Long before there was a peace process in Ireland, Van Morrison unwittingly did his bit to unite a nation divided. Born in the heart of East Belfast in the North, he is revered as a Celtic soul hero in the South. His music, while rooted in jazz and blues and soul, has an Irish accent – a distinctly Protestant Irish accent.
Morrison's songs form amap of this small island – a map of places, people, and cultures, too. They evoke a long-ago Belfast at a time before it became violently divided by sectarian conflict during the Troubles. They laud literary g iants James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, and Oscar Wilde. They tell of the immigrant experience, the going away from the land that has long been Ireland'sheartache. And they form a map of Morrison himself, revealing more than this notoriously difficult character ever would in interviews or conver sations.
A Sense of Wonder is not a biography of Van Morrison. Rather, it is a journey through the Ireland depicted in his songs – a journey that begins in Hyndford Street, where we encounter the likes of John McCormack and the McPeake family, and culminates in a unique picture of an idyllic, almost mythical Ireland where spirituality trumps organized religion, and art yields a stronger legacy than politics.
Drawing on original research and interviews with a wide range of characters – from collaborators and associates of Morrison to Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and actor Liam Neeson –this is a book about the Ireland that made Morrison, and the Ireland th at he has remade himself through a stunning, sprawling body of work thatspans almost six decades.
