Like a Tree Cut Back

Like a Tree Cut Back weaves a memoir of Michael McCarthy from his boyhood in rural Ireland - overshadowed by an incident that resulted in the death of his brother - to his journey towards priesthood and poetry. Interspersed throughout is a brief history of Carlow College, 19th Century Catholic Ireland's answer to Trinity College, Dublin, and - as McCarthy shows - a training ground for priests, apostles and rebels. Part history, part memoir and part meditation, this outstanding book of poetry and prose confirms Michael McCarthy as a powerful storyteller and an acute observer of the human condition.

Michael McCarthy grew up on a farm in West Cork, Ireland. His first poetry collection Bird's Nests and Other Poems won the Patrick Kavanagh Award. His second collection At The Races won the Poetry Business Competition judged by Michael Longley. His childen's books have been translated into seventeen languages. He works as a priest in North Yorkshire.