Bere Island Publishing
| Holy Shoot and The Temper by Robert Clutier | |
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Musicians – inexperienced sailors, among which two young twin girls – pursue the Northern Lights on an unfit boat; for inspiration, and to solidify friendship… to find neither. As the band splits in acrimony, three sail on and vanish mysteriously in a tumultuous North Sea. |  Download PDF |
| Loops: Loyal in the Emergency by Robert Clutier | |
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Before The Emergency (as the Irish call World War II), a determined British military technician became an Irish citizen to work on an advanced submarine detection system to protect the British naval base on ‘Doon Island’ (Bere Island, West Cork). However, when the island came under Irish control, he lost support. Isolated but undeterred, he acquired valuable knowledge about German submarine movements. Regrettably, during The Emergency, his crucial information went unnoticed. In a climate of indifference, his noble mission to safeguard the realm’s naval interests faced significant challenges, not least due to his new country’s perceived stance on neutrality |  Download PDF |
| Dr Brendan’s Bar (A Fantasy Around A True Story) by Robert Clutier | |
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The centuries-old pub, O’Keeffe’s Bar, in the South West of Ireland is in a dire financial situation. The owners, middle-aged twin sisters Brooke and Barbie are without succession and have six months to come up with a survival plan… Young Cian is unhappy with his predictable city life as a banker and wants to become a storyteller, a ‘stand-up historian’. He discovers the rich war history of the sisters’ father, Dr Brendan O’Keeffe. A fascinating life story that eventually created the Bars’ unique ambiance. Cian develops a captivating narrative that revisits Dr Brendan’s many War travails. Such as surviving Dunkirk, and later Nagasaki – in the Pacific theater. His storytelling turns into a global success and Cian finds happiness, just like Dr Brendan, – luck, his origins, a new love and eventually, his destiny. When a Hollywood producer comes with a surprise offer, O’Keeffe’s Bar is saved. Dr Brendan’s War history, Cian’s narrative and the heritage are bound together – the Bar will forever be an icon. Cian has found his place in life – in Dr Brendan’s Bar. Dr Brendan’s story is based on the true life of Dr Aidan MacCarthy (1913 – 1995) of Castletownbere, Co. Cork, Ireland. |  Download PDF |
| Bere Island: A Short History by Ted O Sullivan | |
| Bere Island – Ireland in microcosm; the history of a nation encapsulated in the fabric of an island of under 2’000 hectares. Ted O’Sullivan brings history alive as he traces the ups and downs of an island people, their triumphs and their tragedies. Also recorded is a comprehensive list of the island’s antiquities; details of daring escapes from the island prison and the location of over 40 shipwrecks. Until now the only comprehensive historical Bere Island overview. Available in print with the Bere Island Heritage Center and other outlets on the island. |  Buy on Amazon |
| The Hold – A Bere Island Art Project by Mary Sullivan in collaboration with Bere Island Women Create | |
| ‘The Hold’ documents the lives of 24 Bere Island women throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and the hold Bere Island had on them. The women formed a collective, Bere Island Women Create, and during lockdown worked remotely with award winning island artist Mary Sullivan to use art as a way to express their lives as island women. The initial exposition in the summer of 2022 resulted in the book with the same name, with all pictures and the story of the project. It is available on Bere Island at many sites (Rerrin shop, Heritage Center, Marina). ‘The Hold’ was funded by The Arts Council, Creative Ireland, The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Cork County Council. Mary Sullivan, a visual and performance artist living on Bere Island, works with a variety of mediums including film, installation, performance and sculpture. Mary’s work sheds light on the complex history of women’s labour in Ireland, domestic life and island living. A graduate of the BA (Hons) Visual Arts degree programme, Technological University Dublin via Sherkin Island, Mary received the RDS Taylor Art Award for her work ‘At Home, At War’ in 2018. More recently, the artist has exhibited in institutions across Ireland and the UK including the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland, the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Leydon Gallery London and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre. In 2019, she hosted her first solo exhibition, ‘Breathe’, housed in the underground rooms of a disused military shelter on Bere Island. Mary is currently working towards a solo exhibition in Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre in 2023). |  |
| Doon Island Dummies by Robert Clutier | |
| Doon Island Dummies is a concise trilogy: three short stories playing in different times on fictional Doon Island, off the coast of the Beara Peninsula. A historical account (Loops) of a submarine detection base in WW2, seen through the eyes of a defecting Brit, is followed by (Hidden), the discovery of an important manuscript of a famous French writer who once lived on the island, on the run from threats at home. The final story (Insulated) tells the experiences of some of Doon’s population, when – as an experiment – the developing internet gets blocked from the island. All three stories are linked, by their challenges with perception and the characters’ loyalty for their causes, but more so by the common thread of the larger history of Ireland. |  Download PDF |
| Hungry Hill by Daphne Du Maurier | |
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A storyteller of cunning and genius – Sally Beauman Hungry Hill’ is a passionate story told with du Maurier’s unique gift for drama. It follows five generations of an Irish family and the copper mine on Hungry Hill to which their fortunes and fates are bound. |  Buy on Amazon |