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*****
'A perfect symbiosis between text and images -
both similarity affectionate, respectful, humorous,
slightly melancholic but never sentimental or nostalgic.
This is invaluable social history'.
Cara, Jan-Feb 2014.
*****
'This is a
beautiful and remarkably simple book
that will
melt the
hardest of
hearts. Bunbury has a light
writing
style that
lets his interviewees,
elderly folk from
around
the country,
tell their stories without
interference.
It's
neither
patronising nor overly romantic about the
past;
just
narrating moving tales ... The portraits by Fennell are
striking, warm and dignified, with a feeling of being
invited
into
people's lives'.
The Sunday Times, December 2013.
*****
Since 2001, historian Turtle Bunbury and
photographer
James Fennell have criss-crossed their native Ireland
innumerable times, interviewing and
photographing
over 300 people aged between 70 and 108
about the
old ways of life. Their findings have been published
in a series of beautiful coffee table books.
'Vanishing Ireland -Friendship & Community', the fourth
and final book in the series, was short-listed for
the 2013
Best Irish Published Book of the Year. It was was launched
in October 2013, with talks by Turtle
in London, Paris,
Dublin and Cork.
All four 'Vanishing Ireland' books
are available via
http://astore.amazon.com/wwwturtlebunb-20
Since the publication of
the first volume in 2006, the
series has become a
household name across Ireland
with the Irish Independent hailing it
as 'an
invaluable
record
of times past'. Three of the books have
been short-listed for Best Irish Published Book of the
Year,
while the third volume was the best-selling
‘Picture Book’
in Ireland at Christmas 2011.
Turtle and James also collaborated on ‘The Irish Pub’, an
ode to the rapidly changing pub scene in rural Ireland,
which inspired a feature length movie of the same name.
Turtle has given talks
on the project in New
York,
Paris,
London, Chicago,
Dublin, Limerick,
Dublin,
Carlow,
Cork, Kilkenny and Monte
Carlo.
Click here to Join the
'Vanishing Ireland' Facebook page.
The series has also enjoyed a run of successful
shows
at
Burtown House, Co. Kildare; Smock Alley Theatre
and the City Assembly House, Dublin;
Cill Rialaig,
Co.
Kerry;
the Visual Arts
Centre in Carlow & the Hunt
Museum in
Limerick
City.
The books
are available in
bookshops
across
Ireland or
from Turtle's Amazon Store.
Turtle Bunbury
is a best-selling
author,
historian,
speaker
and TV presenter based in
Ireland.
His next book 'The Glorious Madness - Tales of the
Irish &
the Great War' will be published by Gill &
Macmillan in October. He
is a keynote
speaker on
the Great
War
Roadshow, which is touring Ireland
over the summer of 2014. Click here for details of
upcoming events, including Cavan, August 9.
He is a co-presenter of 'Genealogy
Roadshow'; the
second series aired on the
Irish
television
channel
RTE One in May 2014.
He is the founder of Wistorical, an innovative
concept for promoting Irish
history globally.
Turtle's past books include the award-winning
Vanishing
Ireland series, Sporting Legends of
Ireland,
The
Irish Pub and Living in Sri
Lanka. The
last Vanishing
Ireland book was short-listed for
Best Irish Published Book of the Year 2013.
He was
Newstalk
Breakfast's Resident Historian
from June to December 2013.
Turtle is the co-founder of the
annual
History
Festival
of Ireland.
A past winner of Ireland's Long Haul Travel
Journalist of the Year Award, he wrote the April 2014
cover story for
National Geographic Traveler in
which
he visited five of Ireland's finest 'Big Houses'.
His work has also been
published in The World of
Interiors, Playboy, The Irish Times,
The Financial
Times,
The New York
Post,
The Australian,
The
Guardian and
Vogue Living.
Click here to join Wistorical, Turtle's historical blog, which he updates daily. It's an innovative forum for promoting local history globally, bringing the past to life through new technology and social media channels.
GENEALOGY ROADSHOW
The second series of the 'Genealogy Roadshow' aired on RTE One during May 2014. The three episodes were filmed at Powerscourt, County Wicklow, University College Cork and Lumen Christi College, Derry. In each episode, Turtle - as a historian - teams up with genealogists John Grenham and Susan Chadwick to investigate claims by people who believe they have famous or infamous relatives, or that they are connected to a historical event or long-standing mystery.
Produced by Big Mountain, the pioneering series originally aired on RTE1 television in 2011, was repeated twice in 2012 and again in both 2013 and January 2014. PBS America developed its own version of the Big Mountain format which aired in 2013 and is also up for a second series. For more details, click here.
TURTLE ON NEWSTALK
Turtle was Resident Historian on Newstalk Breakfast radio from June to December 2013. Click on the logo above to hear podcasts of his popular 'Hidden Histories' slot.
(Illustration by Derry Dillon)
HISTORY FESTIVAL OF IRELAND
Turtle was co-founder with Hugo Jellett of the History Festival of Ireland and curated the event in 2012 and 2013. He also spoke at the 2014 History Festival which took place at Huntington Castle in County Carlow on the weekend of 8-9 June. The 2014 curator was Angus Mitchell.
Click here for more or to learn more about the History Festival, please sign up to our Facebook page or check out www.thehistoryfestivalofireland.com The History Festival is an Éigse initiative.
Above: Turtle with Sir Terry Wogan.
BRIEF NOTES
Turtle frequently lends his historical expertise to TV documentaries such as 'The Genealogy Roadshow', 'Who Do You Think You Are?' and 'Wogan's Ireland', in which he pondered the drunkenness of the Jacobite troops at the battle of the Boyne with Sir Terry Wogan. He co-scripted and researched the award-nominated documentary 'John Henry Foley - Sculptor of the Empire'. He was Resident Historian on Newstalk Breakfast show from June to December 2013.
Turtle has delivered talks on the 'Vanishing Ireland' project, the Dublin Docklands, 'Big House' archives and the history of the Bunbury family to the New York and Chicago chapters of the Irish Georgian Society, as well as the 2013 Poesie and Prose Literary Festival in Paris, the Irish Writers Festival in London, the 2013 St Patrick's Festival (Marsh's Library) in Dublin, the 2012 Tall Ships Festival in Dublin and the Royal Dublin Society.
Tutle is a guest blogger for the Irish Executives on LinkedIn, as well as a frequent contributor to the Discover Ireland website, WorldIrish.com, Irish Family Names, the Wild Geese Blog and the Gathering Ireland 2013 campaign.
He has also talked about inspirational books with Daisy Banks of The Browser.
In 2011, he was the Ireland Fund of Monaco's Writer-in-Residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library.
TO BUY TURTLE'S BOOKS ONLINE CLICK ON AN IMAGE BELOW or CLICK HERE TO VISIT HIS PAGE AT AMAZON.
Dublin Docklands, The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of County Wicklow and The Landed Gentry of County Kildare are all presently out of print. However, you will find the content of all three books freely available via the 'Published Books' section on the sidebar of this website.
*****
This website has been compiled in the interest of furthering the research and study of both local and international history.