Buck Whaley : Ireland's greatest adventurer / David Ryan.
Publisher: Newbridge : Merrion Press, 2019Copyright date: ©2019Description: xxi, 246 pp. , 16 unnumbered pages of plates : ill. (black and white, and col.), map, ports ; 22 cmISBN:- 9781785372292 :
- 941.507092 23
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Loanable Book | Library | Irish Collection | 941.507092 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Checked out | 01/05/2024 | 000417085 |
Loanable Book | Library | Irish Collection | 920 WHA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 1785372297 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Prologue
PART 1: EARLY LIFE
Making a Buck
The Grand Tour
Wild Schemes
Jerusalem Syndrome
PART 2: THE JERUSALEM PILGRIM
Lightning and the Moon Rising
A Savage and Remote Country
Splendour and Power
Plague and Pirates
The Holy Land
Jerusalem
Flight
The Butcher
Return
PART 3: DEBT AND DEATH
Whirl and Blaze
The Bird is Flown
The Wildest Goose Chase
The Want of Money as Usual
Whaley’s Folly
Epilogue
Thomas ‘Buck’ Whaley was one of the greatest adventurers in Irish history. In 1788 he made an extraordinary 10-month journey from Dublin to Jerusalem for a wager of £15,000, equivalent to several million today. Nearly shipwrecked in the Sea of Crete, he almost died of plague in Constantinople, narrowly avoided a pirate attack, was waylaid by bandits, and met an infamous Ottoman governor known as ‘the Butcher’.
On his return, he became an overnight celebrity before suffering a catastrophic series of gambling losses that exiled him first to continental Europe (where he attempted to rescue Louis XVI from the guillotine) and then to the Isle of Man. When he died aged 34 in 1800 he had squandered an astronomical £400,000 (around €100 million) ‘without ever purchasing or acquiring contentment or one hour’s true happiness’.
In his lifetime, Ireland was about to erupt in rebellion; France was on the brink of bloody revolution; and the Ottoman Empire was creaking at the seams. Whaley lit up this volatile world like a fast-burning candle but retained his ability to recognise the absurdity of his own actions and the world around him. Buck Whaley tells the full story of his remarkable life and adventures for the first time.
-- Publisher.
Also issued online.
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