Lest I Forget

by Eamonn Orpen

 In 'Lest I Forget' Eamonn Orpen has chronicled a remarkable piece of social history.
 

    He shares with us his great love of Bere Island and through his eyes we get a glimpse of a way of life that most of us can only imagine.
 

    We experience the beauty and wonder of the place he and his fellow islanders called home.
 

    This book, although a recollection of the past, is a reminder to us all, even today, of the important
things in life - family, friends and neighbours - lest any of us should forget.

    In the foreword, the playwright Jim Nolan, states that Éamonn Orpen’s objective was to share the love of his enchanted isle with his children. “If this was all his work achieved,” writes Nolan, “it would be much but I believe he has done a great deal more. 'Lest I Forget' is a priceless record, not just for Éamonn’s family but for all who care about the social history of our country.”

    Nolan goes on to say that whilst the book is a wonderful celebration of life on Bere Island, “it is also, sadly, a reminder of how much we have lost. Éamonn’s stories describe a community, which despite enduring material hardship on a scale we now find barely possible to imagine, understood intuitively the things that should really matter in our lives. “Reading them, many of us will be greatly envious of a time and place where people who appeared to have so little, were so richly endowed with a wisdom and courage and sense of community which is in short supply in our contemporary and apparently sophisticated society.”