Did Ye Hear Mammy Died is a book that tells the story of a family as they struggle with the loss of their mother. The author provides a heartfelt account of the emotional journey that each member of the family goes through as they try to come to terms with their loss. The author's writing style is engaging, and the characters are well-developed and relatable.

One of the standout features of the book is the way the author explores the different ways in which people deal with grief. Some characters turn to denial, while others become angry and resentful. Still others find comfort in memories of their mother and try to find peace in the thought that she is now at rest. The author does an excellent job of capturing the complex and often conflicting emotions that come with the loss of a loved one.

Overall, Did Ye Hear Mammy Died is a touching and powerful book that will resonate with anyone who has lost a loved one. The author has done an excellent job of exploring the different aspects of grief and how people deal with loss. If you are looking for a moving and thought-provoking read, this book is definitely worth checking out.

Author narrated his own book and that worked well



A poignant and funny memoir about growing up one of eleven children without a mother in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. This could have been a sad book but it was told with such warmth that it was quite uplifting. My grandmother was one of 14 children and also grew up in Ireland (Tipperary) so there was a lot of cultural remembrances here that made me smile. I also had the perspective of growing up Irish in England during the Troubles which had it’s own set of trials. Different experiences certainly but somehow they meshed. The way the author reached his child self and used that voice for much of the book was also well done. A good read.

I had not heard of Séamas O'Reilly, an Irish columnist, but had seen several reviews of Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? and thought it would be an interesting book for my non-fiction challenge. I was engaged, laughed a lot and introduced to a very different family than I had ever met before. To begin, he describes his family this way: "Seven would have been considered crisply eccentric, and nine plainly mad. To be one of eleven was singularly demented."

Séamas was only 5 when his mom died and his father was left to raise a family of 11 children. What follows are the adventures and lessons as they learn to cook, clean and run the house. The village they live in tries to help, at least spiritually, and the priest often adds humor to this memoir. All does not go smoothly for this family with near misses while on vacation, an IRA bomb blowing out their windows, and more. I can only imagine the stress this harried father went through as he pulled himself together after the loss of his wife to keep this large family together, teach them to live, love and survive. He certainly has my admiration! This book is full of smiles, laughs and poignant moments. Séamas O'Reilly took tough times and looked at the humor and life in them and penned an engaging and enjoyable memoir that I recommend.

I have always heard amazing things about this book and Séamas O’Reilly’s writing so when I saw this book was available and read the synopsis I had to give it a listen. Its also always a bonus when the audiobook is narrated by the author! They are able to bring so much more emotion to the reading (plus who doesn’t love an accent!). The book follows O’Reilly’s family life after the death of his mother when he was 5 years old. O’Reilly has a great grasp on writing an emotionally profound book while also mixing in the perfect amount of comedy. With the backdrop being the end of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and with the start of his mothers illness and death this book could have been very emotional and filled with grief but with the additional of hilarious tales about his family, it was very well balanced with the classic Irish (especially Derry) dark humour. If you are not familiar with audiobooks or narrators with accents I would recommend slowing the speed or you may not catch everything.

Thank you NetGalley, Hachette Audio and Little, Brown & Company for providing me with the audiobook for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Say Nothing is one of my favourite books of all time so I am constantly craving a new read on the troubles in Northern Ireland. While there wasn’t too much discussion about the civil unrest this was still incredible. The Troubles were essentially a backdrop of the setting of Dramas’ life. The sheer prose was incredible and lasted in my mind long after the narrator stopped speaking. Not only was it profoundly impactful but also funny at just the right times.

A terrific biography and something I will continue to recommend to many customers and friends alike

I enjoyed this book in audiobook form. I was expecting a bit more humor, but was not disappointed with the introspection that the author sprinkled throughout the book, all starting and in a way ending with the death of his much-beloved mother when he was too young to have more then a handful of memories of her.

