About the AuthorJULIA TURNER was born in Dublin, Ireland. On completion of five years' post-secondary studies, she accepted an offer of a teaching job on Vancouver Island. Meeting her husband in the school staff room and marrying in Dublin, she then settled back on the Island for a total of 46 years. In 2015, now a widow of 12 years, Turner moved back to "The Old Country", to Connemara, where she continued the research and the writing on this exceptional Murphy Family.
Connect with Julia:
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Who's who?
Back L to R: Leo Cyril Eva Geraldine Fred
Front Left: Rev James Edward Harnett Murphy
Front Centre: Charlie Murphy
Front Right: Emmeline Annie (Lennon) Murphy
(Edwy and Olive away at School)
Front Left: Rev James Edward Harnett Murphy
Front Centre: Charlie Murphy
Front Right: Emmeline Annie (Lennon) Murphy
(Edwy and Olive away at School)
About The Murphys of Rathcore Rectory |
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A complex character, angry and aggressive, James Murphy was not an easy husband or father. But all his children said "He made a God out of education." He had found education to be his gateway out of poverty, his way to leave a countryside still reeling from the Great Famine. Hadn't he grown up on the Irish Beara Peninsula, barefoot, speaking Irish in an earthen floor stone cottage? Wasn't he now a Minister in the Church of Ireland, and Trinity College Dublin Professor of Irish, having competed against Douglas Hyde, later first President of Ireland, for the job? He drilled the learning, beating it into his children, all of whom bore the scars. Research into this Murphy family has continued throughout the 1900s, providing James Murphy’s great-granddaughter, Julia Turner, an opportunity to compile the archive of trunk-loads of papers into a cohesive, exciting read, utilizing modern computers and combining fading papers and photographs with internet research tools. This family grew up and lived in a late Victorian and an Edwardian yesteryear. People had lots of fun together, were full of joie-de-vivre. None had much money, but they thrived in a peaceful, gentler lifestyle, in ways not often found today. |
PREVIOUSLY WRITTEN BOOKS
by Julia Turner
(rememberingin2020@gmail.com)
2010: The Wallaces of Kerrymount House (Available from the author)
2013: Desperate Writers of Port Alberni Write Again (FriesenPress.com)
2013: With Dignity and Grace (Hinds.ie)
2014: Dr. William Edward Dillon, Navy Surgeon in Livingstone's Africa (FriesenPress.com)
by Julia Turner
(rememberingin2020@gmail.com)
2010: The Wallaces of Kerrymount House (Available from the author)
2013: Desperate Writers of Port Alberni Write Again (FriesenPress.com)
2013: With Dignity and Grace (Hinds.ie)
2014: Dr. William Edward Dillon, Navy Surgeon in Livingstone's Africa (FriesenPress.com)
Reviews""Julia Turner’s family biography, The Murphys of Rathcore Rectory, covers professors, ministers, abusers, doctors, soldiers, and charmers living at the turn of the century in Ireland.
The Murphy siblings are positioned as theatrical and charismatic, and are recalled to have formed a band and an acting troupe. Turner highlights them as athletes, adventurous travelers, and innovators in their fields, with funny family sayings and nicknames contributing to these pictures. Turner traveled around Ireland to research the Murphys, and stories about the people she met in the process are flavorful. The family biography itself maintains a jocular tone as it shares maps, letters, poems, photographs, and family trees. The Murphys of Rathcore Rectory is a period biography of an Irish family that shows a clear devotion to their legacy." - Foreword Clarion Reviews "Well written, well researched historical Biography"
- Amazon Review |
Who's who?
Back L to R: Charlie Emmeline Annie Baby Olive Nursemaid with Eva
Front L to R: Geraldine Fred
Front L to R: Geraldine Fred
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Before you leave, return to the top of the website,right-hand side, and click on
"Books By Julia" - to discover 2 gorgeous Renvyle photographs! Contact Julia
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