30/08/2006
Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.
South Dublin County Libraries
History and Heritage 2006
Book Launch
A Road on the Long Ridge In Search of the Ancient Highway on the Esker Riada
By Hermann Geissel
At The County Library, County Hall, Tallaght
Monday 28th August at 7:30 p.m.
Hermann Geissel gives an absorbing account of his attempt to trace and map out the Sl Mhr on the Esker Riada. This ancient routeway, extending from the th Cliath Cualann hurdle ford, which gave Dublin its Irish name, to the th Cliath Maree at the mouth of the Clarin River on Galway Bay, formerly linked East and West while dividing the island into two similar halves. The results of this research were first presented as An tSl Mhr, a six-part television documentary on TG4, and since then the investigation has been revised and expanded into the present account. The outcome is a fascinating story of a personal odyssey undertaken by the author, together with historian Seamus Cullen, lavishly illustrated with striking photographs and equipped with helpful maps and informative appendices. Anecdotal humour and scholarly references sit together easily in the text, providing an enthralling and enlightening story of a little-known aspect of our medieval heritage.
Hermann Geissel was born in Germany and came to live in Ireland in 1966. After a chequered academic career, which included sporadic studies in Classics, Theology and Agriculture, and an equally kaleidoscopic early professional career as an army officer, farmer, falconer and publican, he went to Trinity College, Dublin, as a mature student and studied for a degree in Psychology, followed by a Higher Diploma in Education from what is now NUI Maynooth. He taught Science and German in a Community School for 20 years before taking early retirement. Hermann now works as a tour guide during the season and devotes his free time to writing, walking, swimming and photography. He has given talks on local archaeology and road research to a number of local history groups.
South Dublin County Libraries are delighted to launch A Road on the Long Ridge as part their Heritage Week programme at the County Library in Tallaght on Monday 28th August at 7:30 p.m. The book will be launched by Mayor Eamonn Maloney and all are welcome!