A Place Apart

“Dervla Murphy, a southern Irishwoman and well-known travel writer, cycled into the mayhem of Northern Ireland in order to try and sort out her opinions and emotions about this desperately troubled land. Unfettered by sectarian attitudes and armed with a delighted curiosity, a fine ear for anecdote and a penetrating intelligence, she travelled extensively through both town and country. Frequently, she found herself in horrifying situations, and sometimes among people stiff with hate and grief: but, equally, she discovered an unquenchable spirit everywhere that refuses to die.

A Place Apart is a quite remarkable geographical and psychological travelogue that rises, phoenix-like, above history, politics, theology an economics.”