'Liffey Green, Danube Blue' is the remarkable account of Laszlo Gede, a Hungarian musician who made Ireland his home in 1969. His story begins in Hungary during the First World War, enduring poverty and hardship, and charts his rise to clarinettist in the State Opera House Orchestra. Between the wars Budapest was an exhilarating place for Laszlo, thrilling audiences with his Goldwin Gede swing band in its celebrated cafe society. The Second World War saw him playing in military bands and miraculously avoided being sent to the Front in 1944, while also involved in resistance work. The period was also marked by his two short marriages. Following his imprisonment by the postwar communist authorities, he escaped across the border to Austria along with his third wife during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. From Austria he settled in Johannesburg and joined the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra. The apartheid violence during the 1960s however led to another move - this time to Ireland. When his musical career was cut short in his late fifties, he sought other ways to earn a living in Dublin - as craftsman, landlord, businessman, taxi driver and engineer. A born survivor, Laszlo could turn every setback to his advantage, while doing his best to help others. Grief at the death of his wife Iren from cancer was soon replaced by joy when he married her nurse Eibhlin Mac Maighistir in 1988. Ever-resourceful with a huge capacity for work, his brain whirred endlessly until the end. This book is her tribute to a man who combined talent with ingenuity and altruism. [Subject: History, Biography, Musicology]

Liffey Green Danube Blue: The Musical Life and Loves of Laszlo Gede

Biographies & Memoirs

Gede, Eibhlin Mac Maighistir

Walker, Antoinette

Arts & Literature

Merrion Press

How much of what exceptional people achieve can be put down to their own efforts and inner drive, and how much to fate? In this groundbreaking study, the authors argue that the extraordinary achievements of key figures in Irish history were indeed unstoppable--a product of their character and unique way of interacting with the world. In a series of fascinating character studies, the authors argue that many of those who were crucial to the development of Ireland's political, scientific and artistic traditions would, if they were alive today, be diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Profiles include: Robert Emmet Padraig Pearse Éamon de Valera Robert Boyle William Rowan Hamilton Daisy Bates W. B. Yeats James Joyce Samuel Beckett

Unstoppable Brilliance

FitzGerald, Michael

Liberties Press

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