Southern Celts
Southern Celts is a collection of twenty-three interviews of New Zealanders of Irish and Scottish descent. Interviewees include business owners, speakers and teachers of Irish and Scottish Gaelic, musicians, singers, writers and poets, visual artists including, a sculptor and a master carver, a museum archivist, sportsmen, a Presbyterian minister and a Religious Studies teacher, a documentary maker, and a Treaty of Waitangi educator. These interviews cross hemispheres and generations as well as geographic and cultural communities. They reflect the passage of time which brings constant change.
Chapter titles
Doing Business; Speaking Gaelic; Performing Arts: Music and Singing; Writing the Stories; Showing the Pictures; Spirituality and Religion; Playing Sport; Telling the Stories: Teaching the Cultures.
Interviewees include
Keri Hulme, a writer and Booker Prize winner, of Orcadian (Orkney Island) background from Okarito, on the west coast of the South Island.
Charlie Dunn, Te Rarawa iwi, also of Irish, Scottish and English backgrounds, in Mitimiti, on the North Island’s west Coast.
Bernadette Hall, a poet, of Irish background, from Amberley Beach, in the Hurunui, North Canterbury.
Michael Fraser Milne, Scottish born proprietor of Whisky Galore, whisky importers in Christchurch.
Evey McAuliffe, a Dublin-born Irish speaker and singer, from Nelson.
Denis O’Connor, a sculptor and writer, of Irish background, from Waiheke Island, close to Auckland
Several of the 23 interviewees have died. ‘May the road rise with them.’
You can purchase Southern Celts from Mary Egan publishing: -
“Southern Celts is a rich book, bursting with a variety of different voices, and for anyone with Scottish or Irish ancestry, this will be a particularly rewarding read, but it’s also of interest to anyone interested in other’s stories. The narrators also reflect on the passage of time, which brings constant change, and the interviews cross hemispheres and different geographic and cultural communities. Celine Kearney has done a superb job creating this book.”
