My City By The Lee - Mo Chathair Cois Laoi

My City by The Lee – Mo Chathair Cois Laoi (1985)
By S. F. Pettit | University College Cork
ISBN: none (too local and literary for numbers)
Condition: Good (Cork-proud, structurally sound, linguistically playful)
Offered by: Crappy Old Books

Welcome to Cork, as seen through the eyes of someone who clearly loved it enough to write a whole book, and then – just to keep you on your toes – print the back of it upside down in “gibberish”.

This is My City by The Lee – Mo Chathair Cois Laoi, a bilingual celebration of Cork City, its river, its people and its general refusal to be completely straightforward. Half of it is in nice, reassuring English. The other half is in Irish and printed upside down at the back, in case you were under the dangerous illusion that you’d got the hang of things.

Two books in one (depending on which way is up)

From one side, you get:

• My City by The Lee – essays, reflections, descriptions and affectionate observation of Cork in the 1980s. Streets, quays, characters, buildings, weather, and the peculiar magic of a city that knows it’s the real capital and sees no reason to be modest about it.

Flip the book over (literally) and start from the other end, and you find:

• Mo Chathair Cois Laoi – the “gibberish” version, which is of course Irish, presented upside down to English-only readers as a formal challenge from the author and/or typesetter.

It’s like the book equivalent of Cork itself saying:

“If you think this is straightforward, boy, you’ve another think coming.”

About the upside-down “gibberish”

Yes, at the back, the text is:

• Upside down

• In a different language

• Laid out as if daring you to rotate your head / the book / your entire worldview

If you don’t read Irish, it may look like a particularly literary diagnostic test. But to those in the know, it’s:

• The same city, different tongue, viewed from the other side of the mirror

• A reminder that Cork – and Ireland in general – operates on at least two linguistic frequencies at once

• A bonus round for the determined

If you do read Irish, you might enjoy the quiet sense of superiority. If you don’t, you’re still welcome to pretend it’s a secret code and feel mysteriously cosmopolitan.

This particular copy

• Condition: Good – which in Crappy Old Books terms means:

  • Sound binding

  • Clean pages

  • Nothing falling out, dissolving, or requiring sacramental glue

• Cover and corners may show the usual gentle signs of life: the sort of softening you get from existing on actual shelves in actual houses, not being entombed in shrink-wrap.

It’s entirely readable, flippable, and twistable (for the upside-down part), and robust enough to survive being turned end over end while you try to work out which way is right.

The vibe

Open it – from either side – and you’re in:

• A very Cork blend of pride, humour, geography and local character

• A city where the River Lee is both scenery and personality

• A book that behaves like a walking tour with commentary from someone who’s lived there long enough to know where all the good bits are

It’s not a dry municipal history. It’s a literary love letter with structural stubbornness, equally at home on the coffee table of a Cork exile as in the office of someone trying to look more cultured than they feel.

Why you might actually want this

• You love Cork, or someone who does, and you want a book that’s more “affectionately idiosyncratic” than “official brochure.”

• You’re a fan of bilingual editions, especially ones that don’t tiptoe around the fact by quietly hiding one language at the back.

• You enjoy books that come with a mild built-in puzzle:

  • Which way up?

  • Which language?

  • Why is my neck at this angle?

• You collect odd, clever, academic-ish local titles that look great on a shelf and are genuinely fun to dip into.

Condition vs. Confusion

• Physically: Good – no drama, no tragic damage, just an honestly preserved 1985 UCC publication.

• Intellectually: pleasantly disorienting, especially when you hit the upside-down Irish and remember you were once proud of finishing Wordle.

This is one of those books that:

• Can be read straight through

• Browsed at random

• Or simply displayed so visitors ask, “Why is that half in another language and upside down?” – giving you the perfect opening to say, “Ah, let me tell you about Cork…”

Ideal for:

• Cork people, Cork exiles and Cork sympathisers

• Irish learners who enjoy a challenge and don’t mind turning the book like a steering wheel

• Anyone with a soft spot for quirky university press titles

• People who find it deeply satisfying that something this charmingly awkward is being sold by Crappy Old Books

Offered by Crappy Old Books, where the cities are beloved, the layouts are occasionally upside down, and the condition is Good—even if the text orientation sometimes isn’t.

Keep browsing: See more History books Other books by SF Pettit