I Sailed the Sky in a Silver Ship 
(Published in the US and Canada as "Judas in Kilkenny")
by Theresa Lennon Blunt
2002 

(Reviewed by Gerry Moran, Kilkenny People, October 25, 2002)

I am standing in a queue in the Book Centre in High Street to have a book signed. The last time I did this was back in August 2000, during Kilkenny's Arts Festival. It took me forty-five minutes to get to the author, Richard Ford, one of America's leading fiction writers.

Today's queue isn't quite that long. In fact today's queue is short and I am damn glad I came along. When I get to the table, a petite, elderly lady with auburn hair and warm, intelligent eyes greets me. Shaking her hand I introduce myself and heartily compliment her on the publication of her book which she graciously signs.

The lady in question is no famous author. The lady in question is not famous at all. She is no Edwina Curry or Ulrika Jonsson. She is no Maeve Binchy or Alice Taylor. Her name is Theresa Lennon Blunt; she hails from Stephen Street in Kilkenny and is at present residing in Vancouver in Canada. Theresa, fair dues to her, has just launched "I Sailed the Sky in a Silver Ship" - her first book to be published.

"I Sailed the Sky in a Silver Ship" is, to quote the blurb on the cover, about "coming of age in the Marble City" in the 'forties and 'fifties. It is about the life and times of Theresa Lennon Blunt or Tess Lennon as her contemporaries would have known her. It is a book about the hard times, tough times, marital breakdown, unemployment and alcoholism. It is also a book filled with nostalgia and love and tender childhood reminiscences. Above all it is a book based totally in Kilkenny.

On the odd occasions that I have written about Daly's Hill or Caesar's Lane or Tom Brett's sweet shop - I have had wonderful responses from readers of the Kilkenny People. People love reading and hearing about these places. Just as I, along with thousands of others, have enjoyed reading Jimmy Rhatigan's (he of nine page fame) recent pieces about old Kilkenny.

Anyone who enjoyed those articles will absolutely love reading Theresa Lennon Blunt's book. The Fairgreen, The Waterbarrack, the Closh, Woolworths, The Boot Factory, the great flood of '47, The Black Quarry, the famous or rather infamous San or Sanatorium, The Meadows, The Monster House, the Metropole Hotel, matinees in the Regent - they all feature. As do such characters of the time as Sean Byrne, Jimmy Murray, Jack Mulcahy, Galtee Murphy, Tommy Murphy and a host of others. Indeed, if you're a certain age you may well find yourself in the pages of this book.

Although Tess Lennon is writing of events and circumstances before my time, nevertheless the book resonates with places and characters and carry-on that I knew only too well. Things hadn't changed all that much by the time I too was catching brickeens in the Breagagh or praying fervently for special intentions in the back of the Black Abbey.

I had never heard of Theresa Lennon Blunt until last week when I saw her book in the Book Centre window. However, I as avidly leafed through the pages I realised that I most certainly knew, or was aware of, her younger brother Jimmy. Jimmy Lennon was, to our childish eyes back in the fifties, the Elvis Presley or perhaps the Frank Ifield of Kilkenny.

Jimmy was cool, Jimmy was the real thing - tall with black slicked-back hair, he played guitar, and sang and was a member, if not co-founder, of the famous Black Aces Showband. He emigrated to England later and even cut a record. "He taught me to Yodel" it was called or was it "She taught me to Yodel" - damn it. I can't be sure but someone taught Jimmy Lennon to yodel and boy did he do a good job on it.

Now, almost forty years on, things are beginning to connect for me. That house in Stephen's Street that I would have known only too well because of its proximity to my primary school; the faces and figures I would have seen coming and going are all coming back to me now - thanks to this book. And Jimmy is still singing and playing across the water, Theresa informed me, with his own group, The Four Aces, which includes two of his sons.

Theresa Lennon Blunt is no spring chicken (and I'm sure she won't mind me saying that) but by God there's still a spring in her step and a twinkle in her eye. I think it's wonderful that she has written this book and captured a period of Kilkenny that I certainly remember all too well. Or as well as can be expected for someone who came of age in the 'fifties and 'sixties in the Marble City.

"I Sailed the Sky in a Silver Ship" is a book written from the heart but a book that is nevertheless uncompromising with the truth. It is a gentle, innocent, honest and at times hard-hitting memoir about coming of age in the Marble City.

Limerick has its Frank McCourt, Dublin has its Peter Sheridan and now Kilkenny has Theresa Lennon Blunt. For the memories, Tess, the good, the bad and the ugly - thank you.

http://www.judasinkilkenny.com.