This memoir was unlike any memoir I had ever read before. The initial set-up is undeniably tragic as we are introduced to the narrator and his large family of 10 siblings who have just lost their mother to sickness. As we grow up with Séamas, we hear about different family tales and while their family life was never the easiest, there is great love and family bond between these pages that I as a reader could feel. I even laughed out loud a couple of times and the tape collection of more than 200 recordings I believe was especially entertaining to learn about. This book felt as though I was having dinner with this family while they explain to me the past 20 years of their family, it is very personal and sincere but not overly dramatized. The narration was wonderful, too.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for providing me with the audio copy.

Riveting, funny, yet brings a tear ter ye eyes. The narrators voice added so much to the story! I felt like I was in Ireland and it made me want to visit very badly.

The title and cover of this one caught my attention, even though I had no prior knowledge of the author. The narration was so soothing and lovely, and the story was so beautiful. I don't think you need to know the author to appreciate this funny and lovely look at grief and growing up in Ireland at the end of the troubles. I don't know that I would have enjoyed it as much if I hadn't listened to it on audio but I really liked it.

When I first began to listen to this audio version of the book, I almost turned it off due to O’reilly’s too fast, monotone reading and really, boring presentation. But I listened closely to what he was saying and began to chuckle, then guffawing at every other sentence. He has a wonderful way of telling the tragic story of his mother’s death through his eyes at 5 years of age and looking back through time at the family and everyone’s reaction to it. At one point, he talks about his parents of eleven children; how it was common to have large families, particularly in rural communities. He says they were perhaps, recklessly Catholic. In the 80s and 90s, 5 children were seldom seen; if you had 7, you were crisply eccentric; 9 made you plainly mad and 11, you were singularly demented. Six of their daughters were simultaneously teenagers. His father, Joe, daddy, drove a minibus, the O’Reilly mobile, to various far-off places. And there’s a story about how daddy over many years, taped 88-90 television movies, detailing each one with the length of time, date, characters, etc. Too many hilarious tales to tell here, you’ll just have to read or listen to the book yourself. You’ll be glad you did.

An amusing yet emotional look into the author’s childhood.

I probably would have enjoyed the experience a lot more but for the fact that I used to audio book on at night for twenty minutes and fall asleep listening to it within ten, so constantly having to “rewind” my place

This was my first audiobook experience and one that I would be keen to try a few more times, but I think I almost need to read the book alongside the audio to keep on top of the storyline.

A humorous look back over a childhood filled with love and loss. It's a gentle and moving read and the humour is abundant. There are so many one-liners laced with dark humour that people from the north are so good at. It brought back many of my own memories from my childhood and teenage years.
Everything about the time period is familiar to me as it's our collective recent history and yet in such a short space of time it has become a bygone era. Remembering the way it was back then just highlights how far Derry has moved on from the Troubles.
I listened to the audio version of this book and for the first time, I didn't need to speed up the narration on my app. I liked that the author spoke at a normal speed and in a familiar accent. It felt like he was there next to us in the pub regaling a story and having the craic. Listeners from outside Ireland or who are unfamiliar with the accent may need to tune themselves into it at a slower speed. Listening to a sample would be a good idea
I found the story very moving but not in a sad way although there are obviously sad memories touched upon. The love the author has for his father shines through and I thought it was really lovely that his father could listen to his son reading the memoir and hear him put into words what we often struggle to say out loud to those we love.
A brilliantly told memoir emotional and funny.

Seamas O’Reilly is an Irish journalist; as far as I can tell, this is his first book. He was just five years old, one of the youngest of eleven children, when cancer claimed his mother, leaving his father—an extraordinary man, if even half of Seamas tells us is accurate—to raise them all. This is their story. My thanks go to Net Galley; Little, Brown and Company; and Fleet Audio for the review copies. This memoir is for sale now.

Of all the ways in which one can write about the death of a parent, this is one that I never considered. O’Reilly describes his family, his mother’s demise and the impact it has on his family and the community; and the subsequent years of his own and his family members’ lives, and he is hysterically funny. How he manages to achieve this without breaching the boundaries of good taste and respect is nothing short of pure alchemy. Somehow he finds just the right combination of irreverent humor, poignant remembrance, and affection, and it’s pitch perfect.

