Dia Dhaoibh a Chairde/ Hallo Friends! Welcome to the launch post for Dark Dawn/An Camhaoir Fuilsmeartha. Through the image link below you’ll be transferred to an experimental format literary game relating to the ancient Irish Fianaigeacht – Fenian Cycle – tales (and to some of my own Fionn mac Cumhaill Series books). At heart, it’s… Read more »
Introduction: It’s raining butcher knives and my chest aches but Fiacail has a plan. That’s the way of it! Little more than two days’ comfort here at Ráth Bládhma and already we’re caught up in its people’s problems. But … it’s a nice place, I’ll give them that. A secluded, V-shaped valley, deep in the… Read more »
AG TEACHT 11 BEALTAINE! Tá sé ag cur sceana gréasaí agus tá pian i mo chliabhrach, ach tá plean ag Fiacail. Sin an chaoi a bhfuil sé! Níl muid anseo i Ráth Bládhma ach dhá lá agus tá muid sáite i bhfadhbanna mhuintir na háite cheana féin. Ach… is áit dheas é. Gleann amuigh ar… Read more »
On 11 May, the story Dark Dawn/ Camhhaoir Fuilsmeartha will finally be released online. A creative project that’s been in development for almost two years, I’m feeling both relief and excitement at finally having it ready for launch. Set in 1st Century Ireland, it tells the tale of a dying warrior who’s been assigned to… Read more »
Apparently it’s been three years since I last released a Liath Luachra book through the usual ebook stores. I do recall that, on that last occasion, I mistakenly made the book exclusive to Amazon. As a result, it was another three months before anyone who didn’t buy it through Amazon could obtain a copy. I… Read more »
It’s interesting for me to look back on some of the older posts and articles in this site and see how my plans and intentions have changed over the years. I recently came an article from 4 years back where I’d outlined some of my book plans including Liath Luachra: Sons of the Land Bodhmhall:… Read more »
Producing and distributing a professional ‘product’ takes time and effort (or a lot of spare money!). One of the issues asociated with being a niche, part-time creator therefore, is that competing priorities generally constrict you from achieving the things you want to achieve (in the time you want to achieve them). Add in family, other… Read more »
Ireland: First/Second Century In the isolated valley of Gleann Ceoch, a dying warrior is assigned to defend the isolated settlement of Ráth Bládhma (future home of Fionn mac Cumhaill) from an incursion of enemy scouts. This experimental format story in Irish and English will be released in May 2021 – final date yet to be… Read more »
Galway’s Macnas are probably Ireland’s most innovative live ‘theatre’ group – they’re certainly one of the most visually spectacular. As an alternative to the plastic 2021 St Paddy’s experience (Covid-19 version) therefore, you might want to consider checking out their Galway 2020 commission – Gilgamesh. As mythological epics go, this one is an interesting narrative… Read more »
There’s a lot of rubbish online about Sheela Na Gigs. Carvings of female figures displaying an exaggerated vulva, there’s certainly a sexual reference in there somewhere, but the truth is that we still don’t really know what they were used for, or what they’re meant to represent. Although found across the European contient, the largest… Read more »
Attached is a short but interesting video on Brian Boru from an old television series called ‘Ancient Warriors‘. This being an American series, much of the pronunuciation of Irish names and terms is pretty dodgy and the producers seem to have got their locations badly mixed up. That said, they do cover the inter-tribal discord… Read more »
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’ rather than actual ‘knowledge’. When it comes to mythology, one of the biggest mistakes people tend to make is an enthusiatic and frenzied focus on individual events and records… Read more »
It’s hard to believe but it’s apparently been two years since this home-made trailer for the Irish Woman Warrior Series ( a series of books on the fictional adventures of an Irish woman warrior and her mercenary war party, Na Cinéaltaí – The Friendly Ones) first appeared online. It’s certainly been an interesting (and slightly… Read more »
The Sliabh Bládhma mountains are located in central Ireland and, according to geologists, they’re one of the oldest mountain ranges in Europe, purportedly once rising to a height of 3,700m. That’s hard to believe nowadays of course. Over millennia, erosion has worn the mountains down to 527 metres and they’re really more aptly considered as… Read more »
Over the past three weeks, I’ve been carrying out an immense amount of work on the Dark Dawn/ Camhaoir Fuilsmeartha Project. An experimental work unlike anything I’ve done before, it’s taken up an inordinate amount of time, far more than I’d ever envisaged when I first started it. Over 2020, the non-publishing workloads I’m subject… Read more »
This week I’m recommencing work on Dark Dawn/ Camhaoir Fuilsmeartha, a new kind of Irish adventure which I’m hoping to release in Janurary 2021. At this stage, I can only say that it’ll be quite different to anything I’ve produced so far. Unfortunately, this project dropped by the wayside as a result of the Covid-19… Read more »
One thread that occasionally raises its head throughout Irish mythology is the motif associated with the burial process of some rí (a word often mistranslated as ‘king’ but more accurately translated as ‘chieftain’) or mythological celebrities, where the corpse is bound upright or interred in the standing position, usually in defiance of an enemy or… Read more »
Sometimes I wonder how we got to this place.
