Galway Bay Folk Tales is my new book, in which I retell myths, folklore and urban legends connected with Galway Bay. The book is published by History Press Ireland in June and will be launched on 4th July at 8pm in The Cottage Bar as part of the Colours Fringe Festival.

What I set out to do was to create a book that would have the same energy and impact as my live performances. And what shapes my telling of stories is my belief that stories should never be passive – they must excite emotions, debate, disagreements and moments of breath taking wonder.

The reason that Irish stories survived for centuries and millennia is that they ignited such a spark in people that they felt compelled to pass those stories on and on down the generations. It was not enough then for me to simply retell stories from the west. I needed to step into them and make them as real and vivid as possible.

I also had to respect the fact that Galway and its people have never existed in isolation – events further afield have impacted on the lives and the tales of people here. So the focus of the stories is Galway Bay, but the stories move back and forth across Connaught and Munster, and even further away to exotic locations like Malaga in Spain and Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn.

As well as local folk tales, myths and urban legends I wove in history, archaeology, theories on early settlements in Ireland, as well as philosophy, astro-physics and my own imagination. The book is also filled with wonderful illustrations by the artist Marina Wild. The result is a fast paced book filled with magic and adventures that covers a period of time from the birth of the universe right up to post Celtic Tiger Ireland. My hope is that the book will prove that the stories of the west are as relevant, inspiring and powerful today as they were when first told.

Extracts from the book that can be read online include:

Saint Patrick and the Island of Strangers

Fighting the Tuatha de Danann

Sources

Enjoy!

My main intention with my new book Galway Bay Folk Tales was to bring a vividness and immediacy to the stories of the west. 

My aim was to create a collection that honoured and celebrated not only the stories, but also the times and imaginations that formed them as well as the times and imaginations of people living and struggling in Ireland today. In order to do that I needed to not only step into the stories, but to go deeper and endeavour to unearth hidden seams of colour and tone. 

To prepare myself for my journey through the substrata of the tales I looked around for the equipment I would need. It came as no surprise that the necessary machinery took the form of words; spoken words, written words, words in books, articles, websites and news paper clippings. Without all these words written and spoken by men and women, dead and alive and from all corners of Island earth, my book would have been very different. 

The articles, books, essays and websites are listed below. Reading them was a wonderful journey, that often took me to strange times and places. Some of what I read dealt with matters very far from Galway and its stories, but they all helped shape my book, and I owe the authors of them all a huge thank you:

Cantarino, Geraldo, ‘An Island Called Brazil’, History Ireland, Vol. 16, Issue 4 (2008)

Corfield, Richard, Lives of the Planets (New York, 2007)

Cunningham, John, ‘A Town Tormented by the Sea’: Galway, 1790–1914 (Dublin, 2004)

Dennehy, Emer, ‘A Hot Property: The Morphology and Archaeology of the Irish Fulachta Fiadh’, JKAHS, Series 2, Vol. 8 (2008)

Douglas, M.S.V., Smol, J.P., Savelle, J.M. and Blais, J.M., ‘Prehistoric Inuit whalers affected Arctic freshwater ecosystems’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 101, No. 6 (2004) 

Ford, Patrick K., ‘Aspects of the Patrician Legend’, in Ford, Patrick K. (ed.) Celtic Folklore and Christianity (Santa Barbara, 1983)

Galway Arts Festival archives, Hardiman Library, National University of Ireland, Galway: 

Geddes & Grossets, Celtic Mythology (based on text by Charles Squire ) (Lanark, 2000) original text available at sacred texts

Heaney, Marie, Over Nine Waves: A Book of Irish Legends (London, 1994)

Higgins, Jim ‘Mesolithic Finds in Oughterard’

Hood, A.B.E., St. Patrick: His Writings and Muirchu’s life (London, 1978)

Hughes, Harry. Croagh Patrick: A Place of Pilgrimage. A Place of
Beauty (Dublin, 2010)

James, Simon, The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention? (London, 2000)

Kenny, Tom ‘Some Galway Fires’, Galway Advertiser (24 June 2010)

Kinsella, Thomas, The Táin (Dublin, 1969)

Korff, Anne and O’Connell, Jeff, Kinvara: A Rambler’s Guide (Galway, 1985)

Kyne, Mary, ‘Orbsen – Ancient name of Lough Corrib’.

