For 50 years, Jimmy Maddock was a freelance journalist based in Rosslare Harbour. From a maritime background, he covered all the events, major and minor, for the national and international media including the World Concord oil tanker sage and the Aer Lingus Viscount crash. ‘Freelancer’ is a tribute to his work as seen through the eyes of his son Jim who also vividly recalls his own years of growing up in what was a unique and always exciting seaside village during the austerity of the 50s and the optimism of the 60s. It is an intimate personal and social history of a changing part of Ireland, set against the background of the mushroom cloud of the Cold War and the all pervasive influence of the Catholic church and seen now from his perspective as a 74 year-old grandfather. Today, Rosslare Europort is Ireland’s foremost link with the European Union with over 30 sailings a week to the continent, in addition to nearly 30 a week to the UK.
Jim Maddock is a retired teacher. After a three-year contract in Zambia, he worked in Mayo and then Cork where he still lives. He is co-author with his wife Mary of ‘Soul Survivor ~ A Personal Encounter with Psychiatry’. He has also contributed to RTE’s Sunday Miscellany on a number of occasions.
The publication is available from Print My Book
