Drink to the bird: A memoir

Benedict Kiely was raised in Omagh town in County Tyrone. It was a historic town, set in hill country, and haunted with spirits and stories. In adolescence, believing that he had a vocation to become a priest, the young Benedict spent a year as a Jesuit novitiate in the Irish midlands. But a back injury obliged him to spend 18 months in hospital. This put paid to his vocation and he returned to Omagh in Christmas 1939. This book looks at Kiely's boyhood and early manhood and is full of reminiscences about the people and places that shaped the novelist. Benedict Kiely has written two collections of stories - "A Journey to the Seven Streams" and "A Letter to Peachtree" and his novels include "There was an Ancient House", "Proxopera" and "Nothing Happens in Carmincross".