The Old Road, The Writings of Nora T. Goonane Leonard 1913-2007. ISBN 978-0-9568828-0-6. Edited by Gerard Madden.

The Old Road contains 140 poems and fifteen essays by Nora T. Goonane Leonard who was born in Whitegate in 1913. There is something simple and noble and pure in her writings. She wrote about life and everyday things in a language we can all understand. She wrote for pleasure and to lift the spirits and lives of the reader.

The Old Road is still as tranquil and captivating a place as it was 100 years ago. To really enjoy the walk Nora recommended that you take off your shoes and walk barefoot on the soft green ramparts, in the early morning in the month of May.

The wet grass will squish beneath your feet- tiny yellow buttercups will scissor between your toes, the fragrance of dew laden whitethorn and crabapple will stimulate every fiber of your body and mesmerize your soul. Then be you atheist or Christian you will sing praise and thanks for the beauty and refreshment of the simple life.

 

Her poetry and prose contain images and details highly charged with love of place and people. The Brooders, Barretts, Coffeys, Garveys, Powers, Touhys and Walshes etc are mainly gone but Andrews Park, Garisiun, the Black Road, Nicholas’s Paddy’s Hill, Gort, Creggera and Cnoc a Lannacht are places she has immortalised as surely as Patrick Kavanagh gave us Shancoduff and Kednaminsha.

Her poetry and prose also deals with a heartache too well known to every family in this island, the awful sadness of leavetaking, of breaking the chord that ties us to childhood, to growing up here, to place, to family, to a sense of belonging. On Good Friday the 18 April 1830 she emigrated to America. Her prose article The Parting is a masterpiece.

She wrote-

Songwriters and composers have written many songs of the heart throughout the ages, but only the owner of one could express the pangs of a seventeen year old heart bidding goodbye to home and loved ones for the first time. Left behind were the companionship of brothers and sisters , the strong discipline, the tender love of parents and the freedom and pleasures of the great outdoors which haunt the memory forever.

 

The rose design on the cover is a mark of respect to the faith and beliefs of Nora T. Goonane and her daughter Mary Forlastro. They share the middle name of Theresa, after St Theresa – the little flower. Nora T. throughout her life and Mary Forlastro throughout hers knew that God was answering their prayers whenever they saw roses in any form be it in drawings, photos, jewellery, in gardens, flower arrangements etc.

Nora T. believed that our stay on earth is measured by our deeds.

In a short poem entitled Life’s Worth, she wrote-

So quickly it’s over

And what have you done

Is your job finished or not yet begun?

You came in the morning

And stayed the day through

Is the World better off

For having known you?

The World is certainly better off for knowing Nora T. Goonane Leonard 1913-2007.