After some years of not going to Ireland on holidays due to work, Covid-19 and breaking my ankle, my husband Paul and I finally managed to visit the Emerald Isle again this summer. We had really been looking forward to it. As my husband loves fishing (and has not been able to go fishing in Ireland for such a long time) our holidays were focused on and organised around fishing at sea (Connemara/Galway) and at lakes (Boyle area).
But we were also able to fit in some Brontë-related stuff. As we were visiting Connemara, and with the help of Joanne Wilcock, we managed to set up a meeting with Michael, who lives in Galway.
I reviewed Michael's book in December 2021 for the BBG blog because this was for me a very exceptional account of the honeymoon trip, not a fictionalised recreation in the form of a novel but a non-fiction book with a very different but interesting approach. I just loved it and I can recommend it!
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| Paul, Christine, Marina and Michael |
I already had the idea then that, when we would be able to go on holiday again to Ireland, I would try to meet the author of this wonderful book. It had to wait until June 2024, but it happened.
We agreed to meet Michael and his wife Christine at our B&B in Streamstown on 27 June 2024. Not the best of days weatherwise, as it turned out, but that would not spoil the event. And the rainy and windy conditions prompted my husband to give up his fishing for that day and joined me on the visit.
Christine was our driver and we first went to Clifden for coffee/tea. Michael also signed my copy of his book there!
We then did the Sky Road trip from Clifden to Streamstown (part of the Wild Atlantic Way) with beautiful scenery over Clifden Bay and we made a stop at Kill House; this is another Brontë link – it is the house where Arthur Bell Nicholls’ cousin Harriette Bell lived with her husband, John Evans Adamson, and their children. Harriette was the cousin Arthur proposed to in 1851 and who declined his proposal – see my 2015 blog report on this subject.
We continued the journey to Kylemore Abbey where we had lunch (it was still raining!). Kylemore Abbey is situated in the heart of the Connemara. The castle was built in 1867 by Mitchell Henry for his wife Margaret. They are both buried on the estate. In 1920, the Benedictine nuns came from Ieper (Flanders) and settled their community at Kylemore. Between 1923 and 2010, they ran a school for local, national and international students and gained quite a reputation. There is an informative exhibition in the castle/abbey. There is a beautifully restored walled garden, a neo-gothic church and the mausoleum where the Henrys are buried, and other features of interest to visit. The Benedictine nuns still own and run the estate. Certainly worth a visit if you happen to be in the Connemara!
During the coffee break, car journey and lunch, we talked about so many different things, Brontë-related, Ireland-related and some personal stuff. We had a wonderful talk on Michael’s book about Charlotte’s honeymoon and how it came to be written.
Michael was a gynecologist in his professional life, so the link with the Brontës was not evident. The book is very well researched and has an extensive bibliography. Michael said that he gained great pleasure from both the research and the writing of this book. By the end he felt very close to both Charlotte and Arthur and was sad to leave their company when the book was finished and published. He also said that Charlotte was an incredible person who will remain forever etched on his heart!
Writing this book was an unforgettable experience for him. Together with his daughter Katy, Michael has also written fictional books in the Scarlet Ribbon series under the pen name Derry O’Dowd. These books are about “love, death and man-midwifery in the 1700s” – a very specific medical subject. I was lucky to receive these books as a present and have been reading all of them in the mean time. I am not at all familiar with this subject, it has been a real eye-opener for me, and very different from other books I have read. But I liked the story-telling.
What also came out of our conversation was his link with the town of Boyle, which happens to be where we always stay during our holidays in Ireland. His brother Sean still lives there and runs the website Realboyle (where my husband found Michael’s book advertised in 2021). Michael grew up in Boyle and we still find many O’Dowds there, whether related to him or not. So that was a nice coincidence.
Michael also shared his views on the “illness” that Charlotte died of. He has written a very interesting essay on this topic: did she die of tuberculosis or of complications in the early stages of pregnancy? According to him, the declaration on the cause of her death should be formulated more carefully stating that Charlotte may, or may not, have been pregnant when she died. He hopes that the Brontë Society will publish his essay in its Brontë Studies journal. However, as his views do not coincide with the “officially published” versions and the biographies, he is not very hopeful that it will ever be published. We’ll see …
Paul and I really enjoyed the day out with Michael and Christine. They are a wonderful couple to be with and to talk to. We shared so many topics of interest that we could have continued until late in the evening, but we had to end the day at some point. We said our goodbyes at our B&B and we do hope that we can meet again next time we visit Connemara.
Marina Saegerman
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