This is a representation from illustrator Arthur Rackam of Liath Luachra teaching Demne (the young Fionn) at a very early age. It’s actually a visual representation of a scene from Macgnímartha Finn where Liath Luachra and the young Fionn chase other around a tree with a switch. There are quite a few interesting and unknown… Read more »
Louth has been running a pretty fun community re-enactment of An Táin every summer since 2011 (sadly cancelled in 2020/2021 due to Covid) and it was back again in June this year. Designed as a community walking and cultural education festival, it usually begins in Rathcroghan (where Queen Maeve first assembled her army to obtain… Read more »
A quick shout out to the Irish Field Archery Monthly Magazine which is running a copy of my article on “Bows and Chariots in Ancient Ireland – The Facts and the Fantasies” in their latest edition. Kudos to the creators and their work- I know how difficult it is to produce a regular publication while… Read more »
The first reviews from the paperback are just starting to trickle in. Usually, by the time I release a book I’m far too close to tell if its any good or not. As a result, it’s always a bit of a relief to find the reviews are positive. The digital version gets released on on… Read more »
I’m currently in the process of outlining the next book in the Fionn mac Cumhaill Series, which will finish up the adventure commenced in ‘Fionn: Stranger at Mullan Ban‘ (but not the series). All going well, I’m aiming to have this out in Oct/Nov 2023. This current arc develops the ongoing direction of the series… Read more »
One of the early variations from artist Brian Mahy when developing the cover for Liath Luachra: The Seeking. This was at a point where we were still playing with the colour palette and we hadn’t reached the final ‘look’. I’d asked Bryan to get me a somewhat shocking/bracing cover that reflected the anger/frustration of the… Read more »
With ‘Fionn: Stranger at Mullan Ban’ now sorted and ready for release next month I’ve been focusing more on ‘Liath Luachra: The Great Wild’, which I’m hoping to release in the first half of 2023. Usually, when I’m starting a new book, I play around with the first chapter for a time as this cements… Read more »
There’s not a great amount of evidence about early Roman interaction with the island now known as Ireland but there are a few tantalising items. Unlike Great Britain and most of the European Continent, Ireland was never controlled by Roman interests, although the Roman Empire was almost certainly aware of its existence even at that… Read more »
Macnas have put together another impressive art creation for the Halloween celebrations in Galway (down at Fisheries Field, on the banks of the River Corrib) this year. It’s accessible on Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th October. [Images from Macnas] The blurb is as follows: Inventors and explorers from all over the world are baffled by… Read more »
I really enjoy making landscape and topography part of a story but of course in ancient Ireland you also have neolithic structures and other features that add a new level of resonance to the land. When writing the Fionn or Liath Luachra series, this kind of inclusion is critical, not only for imbibing the landscape… Read more »
It’s fascinating to see what happens when fantasy becomes strong enough to merge with reality (or vice versa where Amazon, hobbits, and Ireland are concerned). When the LOTR movies were first released a few years back, Tourism New Zealand was busy branding New Zealand as ‘Middle Earth’. When the first few series of Game of… Read more »
There are some helpful measures to gauge when someone genuinely knows something (anything) about Irish mythology or not. How they represent An Mór-Ríoghain is usually a good one.
Nice, atmospheric image by artist Joseph Feely depicting a spear volley by a group of Ceithrenn (normally referred to as ‘Kern’ by non-Irish speakers). I get a lot of overseas fantasy militarists visiting the website who get quite turned on by the idea of Ceithrenn. Some of these have quite strange views about what they… Read more »
I’m just in the process of completing the last chapter in Fionn: Stranger at Mullán Bán and felt it might be timely to offer a small taster of what that book will be about. For those of you who’ve been following this series, the events in this fourth book take place six years after Fionn:… Read more »
Ráth Meadhbha is looking a bit run down these days but after 3000 years (best estimates put its construction in the early Bronze Age (2000–1500 BC) I guess that’s pretty understandable. Climb in over the shaky ‘geata’, slip through the trees and you find yourself in an open field that could be a farming meadow… Read more »
I came across this beautifully moody pic by Italian-based artist Daniele Gay this morning while researching a new cover concept. Generally his work tends more to dark sci-fi or futuristic imagery but he has the occasional more ‘historically based’ works as well. Generally, in my day-to-day work, I don’t place too much focus on Norse… Read more »
A great image from Cork-based illustrator and tattoo artist, Michael Nolan (who’s based in Cork under Arti Tattoo). This one really took my fancy for some reason.
I’ve yet to see the new LOTR series but the initial Irish Times review is actually quite funny and they summarized it with the following tagline: “De Lord of de Rings: The new hobbits are filthy, hungry simpletons with stage-Irish accents. That’s $1bn well spent“ I’ve always seen ‘Hobbits’ as having more of an upper… Read more »
