Posted on 4 May 202328 February 2023 by TMP Publications — Leave a comment

On This Day: Portraits of the Past by Michael Whelton is Published in 2018

Portraits of the Past by Michael Whelton

– a collection of bittersweet tales told with honesty, candour and great humour –

“She caressed the faded ribbon and thought of returning it to the secret drawer. Realising that this would only perpetuate the dream, she tenderly dropped it. The love knot burned, closing an unfulfilled chapter in her life.”
– from the story Kismet, published as part of Portraits of the Past, a collection of short stories and flash fiction by Michael Whelton (2018)

Life, death and all things in between, including the decisions that we make or have thrust upon us, and how we face the consequences; how we allow those consequences to shape our destinies. These are among the poignant moments and personal epiphanies skilfully captured in a carefully blended collection of bittersweet tales, told with honesty, candour, plenty of humour and never a dull moment, though the characters in these stories often seem to dwell in a certain twilight.

Written with keen observation and rare insight, these are moments that are meant to be captured, revealing as they do, the intensity of living in this world and the understanding of what it means to be alive within it.

The city of Cork, where the author was born and spent most of his life, is very much in the background but also to the fore in his writing. Much like what Joyce did for Dublin, the author does for his own native city, with his naturalistic depictions that allow time to stand still for just long enough to afford the reader a glimpse inside

Michael Whelton (born 1938) sadly passed away in 2020. At the time of his passing, he was a retired medical doctor who had also devoted a significant part of his life to arts, literary and other pursuits. He travelled extensively, having lived and worked in Ireland, Britain and the USA. He was also a devoted family man and is fondly remembered by all who knew him.

Published on this day in 2018 Portraits of the Past by Michael Whelton is a collection of short stories and flash fiction, published in Ireland under the imprint of The Manuscript Publisher and available to buy online, in print and e-book editions.

Posted on 28 February 202328 February 2023 by TMP Publications — Leave a comment

On This Day: Through the Pages of History by Michael Whelton is published in 2019

Front cover of the book, Through the Pages of History: an art, music and medical miscellany by Michael Whelton

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Through the Pages of History by Michael Whelton

– an art, music and medical miscellany –

Was Mozart really buried in a pauper’s grave? What role did yellow fever play in the construction of the Panama Canal? How did the painter, Renoir cope with rheumatoid arthritis in his old age? Has history been overly harsh towards King Herod?

These are just some questions (from among a very broad range of subject matter) that are looked at from historical and medical perspectives in an engaging collection of essays by the late Michael Whelton (1938-2020). Through the Pages of History: an art, music and medical miscellany was published on this day in 2019.

In examining the lives of historical figures and landmarks in human history, scientific achievement, artistic excellence and so on, the author brings to bear his own knowledge, as a retired medical doctor, to ably demonstrates how all too often, truth is stranger than fiction.

Mozart, Renoir, Kings John and Richard III of England, Herod the Great of Biblical fame are just a few of the names that crop up in this engrossing read. Charles Darwin, Ignaz Semmelweis, Marie Curie, Alexander Fleming, Rosalind Franklin are also among the figures who get more than a mention. A firm grasp of facts is exhibited but always with a good eye for the story, as the author casts his trained medical eye over matters and phenomenon such as diseases and epidemics, medieval witch hunts, tattooing, embalming, ‘humane’ judicial killings.

Written in a lively style and a manner that will intrigue but also satisfy inquisitive minds, this is book that will appeal to the general reader as much as those with specialist knowledge. It is also a book that the reader will not find easy to put down, once started on a journey that trawls through medical annals, to probe popular misconceptions or shed new light on the personalities and events that have shaped history.

Michael Whelton was born in Cork in 1938. He passed away on 16 November 2020. Sadly missed by family, friends and all who knew him, he left the world a legacy in the form of his published writings, such as those contained in this volume and in Portraits of the Past (2018), a collection of short stories and flash fiction that often read like Joycean narratives, mostly set in the author’s native Cork during the post-World War II period. He was also a talented painter and engaged actively in many spheres of life, leaving his mark and making an impression on all who knew or encountered him. At the time of his death, he had just completed a volume of memoir.

Through the Pages of History: an art, music and medical miscellany by Michael Whelton is published under the imprint of The Manuscript Publisher and available to buy online, in print and e-book editions.

Portraits of the Past by Michael Whelton

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€12.00

Through the Pages of History: an art, music and medical miscellany by Michael Whelton

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€14.99

Posted on 9 October 20229 October 2022 by TMP Publications — Leave a comment

In Memoriam: Seán O’Donoghue (1958-2019)

Seán O'Donoghue holding a Kirby Morgan 17A helmet in Poppintree Youth Centre, Ballymun

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Seán O’Donoghue (1958-2019)

– author, poet, deep-sea diver –

Seán O’Donoghue passed away three years ago this weekend, not long after the publication of his second book, Native Freeborn Irishman. The first print run had almost sold out within just a few short weeks.

Native Freeborn Irishman is a volume consisting of poetry, prose, family and other photographs. It describes a life inspired by tales told around his father’s fireside, about the actions of General Michael Collins, Cumann na mBan, Éamon de Valera, Tom Barry, Terence McSweeney, the Flying Columns and many, many, many more.

“The bravery of these men and women, inspired Seán to become a deep-sea saturation diver – one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, after that of a frontline soldier or a spy. In all his work with divers, over many years, he never met a diver who was not brave.”
– from the Preface to Native Freeborn Irishman

Author, Seán O'Donoghue at the launch of his first book Celtic Ripples

Author, Seán O'Donoghue holding a Kirby Morgan 17A helmet at Poppintree Youth Centre, Ballymun

Seán O’Donoghue was born in Dublin, in 1958. The eldest of four boys and one girl, Seán studied at St. Aidan’s Christian Brothers school, Whitehall; at Fort Bovisand Underwater Training Centre in Plymouth, England and at Fort William Underwater Training Centre in Scotland. Later, Seán studied English for one year at All Hallows, DCU and then, for one year at DCU proper, for Creative Writing.

His job as a deep-sea diver took him to Malaysia (to Sarawak), to work for Shell and, to Eygpt and the North Sea. When the Piper Alpha oil rig went on fire in July 1988, Seán was part of the recovery mission and the toppling operation. He suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after that job. When Seán finished diving, he became a financial consultant, working mostly with divers and oil company personnel.

He also volunteered to work as a Public Relations Officer for Grampian Irish Social Club and, in that capacity, after listening to a group of boys playing in a Mandolin orchestra, he was invited to visit a Romanian orphanage. He went for a week but stayed for six.

Seán won first place with a piece called Ripples, in a competition for the north-east of Scotland organised by the Grampian Speakers Club. Ripples is the story of Seán’s near death experience under the Piper Alpha oil rig, four years before the fire.

Seán O’Donoghue passed away on 8 October 2019. He is sadly missed by family, friends, all who knew him. May he rest in peace.

Native Freeborn Irishman by Seán O’Donoghue is published under the imprint of The Manuscript Publisher (ISBN: 978-1-911442-18-9) and available to buy online.