Kevin Toolis

An intimate, lyrical look at the ancient rite of the Irish wake--and the Irish way of overcoming our fear of death Death is a whisper for most of us. Instinctively we feel we should dim the lights, pull the curtains, and speak softly. But on a remote island off the coast of Ireland's County Mayo, death has a louder voice. Each day, along with reports of incoming Atlantic storms, the local radio runs a daily roll call of the recently departed. The islanders go in great numbers, young and old alike, to be with their dead. They keep vigil with the corpse and the bereaved company through the long hours of the night. They dig the grave with their own hands and carry the coffin on their own shoulders. The islanders cherish the dead--and amid the sorrow, they celebrate life, too. In My Father's Wake, acclaimed author and award-winning filmmaker Kevin Toolis unforgettably describes his own father's wake and explores the wider history and significance of this ancient and eternal Irish ritual. Perhaps we, too, can all find a better way to deal with our mortality--by living and loving as the Irish do.

How the Irish Teach Us to Live, Love, and Die

My Father's Wake

Presents ten years' of in-depth research into the lives of IRA members, exploring the roots of the conflict in Northern Ireland and the personal tolls it has taken on its citizens

Journeys Within the IRA's Soul

Rebel Hearts

For ten years Kevin Toolis investigated the lives of the IRA soldiers who wage a secret battle against the British State. His journeys took him from the back kitchens of Belfast, where men joked while making two-thousand-pound bombs, to prisons for interviews with men serving life sentences, and to the graveyards where mourners weep. Each chapter explores a world where history, faith, and human savagery determine life and death. At once moving and harrowing,Rebel Hearts is the most authoritative and insightful book ever written on the IRA.

Drawing on the wisdom of the ancients, from the Aztecs and the Iliad to the Irish Wake, Nine Rules to Conquer Death provides the answer to those eternal mortal fears and longings. Kevin Toolis distils insights drawn from millennia of human experience into a profound and punchy guide to dying – and living – well. Why life would be terrible if we did not die. Why we should embrace our mortality, and see the life-affirming necessity of sharing the company of the dead. Nine Rules up-ends every fear and presumption we hold about death to help us live a more authentic, fear-free life. Nine Rules is a guidebook like no other.

Kevin Toolis

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