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Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?: A Memoir | Séamas O'Reilly
7 posts | 9 read | 7 to read
A heartwarming and hilarious family memoir of growing up as one of eleven siblings raised by a single dad in Northern Ireland at the end of the Troubles. After the untimely death of his mother, five-year old Seamas and his ten (TEN!) siblings were left to the care of their loving but understandably beleaguered father. In this thoroughly delightful memoir, we follow Seamas and the rest of his rowdy clan as they learn to cook, clean, do the laundry, and struggle (often hilariously) to keep the household running smoothly and turn into adults in the absence of the woman who had held them together. Along the way, we see Seamas through various adventures: There's the time the family's windows were blown out by an IRA bomb; the time a priest blessed their thirteen-seater caravan before they took off for a holiday on which they narrowly escaped death; the time Seamas worked as a guide in a leprechaun museum during the recession; and of course, the time he inadvertently found himself on ketamine while serving drinks to the President of Ireland. Through it all, the lovable, ginger-haired Seamas regales us with his combination of wit, absurdity, and tenderness, creating a charming and unforgettable portrait of an oddly gigantic family's search for some semblance of normalcy.
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review
Becker
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Mehso-so

I can see why someone would love this book. It‘s touching and funny in places. But humour is a very individual taste and I didn‘t seem to connect with it in this book. 🫤

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charl08
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I wanted to learn things as quickly as it took a spirited montage to finish: was this so much to ask? A childhood spent watching films in which scrappy gangs of misfits manufacture outwardly ramshackle but entirely viable mansions in trees had led me and my siblings to believe we'd just kind of get the hang of building a treehouse as we went.

37 likes1 stack add
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Onioons
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I loved this memoir - genuinely heartwarming, brutally sad in moments and gorgeously told throughout.

“Joe O'Reilly is a wonderful man, and a doting father, but he will often side with mechanical objects over his children. If it comes down to a dispute between one of us and a six-foot metal door panel clunking to the ground in a shower of sparks, he'll take the door's word for it every time.â€

#alphabetgame #letterd @alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Thank you for playing 📚🙌🻠2y
18 likes1 comment
review
jlhammar
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Pickpick

Wonderful memoir! So funny and charming.

O‘Reilly‘s mother died when he was only five. He grew up in Northern Ireland at the end of the Troubles as one of eleven siblings. Winner of 2021‘s An Post Irish Book Award for biography.

EvieBee I can‘t wait to read this! 2y
Amiable Ooh, this looks good—stacking! 2y
61 likes5 stack adds2 comments
quote
jlhammar
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“My parents were formidably—perhaps recklessly—Catholic, but even among the ranks of the devout, families with five kids were seldom seen. Seven would have been considered crisply eccentric, and nine plainly mad. To be one of eleven was singularly, fizzily demented.â€

Pic of author with his 10(!) siblings.

Maria514626 That‘s a great photo. 😠So many personalities! 2y
LitStephanie I agree with that assessment. Nuts! 🤣 2y
51 likes1 stack add2 comments
blurb
jlhammar
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“One thing they don‘t tell you about mammies is that when they die you get new trousers.â€

#FirstLineFridays

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jlhammar
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#Bookmail! I preordered this ages ago and the pub date kept getting pushed back. So glad it‘s here. I‘m very ready for an Irish family memoir described as “heartwarming and hilarious.â€

39 likes2 stack adds