During my Wild Atlantic Way ride, I ran a competition, giving away a signed copy of John Devoy’s amazing book, Quondam.
The competition took the form of a quiz, and with each daily post there was a new question about Ireland. The questions were compiled by John Devoy himself.
Why questions about Ireland?
For starters, because the Wild Atlantic Way is in Ireland. However, it goes far deeper than that: the UK has a very shady history in Ireland, and most British people seem to know little about their nearest neighbour. What most British people think they know about Ireland often is quite removed from reality.
A prime example of that is the Irish Famine. Far from just a natural disaster (there was a potato blight at the time) Ireland, under British rule at the time, remained a net exporter of food, and the British had the option of preventing, or at least lessening the famine.
This is not an anti-British post! The world was a completely different place around 175 years ago, and today’s UK has a good relationship with the Republic of Ireland. Ireland today is a modern and prospering country that looks forward.
And the winner is…
To enter the competition, people had to answer each day’s question correctly. A total of 57 people answered the question for each day, with most having answered correctly. As I always do, I fed their names to the online random selector that I use, and I’m happy to say that the winner is… Robin!
I already emailed Robin directly, to arrange to get the book to them.
Quondam
Quondam is a fascinating book, by a remarkably talented writer. If you weren’t fortunate enough to win a copy, for a very affordable price you can buy a copy directly from John Devoy’s site. If you bought it directly, you can ask for a personalised message, and as an added bonus, you’ll receive a far better quality book (ito book binding and printing) than what you’d receive if buying from the likes of Amazon.