Liath Luachra talks with Feoras

This is a scene from the upcoming novel ‘FIONN: The Betrayal‘ (although that title is likely to change). Set in the settlement of Ráth Bládhma, in this scene, the woman warrior Liath Luachra, is attempting to plan a dangerous trip to the distant Tailte Méithe – The Fat Lands. To do this however, she needs… Read more »

Some old (and slightly mysogenistic) Covers

I’d just started the process of redesigning the Fionn mac Cumhaill Series book covers this week when these arrived in yesterday as part of a historical post. About eight years ago, I’d commissioned some covers and the artist came back with the attached images. At the time, although I was really impressed with her design… Read more »

Monoliths

Monoliths by Jonan Booth Remmers. Obviously, we have many variations of these back home, particularly around the Cork-Kerry area. People tend to forget however, that what we see today are little more than the ‘bones beneath the skin’. Most of these structures are the remnants of something that existed thousands of years ago. They don’t… Read more »

Patterns in Irish History and ‘Mythology’

You can’t really understand ‘mythology’ if you don’t have the culture and the historical context – one of the reasons Western-based “internet mythology” remains an ‘entertainment’ or a false promise of mystic wisdom, rather than actual ‘knowledge’. When it comes to ‘mythology’, one of the biggest mistakes people tend to make is an enthusiatic and… Read more »

Book to TV Series – how times fly

It’s almost four years ago now, since the pre-production work started on a television series based on ‘Liath Luachra: The Grey One‘. The series (to be produced by Graisland Entertainment) was renamed ‘Liath: Celtic Warrior’ and I confess I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the new name – it simply doesn’t make sense from an Irish… Read more »

Coming in 2024

After a hectic, but production poor 2023, I’m proactively returned to creative mode. At the moment, my key focus is on finishing ‘FIONN: The Betrayal’ – the fifth book in FIONN mac Cumhaill Series and, probably, the second last. This particular work has been a lot harder to write than most other books in the… Read more »

Darthuala

‘Darthuala’ – a variant name for Deirdre (as in Deirdre of the Sorrows) – by British artist Henry Tidey. Tidey produced this sometime back in the 1980s. The painting was based on James Macpherson’s somewhat fraudulent representation of Gaelic works which, amusingly, makes this ‘a reinterpretation of a misrepresentation’. It’s quiet surprisingly how common this… Read more »

An Teachtaire

‘An Teachtaire‘ is an Irish-language book written by Colmán Ó Raghallaigh and published through the excellent Cló Mhaigh Eo. An Teachtaire can be translated as ‘The Messenger’ in English but of course there are a number of cultural connotations the English version misses out. In this book, the title refers specifically to Saint Patrick who… Read more »