Böcker av Liam Muldowney

Aiming to once more bring the names of a selection of popular Irish actors to the fore, Slapstick and the Shillelagh takes its five subjects and revisits their lives and their contributions in early silent movies. Whilst navigating their early life in Ireland, it then follows their journey to America and onto the silver screen where they made significant impacts on audiences and reached the pinnacle of stardom.It follows their highs and lows and looks at who they were both as actors and as people who never forgot where they came from.Each has a story that needs to be told and their names need to once more be in the spotlight.Kate Price, Creighton Hale, Douglas Gerrard, Charles Gerrard and the Moore Brothers worked hard, led interesting and colourful lives and each reached the heights of stardom and then saw themselves and their careers slowly wind down.

The Muldowney Family lived in Killamuck Townland in Abbeyleix, County Laois, Ireland from 1890 until the 1960s. The family meandered the trials of family life in post-famine Ireland and into the emerging new century that held new challenges not just for themselves but also for an Ireland that was itself experiencing its own changes as it negotiated its way through independence.Headed by Martin Muldowney and his wife Margaret (Hogan), the couple benefitted from a caring Landlord and a healthy location as they welcomed thirteen children.This publication is the story of those thirteen children and their journey as they left the home one by one.With infant deaths, pauper's graves, presidential handshakes, Coroner's inquests and court cases against the King, the Muldowney family experienced more than most.

Containing over two decades of research, Near Dublin tells the story of the visits to Irish shores in the early 1950s of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Drawing on newspaper interviews, personal recollections and archive material, it follows their every move as they became a bit Irish for a small time. Find out what Oliver Hardy thought of the selection of Whiskey on offer and what he made of the price of eating out in the capital. Discover if Stan Laurel was able to get to go on a fishing trip to Poulaphouca Lake and if he managed to outsmart the doctors in Belfast. With rare photographs and anecdotes, this is the real story of what they thought of Ireland and what Ireland thought of them.

Containing over two decades of research, Near Dublin tells the story of the visits to Irish shores in the early 1950s of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Drawing on newspaper interviews, personal recollections and archive material, it follows their every move as they became a bit Irish for a small time. Find out what Oliver Hardy thought of the selection of Whiskey on offer and what he made of the price of eating out in the capital. Discover if Stan Laurel was able to get to go on a fishing trip to Poulaphouca Lake and if he managed to outsmart the doctors in Belfast. With rare photographs and anecdotes, this is the real story of what they thought of Ireland and what Ireland thought of them.

Drawing from all available records from Census to Land Registry, Church and Civil, the author has not only a deep interest in the area but was around when the townland was in the final days of it's country roads and farms. Personally knowing and being part of the lives of some of the residents of the large houses has enabled not only an accurate description of the area but also a real insight into this disappearing part of Irish life. Each of the large houses that once sat on the lands of Ballinteer from the early 1800s is covered and where possible, each resident of those houses has been researched and what has been uncovered is nothing short of amazing. Tales of gun running and kidnapping accompany underhanded deals that saw inheritances whipped away from family members. Accompanied by old maps and aerial photographs, the author has amassed a collection of personal photos of some of the old estate houses that have never been published before.