His finest bits are assigned to his father. I’m giving you just one example, because I want you to experience everything else in context. This isn’t his most amusing anecdote, but it’s a worthy sample of his voice. After heaping praise on him for other things, he tells us:

He is alarmingly cocky when it comes to his skill at killing mice, a species he hates with a malevolent, blackhearted glee. It’s an odd facet of his character; a man regarded by his friends as one of the kindest, gentlest humans on earth, and by mice as Josef Stalin. He takes particular joy in improvising weapons for the purpose, and has killed rodents with a shoe, a book, and at least one bottle of holy water shaped like the Virgin Mary. He famously dispatched one with a single throw of a portable phone, without even getting out of bed. I know this because he woke us so we could inspect the furry smudge on his bedroom wall…

I have both the audiobook and the DRC, and rather than alternate between the two, or listening to the audio and then skimming the DRC for quotations and to answer any of my own questions, which is my usual method, I chose to read them both separately, because this story is good enough to read twice, a thing I seldom do these days. Whereas I usually think that having the author read his own audio is ideal, since the author himself knows exactly where to place emphasis and deliver the piece the way it is intended, this time I am ambivalent. O’Reilly speaks faster than any audio reader I’ve yet heard, and he doesn’t vary his pitch much, and as a result, there are some funny bits that I miss the first time through; I am doubly glad to have it in print also. As the audio version progresses, I grow more accustomed to his speaking style, and I miss less than I did at the outset. Nevertheless, if the reader has a choice and doesn’t greatly prefer audiobooks, I recommend print over audio. Ideally, I suggest doing as I did and acquiring both versions.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this will be among the most memorable and enjoyable books published in 2022. Highly recommended.

his short memoir in essays describes the hole Seamus’ mammy left behind. It is a story of grief, of irishness & familial love.

O’reilly is one of eleven children raised in rural Northern Ireland, mostly by his father, after losing his mum before he turned 4. The stories in here are shrouded in grief but they are not without humour, no matter how dark.

He looks back over parts of his mothers life, meeting with old friends and family of hers, establishing new memories as he realises the ones he has can be counted on only two hands. He interrogates his own memories, ponders what he did actually experience vs what is a merging of stories told by older siblings.

He recounts small town childhood with joy, talking of family pets and visiting priests. It’s distinctly Irish, mocking of itself and with enough levity to balance what was in some respects a deeply sad period of young life.

Brilliantly narrated, the audiobook version is a hit for sure.

Listened to the audiobook.
I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.
This book was sweet and it really made me smile.

I've been requesting less ARCs lately, in an attempt to focus on physical books I've bought, but the moment I saw Hachette Audio/Little, Brown & Company/Netgalley offering this one, I had no hesitation in requesting it.

This is one I've been looking forward to all year and to have it read by the author? <i>thank you</i>

And, honestly, it was almost instantaneously a favourite of the year thus far.

Incredibly witty, wry, dry, dark humour. And not just O'Reilly as an adult, but as a five year old. I love it when a writer can interweave observations about grief, love, health, every day life, and yet (appropriately) funny as hell. I read a lot of memoirs centered around these themes, and yet rarely is this tone so thoroughly and precisely achieved.

(I started to transcribe the book's opening lines - as well as several passages later in the book - as they had me so hooked, but realized that the payoff is several paragraphs long; if you can manage a sample of the opening pages, they're a perfect illustration of what you're getting into.)

The only thing I would've changed is that, while O'Reilly explains how he tidily subjugated his grief as a five year old and it reared back up as he became an adult, he didn't go into much detail as to how/if he's managed to deal with it now. Would've been an enlightening addition, but wasn't absolutely necessary.

Loved this, loved this. Very highly recommended, particularly on audiobook!

Seamas O'Reilly does a fantastic job narrarating his memoir Did Ye Hear Mammy Died. It's a sad story but O'Reilly manages to make it come alive for you and place you right into that time in history.

