The Road to Avondale

Cur síos

“Retiring in 1978, some ten years before Coillte was established, Thomas Briody is not just a witness to a vanished age in Irish Forestry, but also a witness to a number of vanished worlds. In this book, the first volume of his memoirs, he describes the Cavan of his youth and early manhood: the traditional way of life he witnessed passing as well as the harsh years of the Economic War, which he spent at home. He tells of his studies in Ballyhaise Agricultural College and Albert Horticultural College, Glasnevin and how he came to choose Forestry as a career. His subsequent training as a forester both at Avondale Forestry School and at various centres around the country is described in detail as are the initial few years he spent as a forester working on the Emergency Fuel Scheme that sought to keep trains running and hospitals heated during the Second World War. This book finishes in Spring 1943, some months before his marriage, when he was suddenly transferred from Slievenamon to the Slieve Blooms.”