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Turtle Bunbury (born 21 February 1972) is an Irish historian, author, public speaker and television presenter. He is known for books such as the Vanishing Ireland series, Easter Dawn , The Glorious Madness (short-listed for Best Irish- published Book of the Year 2014) and 1847 - A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity & Savagery. He went to Castle Park boarding school in Dalkey at the age of eight, and then to Glenalmond College in Scotland. After travelling around the world for a year, he went to Trinity College Dublin to study law, but changed to history after two years. He spent three years in Hong Kong working as a travel writer, visiting China, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The Vanishing Ireland Project
Turtle returned to Ireland in 1999 and, two years later, he began work on the Vanishing Ireland project, with his childhood friend, photographer James Fennell. Their aim was to chronicle an Ireland that seemed to be disappearing rapidly. The project has produced four books to date – ‘Vanishing Ireland’ (2006), ‘Vanishing Ireland – Further Chronicles of a Disappearing World’ (2009), ‘Vanishing Ireland - Recollections of Our Changing Times’ (2011), ‘Vanishing Ireland - Friendship and Community.’ (2013) The Irish Independent applauded the "sympathy, understanding and gentle humor" with which Turtle engaged with his subject matter. Three of the books were short-listed for best Irish-published book of the year.

Other Books
Turtle's book  'Ireland's Forgotten Past' will be published by Thames & Hudson in 2020.

Turtle’s book, ‘1847: A Chronicle of Genius, Generosity, and Savagery’ (2016), was described by the Oscar-nominated film director Lenny Abrahamson as "vivid, surprising, hugely entertaining — an unforgettable encounter with an extraordinary year."

His book ‘Easter Dawn’ (2015) was described by Al Jazeera as a book that ‘charts the fight for Irish independence from the landing of guns for the Irish Volunteers in 1914 to the arrests and executions that followed the Easter Rising of 1916.’ ‘Easter Dawn’ was one of the best-selling books about the Easter Rising published in 2016. It was published in the USA by Rowman & Littlefield under the title, “The 1916 Rising: The Photographic Record”.

His book  'The Glorious Madness - Tales of the Irish & the Great War' also received positive reviews. The writer Sebastian Barry stated: "Turtle Bunbury's open-handed, clear-sighted and finely written book comes fresh and, I might almost say, redeemed out of the moil and storm of controversy that surrounded the topic of the war, in a thousand different guises in the decades since its end. Turtle holds out his hand in the present, seeking the lost hands of the past, in darkness, in darkness, but also suddenly in the clear light of kindness - in the upshot acknowledging their imperilled existence with a brilliant flourish, a veritable banner, of wonderful stories."

In 2008 Turtle Bunbury and James Fennell collaborated on a book called ‘The Irish Pub’. As part of the research, they went to all 32 counties in Ireland, and visited more than 700 pubs. “It's an endangered species - the traditional old-style Irish pub," he told the BBC. "A lot of the ones which have closed are the ones in the middle of nowhere, and they're the ones where actually the best craic was probably found in days of old. So in the country, the Irish pub is struggling."

His other books include ‘Corkagh – The Life and Times of a South Dublin Mansion' (2018), ‘A History of the Clonmel Show’ (2016), 'Sporting Legends of Ireland' (2010); 'Dublin Docklands: An Urban Voyage' (2009); 'Living in Sri Lanka' (2006); 'The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of County Wicklow' (2005); and 'The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy of County Kildare' (2004).

Turtle was the Writer-in-Residence at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco in 2010.

TV & Radio
In 2018, Turtle appeared on the US series of Who Do You Think You Are? with American actress and singer Mandy Moore. He was previously a co-presenter of the Genealogy Roadshow TV series for RTE.

In 2012, Turtle appeared on BBC2's 'Antiques to the Rescue', with John Foster and Morgan Kavanagh, talking about the Incredible Mr. Kavanagh. In 2009 he appeared on the Irish edition of Who Do You Think You Are? with former Miss World Rosanna Davidson. He is a frequent guest on Nationwide in connection to the Vanishing Ireland project, the Dublin Docklands and the Cistercian monks of Mount St Joseph’s Abbet in Rocrea.

