This Place Speaks to Me

In this wide-ranging, globe-trotting anthology, a host of Irish artists and personalities talk to John Quinn about the locations that have, for good or for ill, had a profound and lasting influence on their lives. Travel with, among others, Seamus Heaney as he visits Anahorish, the townland in South Derry that inspired much of his early work; accompany actor and bluesman Don Baker on a poignant return to Daingean Reformatory in County Offaly, where he spent two gruelling years as a boy; follow storyteller Eibhlís de Barra on a gloriously colourful stroll through the inner-city Cork of her childhood. Based on material from the RTÉ radio series of the same name, This Place Speaks to Me is a rich, deeply evocative collection of interviews and is punctuated by John Quinn’s own reflections on life-changing journeys he has made to places as diverse as Auschwitz and Ephesus. From ‘the lived in, rolled up’ landscape of Westmeath in the company of artist Paddy Graham, to the storied environs of Anne and Catherine Gregory’s Coole Park, This Place Speaks to Me invites the reader on a journey around Ireland, and beyond, to explore the inextricable links between people, place and personal growth.