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Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Séamas O'Reilly

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Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?

A Memoir

by Séamas O'Reilly

Narrator Séamas O'Reilly

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Length 5 hours

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“This is a beautiful memoir about growing up as one of eleven children in a Catholic family in Northern Ireland. The author's mother died when he was just five. This book chronicles the large brood of children, led by their widowed father, as they navigate life without a mother. At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this is a delightful book. ”
— Mary • Skylark Bookshop

Bookseller recommendation

“A candid look at the author's own upbringing as one of eleven children in an Irish Catholic family headed by a loving and eccentric father. Too young to process his mother's death, Séamas grows into an understanding of the situation and writes hilariously and lovingly of his siblings and father as they figure out how to muddle on, to great success. A fantastic audiobook as well!”
— Jamie • Flyleaf Books

Bookseller recommendation

“I read a lot of memoirs, but this one was different. Séamas O'Reilly was 5 when his mother died leaving him, his 10 siblings, and his father to manage life on their own. In any other author's hands, this might have been a tragic tale. In O'Reilly's it is joyous, raucous, and gut-bustingly funny. In 1990s Derry, the Troubles are in the background, but not very real to a young boy who was more interested in attention, dinosaurs, and Star Wars than he was in politics. The author's father shines as the imperfect, grief-stricken, unstoppable hero in this book. This is a love story for crazy families everywhere. Share it with yours.”
— Kelly • Fountain Bookstore

Summary

A heart-warming and hilarious family memoir of growing up as one of eleven siblings raised by a single dad in Northern Ireland at the end of the Troubles.

Séamas O’Reilly’s mother died when he was five, leaving him, his ten (!) brothers and sisters, and their beloved father in their sprawling bungalow in rural Derry. It was the 1990s; the Troubles were a background rumble, but Séamas was more preoccupied with dinosaurs, Star Wars, and the actual location of heaven than the political climate.

An instant bestseller in Ireland, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is a book about a family of loud, argumentative, musical, sarcastic, grief-stricken siblings, shepherded into adulthood by a man whose foibles and reticence were matched only by his love for his children and his determination that they would flourish.

“In this joyous, wildly unconventional memoir, Séamas O'Reilly tells the story of losing his mother as a child and growing up with ten siblings in Northern Ireland during the final years of the Troubles as a raucous comedy, a grand caper that is absolutely bursting with life.”―Patrick Radden Keefe, NYT bestselling author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain One of NPR’s Best Books of the Year

Biography & Memoir History Family & Relationships Nonfiction