In the lead up to Ireland’s abortion referendum in 2018, he was interviewed by Frank Langfitt for NPR’s ‘All Things Considered.’ After Ireland voted ‘Yes’, he spoke with Justin Webb on BBC 4's Today Show to discuss changing cultural shifts in Ireland.

Talks

During the course of 2018, Turtle gave talks at the House of Lords in London, St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin , the Schloss Nymphenburg in Munich , the Kildare Reader’s Festival (where he was interviewed by Deirdre Purcell) Pa , the Black Pig’s Dyke Conference in Monaghan 666901 and Henry Ford’s plantation in Savannah, Georgia, where he spoke on behalf of the Irish Georgian Society.

In 2016, he gave the keynote talk at the Consulate General of Ireland’s flagship commemoration of the centenary of the Easter Rising in Chicago. The event took place at the Chicago Cultural Center, in partnership with the Irish Fellowship, and the Irish Georgian Society. He spoke on the long-term causes of the rebellion, highlighting personal stories of those involved, and Irish Americans’ critical role in its planning and execution. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel likewise emphasized the “Irish community’s vital role in Chicago’s history, as well as the important relationship Chicago has with its sister city, Galway.”

He has also spoken at events such as the 2019 Norman 850 Festival in County Wexford, the 2017 Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas in County Carlow, the 2017 St Patrick’s Day Festival in Dublin (in the chq Building). , the 2016 Transatlantic Connections Conference in Bundoran, County Donegal and the Paths to Freedom Roadshow

Journalism
Turtle’s work had appeared in National Geographic Traveler The World of Interiors, the Daily Beast Playboy, The Australian , The Guardian and the Irishman’s Diary column in The Irish Times His account of the Night of the Big Wind was one of the most read stories in the Irish Times in 2017. His unplanned attendance at the funeral of Big Bertha, the oldest cow in the world, inspired a milk-gin named ‘Bertha’s Revenge’.

Turtle sometimes works as an upmarket tour guide. He also runs the Wistorical and Vanishing Ireland Facebook pages.

Curation
Turtle was the curator of ‘A City By the Sea’, an exhibitions at St Peter’s Church in Cork City.

As co-founder and curator of the History Festival of Ireland (with Hugo Jellett), Turtle brought over 100 Irish and international historians and thinkers together over the course of three successful festivals between 2012 and 2014. The events took place at Lisnavagh House, Duckett’s Grove and Huntington Castle (curated by Angus Mitchell), all in County Carlow. Westlife singer Nicky Byrne was among the guests at the 2013 festival, along with his father-in-law, Bertie Ahern, the former Taoiseach of Ireland. Luke B The History Festival was the inspiration for the West Cork History Festival.

Personal Life
Turtle is married to the writer Ally Bunbury. Raised in County Monaghan and educated at Newtown School and NUI Maynooth, she got a PR internship at a top agency on Fifth Avenue in New York, and then transferred to London, where she was immersed in the world of PR. Wanting to take a bit of time out, she moved to Paris and began writing a book. She met Turtle on her return to Ireland in 2004. Her books ‘The Inheritance’ and ‘Infidelity’ are published by Poolbeg.

Turtle is a brother of the designer Sasha Sykes, who is married to the writer Tom Sykes. He is also the brother of William Bunbury of Lisnavagh and Andrew Bunbury.

His father Thomas Benjamin McClintock Bunbury served in the Royal Navy as a young man but returned to run the farm at Lisnavagh after the death of his father, whom he succeeded as 5th Baron Rathdonnell in 1959. Turtle’s mother Jessica Butler, Lady Rathdonnell is a niece of the essayist Hubert Butler; her godfather Alan Cameron was married to the writer Elizabeth Bowen.