We’re delighted to announce the publication of a new edition of the late Homan Potterton’s beloved memoir
Rathcormick
A Childhood Recalled
Set in 1950s rural Ireland, Rathcormick is an engaging tale of a large and happy family: a stern and domineering Papa, a warm and practical Mama, their two daughters and six sons. For Homan, the youngest, life is a free-spirited awakening in a world of old-fashioned virtue and frugality. But no boyhood lasts forever, and an abrupt turn of events signals an end to the idyll. Rathcormick is an unforgettable and enduring memoir: funny, compelling and original.
‘A wholly delightful family memoir of lace-curtain Protestants in 1950s rural Ireland – an Irish seam that is rarely tapped for its considerable riches’
— William Trevor, Guardian, Books of the Year
‘Not a wet miserable childhood, à la Frank McCourt, but a Protestant childhood and one that makes for hugely enjoyable reading’
— Independent on Sunday
‘Beautifully crafted – lively, elegant … A classic memoir’
— The Irish Times
‘Moving, funny and bleak by turns, there is nothing sentimental about it’
— Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
Homan Potterton was Director of the National Gallery of Ireland (1980–8), and Editor of Irish Arts Review (1993–2002). After the publication of Rathcormick: A Childhood Recalled, he published a follow-up memoir, Who Do I Think I Am?, in 2017, and a novel, Knockfane, in 2019, both with Merrion Press. Potterton passed away in 2020.
Paperback • €12.95 | £9.99 • 320 pages • 198 mm x 129 mm • 9781785373602