b'T H E I R E L A N D F U N D O F M O N AC O R E S I D E N T I A L B U R S A R I E SThe Ireland Fund of Monaco Residential Bursaries were established to enable writersborn or living in Ireland to pursue a current project during a one-month residency at thePrincess Grace Irish Library in Monaco. We are pleased to present this personal reflec-tion of Tom Phelan, the Fall 2012 Writer-in-Residence, on his experience in Monaco.About the AuthorTomPhelanwasbornandrearedonasmallfarminrestaurants that would not charge us tourist prices. Even ourMountmellick, County Laois, in the Irish midlands. Phelan had bus passes, complete with photos, had been processed. Onjust turned fifty when his first novel, In the Season of the our first solo trip to the Library, we got lost. Don\'t ask. Daisies, was accepted for publication. Books Irelands reviewer InmyofficeattheLibrary,Iwassurroundedbyfirst later wrote, The most obvious question posed by a novelistic editions of books written by some of the giants of Irish litera-debut with as much resounding vigour as this is: Where has ture. At times as I struggled with a sentence that just would notMr. Phelan been? submit, I could feel the giants looking over my shoulder mut-Since then, Tom Phelan has penned five other novels: tering, What an eegit! But on I plodded, and being free fromNailer,TheCanalBridge,Iscariot,Derrycloney,andthethe everyday distractions of home allowed me to make goodforthcoming Lies. He has also written for Newsday, the Irish progress on Working for John-Joe, the memoir I am writing. Echo, Independent.ie, and the journal of the American IrishOne of the highlights of my residency was an afternoon spentHistorical Society. His first novel was chosen for Barnes and with the polite and attentive students from the Lyce Albert I.Nobles Discover Great New Writers series, and he is a 2008- Somehow, their French ears and my Irish accent made a good2009 Fellow of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. To learn dancing couple, and we discussed everything from literaturemore, please see www.tomphelan.net.to Leinster to leprechauns. At the PGIL I gave a talk of an evening on Irelands Monaco Revisitedby Tom Phelan Forgotten Heroesits World War I soldiers. Afterward, I hadOne night during the summer of 1963 three fellow students and the pleasure of meeting the many Ireland Fund supportersI slept in a lay-by off a busy road somewhere east of Monaco. who came out for the event.We were taking the Grand Tour in a yellow Vauxhall, which wed Patricia and I amassed a trove of memories during ourstrategically parked in the lay-by to prevent other vehicles from stay in MonacoSitting beneath a cobalt sky on a warm Sep-running over us in our sleeping bags. The Vauxhalls windshield tember night, having dinner outdoors and listening to a smallhad been shattered by a pebble north of Angoulme, and the band of Irish musicians playing the plaintive melody of "Thenearest place to get a replacement was in Rome. With the aid CoulinStepping along the terraces of Beausoleil, studyingof a flashlight and a dog-eared copy of Ian Flemings For Your the old buildings with their tiny flower gardens and the laundryEyes Only I lowered myself into a fitful sleep. fluttering on the balconiesReading the poignant memorialsNearly five decades later as our plane touched down in to the villages Great War soldiers in the Eglise de Saint-Nice airport, I switched off my Kindle, putting Alain Lesages JosephHiking up the Mont des Mules and gazing down atAdventures of Gil Blas of Santillane on hold. We were met at the sparkling blue of the Mediterranean.Visiting the Mentonthe gate by the Princess Grace Irish Librarys administrator,seaside on the feast of Saint-Michel, where a proud brassJudith Gantley, bearing a bouquet of fresh flowers for my wife, bandledinaflockoffolkdancersandastatueofthePatricia.Soonwewerewhiskedawayinaluxurysedan,archangel. Vive Menton! Vive France! the crowd called at theeventuallyarrivingatourapartmentintheAdagioPalais end of each somnolent speech. As we sat on a wall andJosephine in Beausoleil by way of tiers of narrow roads held watched, a couple approached, asked if we spoke Englishtogether with breathtaking hairpin bends. they were from Donegal and Sligo.All the anxiety associated with arrival in a foreign place At Octobers end, our Monaco adventure behind us, we was soon allayed by Judith; she showed us where to catch the arrived home in New York twenty-four hours before HurricaneAutobus de Monaco that would take us along the harbor and Sandy came calling. When she departed with our car, heat, hoton to the Rock each morning; she escorted us on our first trip water, and electricity under her oxter, I found myself onceto the Library and pointed out the best places to shop and theagain reading by flashlight. At least I was not lying on the hardtarmac of a lay-by.connect 2013 | 83'