Turtle Bunbury

Writer and Historian

 
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     VANISHING IRELAND

FURTHER CHRONICLES OF A
DISAPPEARING WORLD

(Hachette, 2009)

The second volume of 'Vanishing Ireland'
is now complete and will be launched
at Hughes & Hughes Bookstore,
Stephen's Green Shopping Centre,
Dublin City, at 6:30pm on
Wednesday 14th October 2009.

Read the introduction to the new book here.

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THE VANISHING IRELAND PROJECT

The Vanishing Ireland Project began in 2001 when writer Turtle Bunbury and photographer James Fennell began to extensively tour their Irish homeland in a bid to chronicle a world that seemed to be disappearing rapidly.

Both the Irish landscape and the Irish mindset have changed dramatically since the economic boom of the Celtic Tiger. Many stalwarts of generations past have become intensely vulnerable in the modern age – the Roman Catholic Church, the traditional pub, the rural post office, the family run shop, the cattle mart, the hard-working farmer.

In 2006, Fennell and Bunbury released the first volume of their ‘Vanishing Ireland’ series to considerable acclaim in both Britain and Ireland. The book combined portrait photographs and short biographies of sixty Irish men and women over the age of 70. It was shortlisted for the Eason's Irish Published Book of the Year Award 2007 and continues to excite debate on Irish TV and radio.

In 2008, Fennell and Bunbury again toured Ireland, visiting some 700 traditional pubs to produce what many consider to be the second volume of the ‘Vanishing Ireland’ series, namely ‘The Irish Pub’, which was published in October 2008. You can watch special reports on 'The Irish Pub' on RTE's Nationwide, Ireland AM and BBC News here.

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Mr. Denny Galvin
of Castlegregory, Co Kerry

One of the Vanishing Ireland icons.

Over the course of 2009, Fennel and Bunbury continued their successful collaboration, and a third volume of the ‘Vanishing Ireland’ series, entitled 'Further Chronicles of a Disappearing World' will be launched on October 14th 2009. The new book offers a poignant, sensitive and often punchy insight into the fading world of old Ireland, told through stories of Irish craftsmen, musicians, sportsmen, farmers, traders, nuns, gentry and centenarians.

It is hoped that the ‘Vanishing Ireland Project’ will provide, through images and words, an intelligent and poignant record of a fascinating but endangered way of life that was once familiar to people of Irish origin all across this world.

Both volumes of 'Vanishing Ireland' are available from Amazon and all good bookshops nationwide.

VANISHING IRELAND - VOLUME ONE
Turtle Bunbury & James Fennell (Hodder Headline, 2006)

The first volume of 'Vanishing Ireland' received extremely positive reviews from the Irish media from the moment it was launched. It features interviews with sixty senior citizens from across Ireland and over 150 hypnotic portrait photographs by James Fennell. The result is an invaluable, humorous and often poignant chronicle of a rapidly disappearing world.

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Vanishing Ireland - The First Volume.

It was one the No. 1 selling Picture Book in Ireland for Christmas 2006 and one of the best-selling books of 2007. It was also short-listed for the Eason’s Irish Published Book of the Year Award. The book, which has now sold 25,000 copies in Ireland alone, was declared 'a triumph' by the Daily Mirror. It was given widespread radio and television coverage on 'Today with Pat Kenny', 'Nationwide', 'Ireland AM', 'Seoige & O'Shea', 'The Sean Moncreiff Show' and 'Soiscéal Pháraic'.

The first volume of Vanishing Ireland charted at No. 8 on Ireland's Hardback Non-Fiction Bestseller Charts the week after it's launch in Easons / Hannas Bookshop, Dawson St, Dublin on Wednesday 25th October 2006. All 10,000 copies of the first print vanished in nine weeks. By April 2007, it had climbed to No. 5. It was serialized in The Dubliner throughout 2007 and formed major feature stories in Country Life, Cara, The Irish Times Magazine, The Irish Examiner Weekend, the Sunday Independent, the Irish Independent and Social & Personal. It was roundly praised on local radio across Ireland as well as in The Scotsman, The Irish Mirror, The Farmers Journal, The Metro, Ireland's Antiques & Properties, The Irish Arts Review, The Book of Interiors, Magill, Irish Tatler and Image Interiors.

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