Download or read book BALLINA BOY written by Roger KA Allen and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2010-10-22 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The water was as smooth as glass, and with a hint of diesel oil on the surface I could see all the colours of the rainbow ... we were not there just to catch fish but to dream. This is the story of my childhood in Ballina in the 1950s. Packed with adventure on the bustling Richmond River; filled with fascination for my father’s medical practice, despite its intrusion into our family life; and enriched by his enquiring, scholarly mind, these years offered a way of life that I loved, and that exists no longer. Book Review: Roger KA Allen has written a beautiful and fascinating memoir about his family and childhood growing up in Australia in the 1950s. The son of a “unique” country doctor and a nurse, Allen touchingly chronicles his life in Australia from the time that his mother was pregnant with him to his ninth birthday. He describes how his father’s “restlessness drove us into the wilderness like the Israelites in search of that promise of a land of milk and honey,” which his family found in Ballina, New South Wales, where his father bought a local doctor’s practice. The author’s observations and accounts are very telling of the place and time that he grew up, from the descriptions surrounding his father’s medical practice to the medical profession in general, and the practice of frontal lobotomy or the “horrors of shock therapy,” to the introduction of television which had most Australians more educated about American culture and politics than their own. Allen also brings to light the similarities between the way the Australians and Americans treated the real “first settlers” to both those countries, recounting the history of racism and atrocities against the Aboriginal people, and the imaginary games of “Explorers versus Aboriginals” and “Cowboys and Indians.” Throughout the book, Allen places the events of his childhood Australia in context with world events, effectively comparing and contrasting just how similar and different his own experiences and “struggles” were compared to those of people in other countries. Allen’s characters are human and real, filled with strengths and flaws, with all their prejudices, love, and hate, from his father who is so devoted to his profession to his mother’s relentless loyalty to her family, to the residents of the town and the people he meets on his travels. Allen’s story captures the wide range of boyhood emotions. We see joys of his childhood expressed in humorous accounts, like his father battling with crabs that are doing their best to avoid the “final trip on the tumbrels to the final hell of the execution pot.” He evokes a young boy’s wonder in the description of the aftermath of a flood which lends itself to a great exploration of the insects, shrimp, and frogs that have surfaced. The author evinces the humor of the “sex education” offered by the “literary delights” at the local barber and the heartbreak of childhood lessons when he describes a touring marionette company’s performance about a little Aboriginal boy who befriends a baby wombat. “But in the end the boy had to leave them all to return to the world of humans as if this mortal life always has to have a sad ending.” Ballina Boy is a childhood account brought to life in a rich tapestry of anecdotes, stories, culture, and history lessons—a highly recommended read. Maya Fleischmann

Download or read book Clerical and Parochial Records of Cork Cloyne and Ross Taken from Diocesan and Parish Registries Mss in the Principal Libraries and Public Offices of Oxford Dublin and London and from Private Or Family Papers written by William Maziere Brady and published by . This book was released on 1863 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sessional Papers written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 814 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Parliamentary Papers written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 796 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Clerical and parochial records of Cork Cloyne and Ross written by William Maziere Brady and published by . This book was released on 1863 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Census of Ireland 1901 written by Ireland. b Commissioners appointed for taking the Census of the Population of Ireland and published by . This book was released on 1904 with total page 1100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Clerical and Parochial Records of Cork Cloyne and Ross taken from diocesan and parish registries MSS in the principal libraries and public offices of Oxford Dublin and London etc written by William Maziere BRADY and published by . This book was released on 1864 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Stanford s Octavo Atlas of Modern Geography written by Edward Stanford and published by . This book was released on 1894 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Report written by Commonwealth Shipping Committee and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 980 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Annual Report of the Local Government Board for Ireland for the Year written by Ireland. Local Government Board and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Directory to the Market Towns written by Ambrose Leet and published by . This book was released on 1814 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns Parishes and Baronies of Ireland written by and published by Genealogical Publishing Com. This book was released on 1984 with total page 994 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In all genealogical work the first and most important step is to establish the geographical origin of the ancestor. In Irish research the genealogist may know the name of the county where the ancestor lived but be puzzled about a place name given as the place of birth or residence. In all probability the place-name s that of a townland, the smallest territorial subdivision in Ireland. Since research in Ireland will usually start at the parish level, there must be a reference tool that will key the townland to the parish in which it is located. This work was prepared under the auspices of the British government for almost that purpose. The over 900 densely printed pages show the county, barony, parish, and poor law union in which the 70,000 townlands were situated in 1851, as well as the location of the townlands on the Great Ordnance Survey maps, with appendices containing separate indexes to parishes and baronies.

Download or read book Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 1877 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Parliamentary Papers written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons and published by . This book was released on 1813 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Directory to the market towns villages gentlemen s seats and other noted places in Ireland To which is added a general index of persons names together with lists of the Post Towns Second Edition collected and arranged by A Leet written by and published by . This book was released on 1814 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland written by Nicholas Carlisle and published by . This book was released on 1810 with total page 738 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Church and Parish Records of the United Diocese of Cork Cloyne and Ross Comprising the Eventful Period in the Church s History of the Forty Years from A D 1863 to the Present Time written by John Harding Cole and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: