Sweet Cork of Thee

1951

Special Collections DA990 C79 GD98. Reproduced by permission of the Robert Gibbings Estate and the Heather Chalcroft Literary Agency

London: J.M. Dent & Sons

Despite leaving Ireland in his early twenties and never returning to live there, Gibbings never lost his Irish accent. He was proud of his Gaelic roots and thought of Ireland as his ‘spiritual home’. Gibbings returned to Ireland in 1949 to research a book that was a ‘continuation’ of Lovely is the Lee (1945), a work also on County Cork. Again Gibbings was joined by Patience Empson, his wife’s sister. They worked well together, with Patience working as typist and researcher. She officially became Gibbings’s life partner after he divorced Elisabeth in 1951. The title Sweet Cork of Thee, is taken from the song ‘Bells of Shandon’ and the spine features eight bells which represent those of the Shandon chimes in St Anne’s Church, Cork.