I bought this book recently - it is a signed copy by the author John McLaughlin. It contains lots of names, photos and facts but doesn't touch on any family I research. I would say the author is not a historian but if you have RC ancestors in the townland, you may find it of interest. I am happy to send it to anyone for the cost of postage. Rachel

Rachel, I know you've made a very kind offer here - but wouldn't it be better if you told people what the ISBN of the book is, or how it is that you came about buying it - and encouraged those who would like to see information in the book to buy it themselves? Please don't get me wrong - I'm not trying to come down on your offer - ti was kind and helpful The thing is, that regardless of whether any author is an historian or not - they have paid money to access the information - even if it is only the cost of photocopying pages, their electricity bill - the cost of a typewriter or computer the phone calls to those who might 'sponsor' their work in order to have it published - the cost of publishing they bear on themselves for the most part. In todays world, unless you manage to produce something that has massive selling capacity - then, the costs are pretty much borne by yourlself. How successful your enterprise is - the time you've given to researching that what you wrote about and published information on - whether it even gives you a return on the costs that you put out in order to obtain that information - let alone the time given to the research or the work that went into the publication - well, there's no one to pay for all of that. If by producing something, even if you are not regarded as an historian by the reader - but you have produced a publication with name lists that are not available through any other resource - then you should be encouraged to do more work - to learn more to reproduce more of that unavailable material by those who want information that they will never be able to obtain by themselves. By making your offer Rachel - with all it's kind intentions, then you take from any possible work that this author may make in the future - this author may never make even the amount of money that he/she spent on finding the information - they may never bother to do this kind of research again I see so many all over the place who want information from Ireland - I know that we have a bottomless well of information to be given out - if only we had the people who had the interest in working on such material. We do not have the kind of people that I meet on the internet - not enough of them anyway - reasonably older people with some time on their hands interested in genealogy - we do have young people, with hopes and dreams - who are interested in history..........and genealogy - and writing. But in the heel of the hunt, they are young - they have to survive - thay have to pay their way - thay have to pay for the information they have obtained. If, whateve they produce, does not even make what it cost to produce - then the well will run dry. It won't matter what is there to be researched. I am not trying to have a go at you - I am not criticising you Rachel. I am, however, aiming this at all of you - everybody who picks up any book that has information in it - that has been produced by a living author. The author, may not be the calibre of author that you would like to see - they may not be able to assess things - that historian as opposed to genealogist - but just think of what experience does to us all........... Just think...........even if we can't particularly afford to spend whatever it is on that book at the moment - think about how it would be if we wrote to that person and said I can't buy your book right now, but if I could - I would. The encouragement that would even go with an email/letter like that. How much more would that person do in the future. Think of how that person could feel - having spent hundreds of Euro to obtain information, having spent huindreds of hours typing all of that up - putting something together and then having few buy the publication. Jane ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rachel" <rachel.dysart@ntlworld.com> To: <DONEGALEIRE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2004 9:52 PM Subject: [DONEGALEIRE] Carrowmenagh- a history of a Donegal village and townland > I bought this book recently - it is a signed copy by the author John McLaughlin. It contains lots of names, photos and facts but doesn't touch on any family I research.

Jane You make your point very passionately. And I can understand why. I have had work accepted for publication and know how pleased I was that anyone wanted to publish it, never mind buy it. And I know the effort that goes into writing. I'm realistic enough to know that not everyone who reads it will think it perfect and why should they? We all have different slants on life. I bought this particular book when I was in Derry and didn't look at it too closely as I was in a hurry. I had Dysarts living there at one point as well as in Carrowbeg and thought they might be mentioned. They weren't. I appreciate not everyone can be mentioned - they probably didn't do anything too exciting. I have too many books for my shelves and rather than continue falling over the piles on the floor I decided to dispose of some of them. Secondhand books have little value esp when they appeal to a small niche market in a small geographical area. Rather than throw them out I decided to offer some to anyone whose interests they might fit better. And so few of these locally published books are available to people abroad. And if anyone prefers to buy it the ISBN is 0 9541472 0 0. No offence taken and I intended none to the author- his book will be of real interest to somone who had ancestors there. Rachel