Travel: In the last few years, there have been quite a few non-fiction books about Ireland, of varying degrees of quality.
Tony Hawks in 1999 kicked off with Round Ireland With a Fridge, where he spent a month hitching the country with his square white companion. In 2001 came the classic McCarthy's Bar, where the late Pete McCarthy explored the theory of never passing a bar that has your name on it. Last year, David Monagan wrote about his experiences of moving with his family from the States to live in Cork in Jaywalking With the Irish. Last year also Donal Ruane had a look at the state of contemporary Ireland in I'm Irish Get Me Out of Here!
Now Tyrone-born BBC journalist Paul Clements has written The Height of Nonsense. The theme of his book is his journey to the highest point in each of the 32 counties. (It turned out to be 28, since four of the county tops are shared). He achieved his aim over a series of different trips, made in 2002. So he conquers Moylussa, the highest point in Clare; Trostan in Antrim; Knockboy in Cork. And so on. He has stamina and enthusiasm by the shedload for sure.
The trouble with the book is that his idea is one-dimensional. Clements even describes it as a "summit-bagging trip". He has to write about height 28 times over. For the reader, frankly, this gets a bit repetitive. Be it mountains or grassy knolls, depending on the topography of the county, there is only so much trotting up the airy mountains and down the rushy glens you can read about before it all begins to blur into one single high place. Unless of course, you love mountains as much as Clements does.
When down from the mountains, Clements talks to local people about their local high places, getting stories and history from them. This is the best bit of the book, particularly hearing poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh say that he has never told Errigal there are higher mountains elsewhere as he doesn't want to deflate its ego.
Unfortunately, Clements pads out this overlong book with a lot of waffle, and particularly with that old standby: pub conversation. Unless you are a genius like the late Pete McCarthy, it doesn't wash. The hard truth is, dull, drunken and bitter pub conversations aren't any more interesting when written down than they are when taking place.
Rosita Boland's non-fiction book about Ireland, County Bounty: A Treasure Map of Ireland, will be published in September by New Island Books
