No Shoes in Summer wins Guinness Living Dublin Award
for Grange Community College, Donaghmede
A major award was scooped by Grange Community College in Donaghmede at the recent Guinness Living 
Dublin Awards for school project turned book No Shoes in Summer.  Coming first in the schools section of
the competition out of 430 entries, this local Dublin school received a prize of £750 and a magnificient trophy.
This highly prestigious award was a major achievement for the students, teachers and contributors alike.

No Shoes in Summer is a unique book containing contributions from over 65's all over Ireland North and 
South.  An important social document, it began as a classroom project at Grange Community College, 
Donaghmede.  Led by teacher Mary Ryan, students invited their grandparents and elderly relatives to write
down stories - of growing up, childhood memories, their life and times.  Broadcaster Gay Byrne then launched
a nationwide search for writing which led to much of the material included in No Shoes in Summer.  After 
publication the book received huge acclaim and went onto the best-seller list for the duration of the summer.

In this book the changing face of Ireland in the last centuary is explored - World War I, the Troubles, the
development of technology, changing rural life, childhood summers, family joys and sadnesses, wealth and
poverty, lifes celebrations, emigration, banshees and ghosts, true love stories and no shoes in summer.

The oldest contributor, Eileen Dempster, celebrated her 99th birthday last April.  In fitting with the themes
of the Guinness Living Dublin Awards, Dublin in the '20s and '30s is recalled with a mixture of nostalgia but
also a suprising lack of nostalgia. Patricia Kelly remarks:

"There are some who would say it was a better Dublin.  But what is good, better, best?  All relativities 
are opinions."

Many rural memories hark back to a day when small farmers were almost self sufficient and recycling was a 
way of life rather than a 1990s ideal.  The havoc caused by the Black and Tans is recounted by Sheila O'Brien
of Co. Cork, Anne LeMatty of Dublin and many others.  The painful memory of growing up in an orphanage 
in Living with Charity by Seamus Byrne (p 202) is juxtaposed vividly against the happy orphanage 
experiences of Ruth Wheatly (Sunnyside) (p 200).

Part of the profits from the book will go to the Grange Community College Third-age Writing Fund 
set up to encourage Ireland's over 60s to write.

No Shoes in Summer ed. Ryan, Browne & Gilmour is a Wolfhound Press Paperback.
Original Price £8.99
isbn 0 86327 487 0


Thanks to Frank Egan, Lucan Community College for the scanned image. franke@iol.ie