Meet Hester Cooke, a remarkable voice in Carrick-on-Suir’s rich literary tradition!
In the Tides of Time Visitor Centre, you can step into the contrasting worlds of our town through the eyes of the women who knew it best. A rector’s daughter who published three collections of poetry in the mid-twentieth century, Hester is best known for her book ‘Rectory Days’. Her words travelled across the Atlantic, finding a place in the private libraries of U.S. President Roosevelt and General Eisenhower, Commander of the Allied Forces during the Second World War. This amazing book is available to buy in the Tides of Time Visitor Centre.
Generations before in the late Eighteenth Century, that same rectory nurtured another remarkable literary talent: Dorothea Herbert. While separated by nearly two centuries of change, Dorothea and Hester share a rare kinship; transforming what might have been quiet, domestic lives in Carrick-on-Suir into candid and witty enduring works of literature.
Rebelling from the quiet restraint expected of an Anglo-Irish gentlewoman, Dorothea (also a Rector’s daughter) observed Carrick-on-Suir with an unapologetically razor-sharp eye and wrote ‘Retrospections of an Outcast’. A brilliant new edition of Dorothea Herbert’s ‘Retrospections’ (Published by COSDA Press) is now available to purchase directly from the Tides of Time Visitor Centre, both physically and on our website. This special volume really reconnects Dorothea’s story with the place that shaped it, and features Dorothea’s 13 original colour illustrations alongside her family tree.
A must-have for lovers of Irish literature, women’s history, and local heritage, both books are available now at the Tides of Time Visitor Centre, Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary. You can also explore the exhibition to discover the extraordinary social history and people that both Dorothea and Hester brought so vividly to life.
The Tides of Time Visitor, Main Street, Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary. E32 CX60
