Book on dolla childhood during

An English-born author has published an intriguing book on his memories of growing up in Dolla during the Second World War.
Edward Forde Hickey will launch 'The Early Morning Light' at Eason's in Nenagh on Saturday May 23rd.
The book tells of how Edward became one of thousands of children evacuated in hopes that they might escape the war. In 1940, at the age of 3, Edward's immigrant parents sent him to Dolla to live with his grandmother Brigid Forde, whom he knew as “Dowager”, and uncle, “Blue-eyed Jack”.
'The Early Morning Light' follows the development of a young child in his third to fifth years of life, sheltered in a peaceful, rural community and blissfully unaware of the 'Blitz' back home in London.
As Edward writes: “You'd find it hard to imagine the dark days of World War II when the local country folk (when they had a bit of land) often felt as if there was no world war worth talking about, such was their lack of any daily ache or pain resulting from this war's cruelties.”
While many of his peers would have very different memories of the war years, Edward's include happy accounts of discovering nature, going hunting and fishing with his uncle, and listening to fireside stories of the country folk. “The Little Englander”, as he was known to many of them, was insulated from the horrors of war in this new environment, centred mostly in a place the children called “Rookery Rally” at Mountisland.
And yet, throughout 'The Early Morning Light' there runs an undertow dwelling on what life might have been like had the young evacuee been in London. The book ends with the arrival of his aunt, who “snatches” young Edward away and brings his “shaky heart back to London”.
Now a retired school headmaster and acolyte of literary classics, Edward says he was inspired by Virgil and Kafka in penning this compelling memoir of inheriting values from a simple, uncomplicated rural life.
“I wrote it to pay homage to my war time guardians and to celebrate a lifestyle in rural Tipperary that has long vanished, values of which may give us something to relate to and reflect upon,” he says.
“The book has been produced from a lifetime of preparation. It is both a pilgrimage and a form of catharsis.”
Written in the first person, 'The Early Morning Light' contains some extraordinarily vivid memories. “I remember practically all of my early years (from ages 3 to 5), though some readers may find this difficult to believe,” Edward admits. “Of course, some of it has been recounted to me by older relations.”
The author adds that all of the people referred to in the book (apart from his parents and guardians) are “unreal personalities - extensions that are reflective replications of true life in the region a mile above Dolla”.
Edward lives in Kent with his wife. They have three sons. Also a former Irish stepdancing champion, he owns a farm of almost 40 acres in his cherished childhood home of Dolla.
He still has a great many relatives in the Nenagh area. His father was Pat Hickey from Ballymoylan, Newtown, and his mother was Ellen Forde of Mountisland, one of 15 children.
Among Edward's local first cousins are John Joe Buckley of Newtown, former court clerk in Nenagh, and Eddie Hickey, who lives just outside Nenagh.
Also among his local family, Edward lists Tony Forde, who recently retired from the county council and lives in Ballycommon; Elsie McInerney of the Yellow Bridge; Yvonne Campbell and her brother John Delaney, Kilkeary; and Liz Abbott, daughter of the late Paddy Forde, Ballinaclough.
Edward's grandmother, his “wartime mother”, was one of the Hayes family of Curragharneen. Her husband was Will Forde, one of eight siblings from the Cross of Mountisland.
Edward is looking forward to returning to these parts again next week for the launch of his book, which he adds is the first of four books relating to “country folk in twentieth century Ireland”. Titled 'The Spirit of Tipperary', Edward says the series would continue with a book about Rookery Rally children in 1946, a book of tales about local characters in the 1920s and 30s, and a book about a specific family that came to the area from Galway as Curreeny hedge schoolteachers.
Edward will be signing copies of 'The Early Morning Light' at Eason's in Nenagh on Saturday May 23rd from 12-2pm, and at Bookworm in Thurles from 3pm. A past contributor to the 'Mining the Past' series of local history, he will also be guest speaker of Silvermines Historical Society at the Eagle's Nest in Dolla on Monday May 25th (9pm).