At the Edge: Walking the Atlantic Coast of Ireland and Scotland

by Joseph Murphy

"At the Edge" tells the story of a 1500 kilometre walk from the southwest corner of Ireland to the northwest corner of Scotland. By following the Atlantic coast all the way, Joseph links the most vibrant Gaelic communities. Reflections on identity, culture and sustainability make this a unique and memorable book. It will appeal particularly to those with Irish or Scottish heritage and no doubt some will want to do the journey themselves - although perhaps not on foot.

400 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2009

About the author

(Arabic: جوزيف ميرفي)
Joseph Murphy was a Divine Science minister and author.

Murphy was born in Ireland, the son of a private boy's school headmaster and raised a Roman Catholic. He studied for the priesthood and joined the Jesuits. In his twenties, an experience with healing prayer led him to leave the Jesuits and move to the United States, where he became a pharmacist in New York (having a degree in chemistry by that time). Here he attended the Church of the Healing Christ (part of the Church of Divine Science), where Emmet Fox had become minister in 1931.

In the mid 1940s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met Religious Science founder Ernest Holmes, and was ordained into Religious Science by Holmes in 1946, thereafter teaching at the Institute of Religious Science. A meeting with Divine Science Association president Erwin Gregg led to him being reordained into Divine Science, and he became the minister of the Los Angeles Divine Science Church in 1949, which he built into one of the largest New Thought congregations in the country. In the next decade, Murphy married, earned a PhD in psychology from the University of Southern California and started writing. After his first wife died in 1976, he remarried to a fellow Divine Science minister who was his longstanding secretary. He died in 1981.

Reviews

[Marianne Shaughnessy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for anyone but especially for someone who is Irish, part Irish, or wishes they were Irish. While Murphy describes his daily trek through the coasts of Ireland and Scotland, he also tells stories about place, culture and language. I was afraid it would be dry, but Murphy is a gifted storyteller and his story is rich with history, culture, language, and his personal exploration of identity. I would love to follow his itinerary but in a car, not walking 1500 kilometers like he did.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joseph Murphy, after attending a funeral in Ireland for a family member, became interested in the Gaelic language of Ireland and Scotland and decided to walk from the southwest coast of Ireland to the northwest of Scotland to learn more about the language, the loss (and reasons for the loss) of Gaelic in its native countries, and the role that language and landscape has played in the everyday lives, history and culture of the Irish and Scots. Part travel log, part history lesson, part simply good story telling, At The Edge is a great book for anyone interested in Irish or Scots history, mythology, and landscape. Keep a map handy to follow along his journey.