| Owen Dara has penned several screenplays, comedy routines, songs, a one-man show, and the memoir White Horses: An Irish Childhood. This debut book chronicles the author's life from the age of four to twenty as, through the eyes of a child, it delves deeply into the dynamics of a struggling Irish family of the time, while still providing plenty of laughs along the way. |
Book Reviews By Linda McKale The book offers insight into how the various personalities coped with the challenges of illness, economic uncertainty, and discord. No writing about an Irish childhood would be complete without including the presence of the Catholic Church and its influence on the family. Despite the hardships, Dara's narrative is filled with humour and an underlying sense of love and devotion within the family, especially in relation to the closeness between the author and his older brother. The title of this book White Horses is taken from one of Dara's favourite childhood memory of his father and growing up by the ocean. It is interesting how he refers to the condition of his father's pottery wheel throughout the book and how this comes to symbolize what is happening within the family circle. Having chosen to respect the privacy of his mother and siblings, this book is not available in Ireland. His mother voiced the opinion that she had no objection to the book's publication in Ireland, as long as she was either dead or in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's. The author chose not to use his family name but opted for a fictitious one. Dara is a Gaelic word meaning second, which is his positioning in this family of five siblings. "Family comes first," says Dara. Owen Dara is a man of many talents: accomplished singer, musician and song writer. He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne, Australia, majoring in drama. As an actor of stage and screen, he has had many radio and television appearances and has also entertained on the international comedy circuit. He is currently residing in California.
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