Description
Seosamh Ó Cuinneagáin, originally from Co. Kilkenny and now living in Limerick, traces his fascination with Germany back to his childhood in Seskin, Lisdowney, where a local veteran, Paddy Stapleton, would visit the family farm with vivid stories of German efficiency from his time fighting at the Somme.
While studying German at University College Cork, Seosamh spent summers in Berlin from the mid-1970s through the 1990s, working in a cemetery by day and attending lectures on German language, culture, and history by night; experience that contributed to both his MEd and PhD in linguistics. Through his cemetery colleagues, many of them former high-ranking Wehrmacht officers, he gained rare first-hand insight into the legacy of the Second World War. Crossing into Soviet-controlled East Berlin also gave him a visceral experience of Cold War tension that left a lasting mark.
