New collection of Dervla Murphy's writings to be launched on Wednesday

The Waterford author's writing on the Israel-Palestine conflict will provide context to the terrible events we are seeing unfold 

Late author Dervla Murphy at her home in Lismore, Co, Waterford. Picture: Denis Scannell

Were Dervla Murphy, Ireland’s most famous travel writer, still alive she would utterly despair of the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, having spent considerable time there, minutely examining the issues, talking to key players on both sides and to peace activists for her last two books about the conflict-ridden region.

Some of those she met and who told her of their hopes and dreams will undoubtedly have died since the incursion by Israeli forces over three weeks ago.

In July 2011, at the age of 80, the indefatigable Irishwoman spent a month in the Gaza strip, overcoming huge difficulties and dangers because she wanted to see and understand the issues.

Her experiences, conversations and insights led her to become a passionate advocate for the One-State solution, based also on earlier visits to Israel where she spent three months, followed by five months in the West Bank. She was living in Balata refugee camp near Nablus during ‘Operation Cast Lead’ the 22 day Israeli attack on the Gaza strip.

For a fuller understanding of the plight of Palestinian refugees, complex history on both sides and calls for a pause in hostilities to allow vital humanitarian aid to reach the two million people under siege, the spotlight has fallen once more on Dervla Murphy’s rare insight into the region.

Her close friend, sociologist and academic Dr Ethel Crowley has edited a new book titled 'Life At Full Tilt: The Selected Writings of Dervla Murphy', a collection of some of Murphy’s best work whose Irish launch is being held in Waterstones, Cork, on Wednesday, November 1.

In the section ‘An Advocate for Justice‘, extracts from A Month by the Sea: Encounters in Gaza and Between River and Sea: Encounters in Israel and Palestine, Murphy speaks of the memorable evenings she spent at the home of Dr Nasser Abu Shabaan, surgeon in Gaza city’s al-Shifa hospital, which has come under relentless bombing in the past weeks. 

Crowley describes the anthology as a labour of love she created with the writer’s publishers Eland. The London publishing house has also re-published some of Dervla’s earlier popular books.

Life at Full Tilt, a collection of some of Murphy’s best work, includes extracts from her well-known books such as 'Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle' and 'Wheels Within Wheels', as well as some of her lesser-known works like 'Race to the Finish? The Nuclear Stakes' and 'Through the Embers of Chaos: Balkan Journeys'.

Crowley’s remarkable achievement, presenting the essence of Dervla Murphy’s adventurous view of the world – to go somewhere that interested her and see who she met making for fresh encounters every day - highlights the indefatigable travel writer’s passionate engagement with the world and its injustices, her importance as a role model for women and environmentalists and her unflinching independence , selecting half a dozen extracts from each of her twenty four books.