About Being Normal

Fennell has been a major force in Ireland's intellectual life for the past five decades. In this fascinating autobiography he traces the progress of his life from childhood in Belfast to the first intellectual awakenings as student and then to a career that brought him to live and work in Spain, Germany, Sweden, the USA, and Italy - as well as more than a decade in Connemara - where he was active in reshaping the Irish language movement. The author of many books on Irish and international affairs, he has earned a reputation as a courageous and at times controversial commentator, and his journalism in the early 1970s brought about a rethinking of the Nationalist approach to Northern Ireland, thus providing a philosophical basis for the 1990's peace process. This book also reveals Fennell to be an intellectual very much in the European tradition, as a speaker of six languages, and a deep knowledge of literature and art.