McGarry, Patsy, ‘Church stance on abortion and soul of child has varied over time’, The Irish Times (20 November 2012)

McKie, Robin, ‘Enceladus: Home of Alien Lifeforms?’The Observer (29 July 2012)

McLean, Malcolom & Dorgan, Theo (eds), An Leabhar Mòr: The Gaelic Tradition Behind The Book (Gaillmh, 2005)

MacMullen, Ramsay, Changes in the Roman Empire: Essays in the Ordinary (Princeton, 1990)

Mac Niocaill, Gearóid, Ireland before the Vikings (Dublin, 1972)

Mitchell, Stephen, A History of the Later Roman Empire, ad 284–641 (Oxford, 2007)

Montefiore, Simon Sebag, Jerusalem: The Biography (London, 2011)

Mullal, Erin, ‘Letter from Ireland: Mystery of the Fulacht Fiadh’, Archaeology Magazine, Vol. 65 (2012)

Ó Riordain CSsR, John J., Early Irish Saints (Dublin, 2001)

Rice, Eugene F., Jr, The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460–1559 (London, 1970)

Robinson, Tim, Oileáin Árann: A Companion to the Map of the Aran Islands (Galway, 1996)

Ross, Anne, ‘Ritual and the Druids’, in Green, Miranda J. (ed.)The Celtic World (London, 1995)

Thomson, David, The People of the Sea (Edinburgh, 1998)

Walsh, Paul, Discover Galway (Dublin, 2001)

Wentz, W.Y. Evans, The Fairy-faith in Celtic Countries (New York, 1911).

Westropp, Thomas Johnson, ‘A Study in the Legends of the Connacht Coast, Ireland’, Folklore, Vol. 28, No. 2 (1917) (JSTOR). Online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1255026

Westropp, Thomas Johnson, Ring-Forts in the Barony of Moyarta, Co. Clare, and Their Legends. Online at www.clarelibrary.ie 

Westropp, Thomas Johnson, County Clare Folk-Tales and Myths. Online at www.clarelibrary.ie

Westropp, Thomas Johnson, ‘A Study in the Legends of the Connacht Coast, Ireland. Part II’, Folklore, Vol. 28, No. 4 (31 December 1917), (JSTOR). Online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1255489

‘The Warden of Galway (The Execution of Walter Lynch)’,Dublin Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 29 (12 January 1833). Online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/30003107

CERN: Accelerating Science

Mebh’s palace rathcrogan 

Rathcrogan 

Knockma 

www.loophead.ie

The Oghil Wedge Tomb (Leaba Dhiarmada agus Ghrainne)
 Oughterard heritage   

‘Public Art in Lawrencetown: Diarmaid and Gráinne’

Inchagoill Island: 

Audio Story Archive
Here are some recordings from the 'Celtic Tales' 2011 sessions. The recordings were made by audience members on a little MP3. Some of the recordings are very clear, some a little less so. But they are all fun. Enjoy!

The Axe, The Hook & The Long Sharp Knife (19:15)

Toby's Wish (15:00)

Ghost Hurlers(my take on my favourite John B. Keane story 'You're on Next Sunday' ) (18:17)

Little Fishes – Galway Murder Story (21:49)

Little Jim(09:02)

The Old Man and The Mermaid(15:49)

The Gruagach (35:35)

Solway Firth Ghost Story(19:24)

The Blue Bottle(18:54)

The Fog (15:48)

Tale of Terror(16:25)

Havering / Lusmore(13:29)

Three Red Hats (13:29)

Yuck! (03:10)

There's no doubt about it Marcus Marcus is annoyed with me. I left him exactly a year ago with his skull and body being crushed and warped out of shape as he made the journey into another dimension. This is not a kind thing to do to your friends, and Marcus is a friend even if he is one I do not entirely approve of. 

My only excuse is that other commissions came up. To me its a perfectly reasonable excuse - i do have children to feed, whereas Marcus Marcus is so rich he could buy up an entire solar system. I promised him I would be back as soon as possible - I even sketched out the last section of the story - but Marcus Marcus is very insistent he wants me back now finishing what I (or we) had started. This has become problematic especially at night when he sneaks into my bed

As a writer, my dreams are very much part of my creative process. When I sleep ideas and images from the projects I am working on take on forms and narratives in my head. This results in a curious dream life. When I was working on the riskybizzness commission my dreams where filled with witty conversations with imaginary people about the benefits of walking and eating well. When I was preparing Transformation I experienced fantastical (and often terrifying) dreams about goats. With Galway Bay Folk Tales my sleep time was filled with vivid encounters with magical beings and beasts.

But every so often as I slept my dreaming would drift far away into a binary star system, filled with spaceships, fanatics and strange mutant creatures and divinities. This is the realm of Marcus Marcus. Lately the dreams have become more persistent, pushing out all other thoughts. Marcus Marcus is ready for the next part of his story to be told, and will accept no excuses. And whilst I quite happy to get into a fight with real people, over the years I've learned the hard way that it does not pay to get into a fight with a figment of your imagination. They can really wreck your head.

So, I've dusted of the notes for the last section of the story. They're good. Very good, especially the twist at the end. So now its time to flesh it out. The new postings will begin in the autumn.  ( Cue dramatic music...)