Clonkill man launches book this week

Ten years after he first came up with the idea, a Clonkill great grandfather will launch a book about his visit to the Holy Land this Thursday evening.

The gestation period for Patrick Gaynor’s book, My Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, is undoubtedly longer than most publications, but to say life got in the way is a massive understatement.

A father of five, grandfather of six and, as of last year, a great grandfather of one, the affable 84-year-old was part of the Diocesan pilgrimage led by Fr Padraig McMahon that visited the Holy Land in 2011.

The trip left a deep impression on him and he says that “sometime in 2012” he thought that “maybe I should make some kind of record for the family”.

He started writing what he describes as “little bits of scraps” about his experience, but subsequently got involved in researching the history of Clonkill Hurling Club ahead of its centenary in 2017 and spent three years in Mullingar Library looking through its local newspaper archive on microfilm for the project.

In 2017, he had a close brush with death when he suffered a subdural haematoma and had to undergo a five-hour operation to relieve the pressure on his brain.

During his recovery, he says that he decided to finally look at publishing a book about his trip and enlisted the help of his brother Frank, a published author, to “hammer it [his “scraps”] into some kind of shape”.

Fast forward a few years and Frank is finally launching My Pilgrimage to the Holy Land this Thursday in the Annebrook House Hotel at 7pm.

The book is published by Topic Print and former IT instructor Patrick is grateful to the work put in by the team there, especially Stephen and Tom.

After taking so long to come to fruition, Patrick says that he is looking forward to finally launching his maiden book in the company of his large family and friends.