent launch at the Bellbridge House Hotel.
By Jack Lee
An eight year labour of love, the 85-year-old from Clohanmore East, Cree, began writing the book – which is made up of stories, quotes, poems and more – in 2013 and the result is “an affectionate tribute to West Clare based on the memories of Christy Killeen,” according to Catriona Crowe.
Christy, a founding member of the Clare Association in Dublin, is deeply rooted in C Clare having attended Clohanbeg National School, Miltown Malbay Vocational School, before graduating in electrical engineering from Kevin Street. He joined Radio Eireann and later RTE television.
Married to Betty O’Connell, the father of seven details his deep love of Clare in the book: “I wrote this book for reasons of my deep affection for Clare and West Clare and the people there-in, the people particularly, the people who are welcoming and warm. And really, I wrote it with a flavour and the people, places and the pride people have in their place in a way, those three Ps are the streamline right through the book.
“I wrote it through a system of stories rather than a book about reflections and memories I was able to break them up into a story system and I believed that a lot of what we learned through our ancestors and everything has been handed down to us through stories so I said I’d go with that structure. I had fifty or sixty stories but with time constraints and everything, there’s forty-one stories in the book.”
Christy began writing his book as far back as 2013, and even wrote a portion of it while recovering in hospital. “I was ‘stealing’ green A4 sheets of paper from the nurses up the corridor. Down in my ward I was writing freely and prolifically. I eventually structured it into a story structure and put the skeleton of a book together with 50 or 60 stories, I thought, ‘This looks well worth pursuing!’”
Christy add that his children were very supportive during the writing process, “They are as proud of the book as I am, they’ve shown that in every way that I could possibly see.”
There are many different quotes littered throughout the book, while discussing them Christy had this to say, “My favourite quote in the book is ‘Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory’. Maybe this quote is the reason behind the book if the moments are hard to value at the time, here I am trying to value them by writing about them in this book.”
The proceeds from the book go to autism treatment in Clare. “The pleasure was mine in doing it. I want any profits to go the development and the treatment for the ailment of autism, if the book can do that, I’ll be a very proud person,” Christy added.
Musings Miscellany Clare is available at Ennis Book Shop.
