Limerick native Tom Sheedy, who worked for many years in Clare, became an author for the first time this October at the age of 79 with a book written over the last two years from his hospital room at the foot of the Pyrenees in France.
The Last Farm in Garryowen is his account of growing up on a farm in rural Co. Limerick in the 1950s but, without ever leaving the land, finding himself living in the city by the time he grew up.
The expanding city suburbs were embraced by the Limerick farming community but they were also determined that their culture and traditions would also be maintained as the sod which yielded a harvest for centuries was turned one last time for the housing developments.
Tom Sheedy helped maintain those traditions in his working life with Shannon Development, and in particular Bunratty Folk Park. He retired to the Languedoc in the south of France almost two decades ago with his late wife Nellie, who died in 2011.
In recent years Tom has suffered a number of serious illnesses including heart attack, sepsis and cancer, and while being treated and recovering in hospital he started writing each evening about the fun and frolics, traditions and customs of growing up on a farm which has since become home to hundreds of people.
The Last Farm in Garryowen is the result of all those long evenings writing at Clinique la Pinède in Saint-Estève in the Languedoc.
The book offers a unique insight into a way of life in Ireland which no longer exists, and the story is told by a Limerick native who appreciates the values and talents of the generations who went before us.
Machinery and equipment may have been basic or non-existent but that didn’t stop the farmers producing top quality produce and the methods they used to improvise and get the work done is dealt with throughout the book.
The Last Farm in Garryowen is available in many shops including Limerick outlets O’Mahony’s Booksellers on O’Connell Street, Ryan’s Locksmiths, William Street, Harper’s Coffeehouse in the Milk Market and online from Charlie Byrne’s in Galway (https://charliebyrne.ie/product/the-last-farm-in-garryowen/).
