Mackie Rooney, an eighty-five-year-old retired school-teacher has been a busy man since his retirement in the millennium year 2000.  Influenced from childhood by his story-telling father, Michael John, Mackie would be the first to admit that his flair for a good yarn and many of his stories were inherited from his pater familias.  His studies at University College Dublin introduced him to the folklore collections of Seamus Ó Duillearga, Seán Ó h-Eochaidh, Seamus Ennis, Pádraig Ó Baoighill (a Donegal-Gaeltacht-man living in Monaghan Town), Proinnsias Ó Conalláin from Benburb County Tyrone and Michael J Murphy from Dromintee, County Armagh.  What a surprise for him to learn that Murphy had visited Scotstown in the early 1950s and that he had collected stories from Michael John Rooney and Henry Smyth the local postmaster.

Mackie is married to Pauline (nee Flanagan) from Cremartin, whose mother Sarah was a superb story-teller and a fount of folklore in her own right. They have three adult married children Michael, Fionnuala and Aonghus who are outstanding harpers with many All-Ireland titles to their credit.  They have toured extensively with the Belfast Harp Orchestra.  Mackie and Pauline live in his home village of Scotstown, County Monaghan

Mackie Rooney is the author ofRecollectionsa 1991 history of Gaelic football at local level since the 1880s, Eamonn Murray, Monaghan Troubadour and Mountainy Man(2008), Margaret Skinnider 1916 Heroine-The Monaghan Connection and a ghost-written autobiographyOrphaned in the Fifties: The Story of a Monaghan-Man’s Survival.

Mackie Rooney is a lifelong resident of Scotstown and a passionate historian dedicated to preserving the heritage of Tydavnet parish and the Sliabh Beagh region. His work is the result of countless hours spent interviewing older generations and digging through archives to uncover stories that might otherwise be lost.

For Mackie, this book is a labor of love—a tribute to his community and a reminder that knowing our past helps us shape our future.