That was the way of it

There is something uniquely satisfying about a naturally gifted man giving an account of his own life - 'the way it was' - as the title of this engrossing autobiography succinctly puts it. Paddy Devlin was born nearly a hundred years ago in the Rock, a district about three miles north of Buncrana in Inishowen in County Donegal. With a memory as fresh as the spring wells of his childhood, he describes the rich folkways of a community that was well able to entertain itself while still conscious of the stirring events in the world outside. He experienced life as a hired servant boy in Tyrone, Donegal and Derry, a labourer in Britain, a peacetime soldier and a survivor of Dunkirk, the story told with a true writer's eye for character, detail and sense of place. The book, edited from a much larger manuscript by the author's niece, Kathleen Barr, joins the list of the writings that reward the reader by their innate richness and provide a salutary reminder of what we were.