My Interest

My constant search for audio books for my long commute led me to this memoir on Net Galley. I am fascinated by big families, so a widowed father with 11 kids--why not? The author is one of the kids.  Dad did well enough to provide a housekeeper even when his wife was alive. I liked the sound of it. Add to it that this is a novella-length memoir and you have the perfect book to finish the week that starts finishing a book on the wrong day. I like "week-length" audio books for my commute. Sometimes, though, I have to to take longer ones.

The Story

"My parents were formidably, perhaps even recklessly Catholic."

"To be one of eleven was…demented.… [and] It didn’t help that we were so close in age and traveled often singling in the kind of large, vaguely municipal transport vehicle usually reserved for separatist churches and volleyball teams made up of young offenders."

MINOR SPOILER ALERT

I know that in Ireland "Mammy" means Mom. Here in the USA, however, the term is cringe-inducing and might get you banned from social media if you used it. (While reading this book, I watched a  Neil Sean YouTube video that included the Al Jolson film, "The Jazz Singer" and I cringed just thinking the word  "Ma...."].

Anyway, the book's title comes from the fact that when the author was little, his mother died of breast cancer, and he in his kindergarten-aged-logic went around telling everyone at the wake, "Did ye hear Mammy [Mommy] died?" like it was news. Ouch! Recounting his life in a series of vignettes (columns?), O'Reilly tells about life as one of the "wee ones" of the family--those who rode at the back of the families airport shuttle bus. The little boy with the cereal box full of toy dinosaurs, whose engineer Dad, recorded on VHS (and catalogued) nearly everything broadcast in Northern Ireland in the Full House tv years grew up to tell the story of how little he remembers about the mother he knows was wonderful. He also tells about how his father coped by keeping busy.

It was the Dad I really liked. He did obsessive things like catalog everything he recorded on 3 to 4 VCRs, he kept a garage full of stuff as interesting as three chain saws, and how was a true Catholic--not just one who wasn't successful with any birth control method. He gave of himself and his time to the church, his family, and his community. He thought his kids were best served living in nowhereville, having poor little entertainment aside from a house crammed with books, and did little or nothing to get involved at school. In spite of this--or maybe because of it, his kids did well. I wish I'd been more like Séamas' dad. Maybe my kids would be readers today!

The O'Reilly kids sang at church events but didn't get preachy--this is not the Irish Catholic Duggar family. At least Séamas (and I assume others) read every book in the house and followed his own rabbit trails of interests so that he came to know all kinds of weird facts about stuff like dinosaurs. Séamas, though, also came to a point where he did not sleep, constantly felt he deserved more attention but, guess what? He didn't go off the rails. He did not become a drug addict or kill people or anything like that. Instead,  he had his appendix out and go back to life. And, he learned to tell his story with humor and grace. After all, if your dad was the kind of guy who had a pet name for his favorite step-ladder, how could you not turn out ok?

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Séamas O'Reilly releases tomorrow, June 7, 2022, but is available now for pre-order.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

Never in my life has a book given me emotional whiplash quite like this one. I found myself cackling hysterically one moment and tearing up the next.

The hilarity with which the author describes experiencing grief as a 5-year-old was staggering. His descriptions of his childhood, navigating the loss of his mother while also living in a house of 12 people were as humorous as they were tender and thoughtful. This book isn't so much an ode to his mother as it is a celebration of his father. That man is a saint in the making! Seamus is such a fabulous storyteller and, in what is essentially a book of short stories, each chapter offers something meaningful and insightful as well as a lot of laughs.

As for the quality of the narration, Seamus' voice is so soothing (and surprisingly easy to understand, though that might be a reflection of my love of Derry Girls) and he delivers the story in such a dry tone that is so distinctly Irish you can't help but appreciate it!

Frank, honest, and as truly hilarious as it is deeply moving, this book exceeded all of my expectations.

🌟🌟🌟

It kept my attention at certain parts and when it did, I read/listened with interest and given it is Irish related, I kept listening. Well, I kept myself motivated to listen.
However, when it was brilliant, it reels you in and you cannot tear yourself away.
What made me doze off was the narrator as it was a dull, monotonous voice.
Don't get me wrong, I get it is a sombre topic but a little fluctuation wouldn't hurt.