Оглавление
Brian O’Connell. The Personals
Copyright
Note to Readers
Dedication
Contents
Introduction
LOVE AND LOSS
When East Meets West
A Ringless Marriage
A Dress for the (Middle) Ages
A Chance Encounter of a Shocking Kind
A Long Engagement
Addicted to Love?
A Marriage Worth Waiting For
EQUIPPED FOR LIFE
The Car That’s Bulletproof
For Your Eyes Only
Running Up That Hill
PETS’ CORNER
A Monkey Is for Life – Not Just for Christmas
Finding Shangri-La
Making It Pig in Hollywood
ARTICLES OF WAR
Married to the Past
‘Grow Wheat – The Crop That Pays’
Zen and the Art of Phone Box Maintenance
Engineering a Step Back in Time
The Weight of History
SENTIMENTAL VALUE
Rekindling a One in a Million Chance
Remains of a Detached Day
Giving a Doll’s House a Home
COLLECTORS
‘We Are Collectors ... and We Will Die as Collectors’
Signing the Past Away
LOST CAUSES?
Being Frank
Building a Bigger Shrine
THIS MORTAL COIL
Meeting a Man About a Hearse
Plotting a Way Out of Grief
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Nursing Hidden Desires
Cut-Price Counselling
The Homeless Hotel
Making Study Pay
Acknowledgements
About the Publisher
Отрывок из книги
And I watched my body falling,
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Through the years there have been some important ads that have signalled significant societal change. These were the ads in the early part of the twentieth century looking for ‘good Catholic homes’ for the children of ‘fallen women’ for example, or the aged bachelor farmers looking for girls in their late teens to become ‘life partners’, or those looking for domestic servants, or the emigrants in Australia trying to reconnect with family many decades later. You could write a whole social history on the classified ads of past decades.
All the stories in this book are quite recent and attempt to document snapshots of life in Ireland today. There are also stories and ads which I hope bring history to life – such as the military medals and memorabilia for sale, the nineteenth-century hearse, the impact of mother and baby homes or the frayed match programme for a long forgotten All-Ireland final.
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