About I’m a Big Boy Now by Eamon O’Leary
Life was simpler then.
Your passport to an Irish boyhood in a less frantic, more adventurous age, reliving a time of skinned knees and home-made go-karts, clean dirt, Saturday night baths, and the kind of sweets that’d nearly cost you your teeth. Back when it always seemed to snow at Christmas, the summers were long and golden, and the friendships were forever.
Eamon O’Leary gives us a glimpse of uncomplicated childhood in I’m a Big Boy Now.
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“Undaunted, I persevered. I planted the seed of my first attempt while walking the beautiful Carrigaline to Crosshaven walkway near my home in Ireland. The gestation period took weeks before I plucked up the courage to get the jumbled mess onto paper. It was pure torture sitting at the laptop going tap, tap, tap with one finger, but I stuck with it and, and like a child heading to school with their homework, I attended my first meeting of Carrigaline Writers Group and read my piece. They didn’t giggle or criticise. I’ll be forever grateful for the encouragement I received.
"Emboldened by the vote of confidence, I boldly, or perhaps brazenly, submitted my story to the Holly Bough, a popular Christmas publication in Cork, who accepted my story which they ran over two pages.
“It turned out I was far better with pen than putter and my eclectic pieces found favour with editors and have been published online and in anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Continuing Eamon said, “Although happy with my progress, memories of my childhood were a constant in my cranium. Dad worked for Coras Iompair Eireann, the forerunner of Irish Rail and Bus Eireann. It was the norm at the time to transfer a person every time they got promoted and as Da rose up the rank; we criss-crossed the country like nomads.
“Wonderful and difficult years. A time before the internet, before smartphones, before TV’s pumping out endless, depressing stories. The world of an Irish childhood in the late 50s and 1960s. A less frantic, more adventurous age, a time of skinned knees, and home-made go-karts, clean dirt, Saturday night baths, and the kind of sweets that’d nearly cost you your teeth. An age when we gathered our mates by walking round to their places. When we rode our bikes for hours and found adventure, or mischief, or both, any chance we could – and if it wasn’t there, we invented it.
“I felt compelled to record all these adventures, and whilst writing a book seemed daunting I ploughed on. Penning the tales through the eyes of a child, and when satisfied with an individual piece, set it aside for a period of hibernation, anything between three and six months. On reopening the file, it never failed to astound me the need for more editing, editing, and, yes, even more rewriting.
One needs a certain amount of luck, and I found mine with Bridge House Publishing. They had published several of my stories in their annual anthologies, liked the concept of the book and agreed to publish.
“Since then my book has sold more than 1200 copies, way beyond my wildest dreams, and far exceeding my original dream of publshing four copies - one for each of my grandchildren.”
I have surely laughed out loud throughout the pages of the book, as the author promised I would, with touches of tenderness, a bit of nostalgia of the old days and the time of childhood when
everything is covered with magic. Family life is painted so well I could visualize the scenes like in a film. I had the pleasure to meet the author in Kinsale where I bought the book and I cherish a photo taken with him and the "I'm a big boy now". Thank you, Mr. O' Leary, I brought back to Italy a little treasure! Euski Amor
About the Author Eamonn O'Leary
Amazingly his journey to becoming a writer only began when he turned 70,and he published his first book at 72.
“My journey started shortly after retiring when I realised I needed something more than hacking up the golf course to keep me busy. Having done several after dinner speaking gigs, friends suggested I try my hand at writing short stories. A complimentary suggestion, but there were obstacles and drawbacks” Eamon told us.
“Firstly, I cannot type and, although it’s no claim to fame, I was no genius at school. Metaphors, Oxymoron, Hyperbole and your man, Onomatopoeia, all floated over my head. They were mysteries back then, and I must confess, little has changed in the interim.
