Ruth's World

Here's a photo of Fergus O'Ryan's parents which I found amongst some old family photos. Mr & Mrs Jack O'Ryan.  Jack was my Great Grandfather Michael 's brother.  I don't know what Fergus' mother's name was...or the dog's either! He could be one of Jake's ancestors, ha ha! (ref. my painting Sooo Tired ) ---I need to do more research. I'm in 'Family Tree' mode this week because I'm trying to put my ancestoral melange together at the moment but still have quite a few blanks to fill in.  I really need to get back into 'Painting Mode' though.  I have a half finished canvas 'on the go' and I want to get it finished some time soon so I can get back to my writing.  I also need to take some time out to breath a little and maybe drink some Red wine with my 'Bestie'!  I've got so much to fit in before the day of reckoning...LOL! (reminds me of the one about the girl whose name was Lolita, who sent a tex...

I set out on a mission recently to research my third cousin, Fergus O'Ryan to find out more about him. I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was he famous for his beautiful oil and watercolour paintings, he was also not so widely known as an illustrator. I set about tracking down some of his work and was thrilled to have been able to get my hands on some first edition copies of the books he designed covers for, and lent his talents to illustrating.  He also designed two irish postal stamps ( see details here ) One of his more notable commercial works was his cover design and illustrations for Patricia Lynch's Tales of Irish Enchantment in 1952. Here's my first edition copy. I'm a happy puppy! I haven't read it yet, but I will.

Some more books I've managed to get my hands on are The Big Sycamore by Joseph Brady, 1958 (First Edition), In Monavalla by Joseph Brady, 1963 and Legends of Killarney by Donal O'Cahill.  Fergus O'Ryan designed the book covers and now I own copies of them, Yahoo! A spooky observation; my grandmother lived in a place called Sycamore Avenue.