The story of Maura Gilligan’s book “The Tide is Coming” begins with an interview with John McGowan of Coney Island, Co. Sligo, on a Thursday afternoon in the autumn of 2006.
The book’s foreword describes her subject, who died in 2018 at age 81, as the island’s “most steadfast resident: storyteller, historian, farmer, renowned oarsman and publican.”
“John and his wife, Margaret,” Gilligan recalls, “had invited me to stay, as they often did, in their lovely Pink House next store, so there were no worries about tides or returning across the Strand. As we sat by the fire on a wild October night we chatted for hours, and I wrote page after page as John spoke and Margaret contributed important details from her own store of memory. This was many years before we began to use a voice recorder to gather John’s memories.”
McGowan is quoted saying, “I can see now that the fact that I stayed on lets me give the stories first hand…the rest of the younger ones all left.”
The book subtitled “A Book of Coney Island in Sligo Bay” is indeed, as its author said, a “substantial publication,” as it comprises material from the interviews, originally encouraged by writer Dermot Healy, with McGowan, the “last surviving Islander”; Gilligan’s own Coney Island collection of writings and poetry; and two other elements from long-time collaborators of hers: photography by James Fraher of Chicago and paintings and prints by County Wicklow transplant to Sligo Catherine Fanning.
Maura Gilligan
Date of birth: July 1954
Place of birth: Bombay (now Mumbai), India, of Irish and Scottish parents.
Spouse: I have been widowed since 1999, when my late husband, William Gilligan, died aged 50 years.
Children: I have two sons, one daughter and five grandchildren.
Residence: I live in the Atlantic village of Strandhill, Co. Sligo – as we say here, next stop America!
Published works: My poetry has been published in several anthologies including Badal, Nota Bene, Dolly Mixtures, Café Writers, Force 10 (Editors, Leland Bardwell and Dermot Healy) Full Stop (University of Limerick’s online journal) and the Cormorant, a broadsheet edited by Una Mannion (the Philadelphia-born Irish writer of “A Crooked Tree’”and “Tell Me What I Am”)
My poems and writings have been broadcast on RTE’s Radio One arts shows and on local radio stations. My commissioned work has been performed at the Hawkswell Theatre, the Yeats Building and during the annual Bealtaine (May) Festival each year. A song – “Channel Lights” - composed as part of my most recent work was arranged by Ray Coen for harp, fiddle, cello & guitar, and engineered/recorded by Urs Lanz of Doolittle Sound Studios (Switzerland and Ireland).
What is your writing routine? Are there ideal conditions?
I like to write early in the morning and late at night, when all is peaceful and I can hear the sea whispering or roaring in dawn light or moonlight, in storms or under stars. RTE Radio stations are great musical companion in the little hours.
Name three books that are memorable in terms of your reading pleasure:
Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” has always stayed with me, as has Steinbeck’s “The Pearl”… in contemporary Ireland Claire Keegan’s “Foster” and all her writing occupies an enchanted corner in my mind, as does Una Mannion’s “A Crooked Tree”– oops, that’s four!
What books are you currently reading?
I have a few books on the go, including Dermot Healy’s “Collected Poems,” Tahmima Anam’s “A Golden Age,” and “The Long Gaze Back” edited by Sinéad Gleeson, a collection of short stories by Irish women writers throughout the ages. I’m re-reading both Colum McCann’s never-more-relevant “Apeirogon” and Claire Keegan’s “Small Things Like These” and listening to the audiobook version of “Age Proof” by an old school friend, Prof. Rose Anne Kenny. Something for every location and occasion!
Is there a book you wish you had written?
I would love to have written “The Secret Scripture” by Sebastian Barry, another favorite Irish writer.
If you could meet one author, living or dead, who would it be?
I’d love to meet the great Dermot Healy again. To be in his presence was to be constantly learning. “A Fool’s Errand,” his book-length poem, encapsulates his literary brilliance. Ordinary people inspired him and creatives found in him an ally and a mentor like no other.
What is your favorite spot in Ireland?
That would have to be Katie’s Lane and the beach below it on Coney Island in Sligo Bay.
You’re Irish if….
You connect with people each time you travel, you say “Ye” if you’re addressing more than one person, and “Isn’t it lovely today” if it’s not raining.
For more information about how to order the book go to Maura Gilligan's website here.
