EXTRACT: An Poc ar Buile - The life and times of Seán Ó Sé

An extract from Sean Ó Sé’s new book recalls wartime in West Cork and those first steps towards a life in music.

EVEN before I started school, I knew that there was fighting going on between England and Germany. I knew that it was called the Second World War and that thousands of people were being killed every day in places far away from where we lived.

As well as that, I knew that we had a scarcity of butter and that tea and sugar were rationed because of the war. Sometimes, my mother showed me pictures of bananas and promised me that she would get me one when the war ended.