HEAVEN on EARTH
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Over a hundred years ago Somerville and Ross galloped across the pages of popular Irish literature writing of horses, hunts and high jinks. Today, Wexford based Patrick Donegall has taken over their reins to record the Ireland of his youth. An Ireland that has almost, but not quite, disappeared.
Written with cracking pace, he recounts tales of a pack of lively characters such as an ill-mannered royal photographer who was shown the door by a grand butler… There are frisky ponies with ‘attitude’ problems along with thoroughbred racehorses… A drunk priest being chased by the police and a former Royal Navy officer whose scoring at a horse event became somewhat blurred by a bottle or two of whiskey… A slippery eel features unexpectedly in a bath as does fishing in the days when there weren’t many that got away (even though most of the poachers did)… An eccentric gym shoe wearing daughter of a millionaire businessman shares pages with gentlemanly huntsmen of the old school accompanied by their equally elegant, but almost always high-spirited, ladies… And, as if there weren’t already enough amusing diversions, there’s even an Irish cricket match or two.
These are just some of Patrick’s stories. All will entertain and amuse and keep the reader turning the pages.
But Patrick is no detached observer just writing of past people and events.
Heaven on Earth is also a homage that is dedicated to his beloved Wexford. Towards the end of the book, he considers carefully how his part of the country has developed and changed, the issues it, and Ireland, face and his hopes for the future.
Patrick Donegall was born in London in 1952, however his early childhood was spent exclusively in County Wexford. Educated at Harrow School and the Royal Agricultural College Cirencester, he then held a short service commission in the Coldstream Guards, which he loved. This was followed by a shorter time working as a banker in the City of London, which he hated.
In 1975, he inherited the courtesy title of The Earl of Belfast, and, on the death of his father in 2007, he became The Marquess of Donegall.
Patrick splits his year between Ireland and Scotland. In Ireland he has turned the Cistercian monastery of Dunbrody Abbey, along with a maze, into a popular tourist destination. He plays bridge (badly) and golf (even worse). Married to Caroline, they have two children, James and Katie.