Jack's World: Farming on the Sheep's Head Peninsula, 1920-2003

This is a wonderful book that spans the life and times of Jack Sheehan, born in 1920, as the Irish state was coming into existence. He was one of eleven children in an impoverished farming family on the Sheep's Head peninsula in southwest Ireland. Jack stayed on his farm all his eighty-three years, taking it over when his father died, and the book tells the story of his life and of his farm, how he cared for his fields and farming existence and how, towards the end of his life, he viewed with dismay the way consumerism and preying property speculators were changing the nature of his world. The book is illustrated in colour with specially commissioned photographs taken by Danny Gralton and Ciaran Watson. The photographs, taken with non-digital cameras, are exceptional and add immeasurably to the quality and appeal of the book. The book is also illustrated with maps, including one of the farm's fields and their Irish names that were preserved by Jack, and photographs of early documents relating to the farm's history. The book's original and unique sources include diaries kept by Jack from the early 1930s onwards. The author is a nephew of Jack.