The Ghost Upon Your Path

A personal exploration of Irish identity.

We all have a need to belong, to have a place we feel tied to: our nation, our family, or our home town. So how is it that one can find these feelings of belonging in a place where one has never lived? Despite his Irish name, John McCarthy never thought of himself as Irish. Yet ever since he first visited Ireland over twenty years ago, he has had a sense of another connection apart from his antecedents.

To explore this affinity he sets up home on the west coast of Ireland and immerses himself in the lives of those around him. In the midst of a welcoming, caring and close-knit community, he hears stories of isolation, frustration and even madness. There, McCarthy finds an Ireland that is not just the idealized place so often presented to visitors, but one beneath which run darker currents.

John McCarthy was born and brought up in Hertfordshire. After graduating from university he had a number of jobs, finally settling in TV news. He is the co-author of two non-fiction titles: Some Other Rainbow, with Jill Morrell, and Between Extremes, with Brian Keenan.