Publisher's Synopsis
This book, Inherit the Earth: Portrait of an Irish Farmer, unpacks the life and thought of a man determined to succeed against challenging odds.
The story is not fiction in the usual sense. Neither is it a detailed biography of a man called "Eddie." The author has endeavoured to display the hero of the story in a lively social and historical context. The personal names, place names, local settings and visual images of the principal characters are all real. From beginning to end the story weaves these features into a fascinating literary tapestry that captivates the reader. The style is crisp and to the point, but not simplistic. The geo-political setting is Northern Ireland during tough times at the turn of the twentieth century, including also the two world wars, and not least the Great Depression. Eddie and his much younger wife raised a family of nine children during hard economic times. A man of the earth at heart, and also devoutly religious, he was able to provide for his family when townspeople had scarcely enough money to buy the produce that Eddie tried to sell door to door in town. His urge to succeed in agriculture was thwarted time and again, first when his brother
left him in the lurch, then later when each of his five sons departed in their early twenties to make their own way in life. This is a captivating story of triumph and tragedy, of will power and horsepower. The scintillating drama of the saga leaves the reader spellbound.
