Top Issue 1-2024

24 July 1997 Edition

Resize: A A A Print

New in print

A magic story



The Hunt for Diarmaid and Gráinne
by Liam MacUistin
Published by O'Brien Press
Price £3.99


``The Hunt for Diarmaid and Gráinne'' is full of magic and inventiveness. It is a tale packed with heroes and heroines who have superhuman gifts and all too human failings.

Princess Gráinne, sick of the many young men who come to woo her, agrees to marry the great hero Fionn MacCumhaill. It is only when she meets him at their wedding feast that her dreams of the handsome hero fade into the cold reality that he is an old man. Fortunately Diarmaid's `ball seirce' or magic mole saves the day.

This makes Gráinne fall in love with him and gives her the get-out clause to dump Fionn. A pinch of her turquoise magical powder puts all in a deep sleep save herself and Diarmaid. And with a `geas' or spell on her new lover to do her bidding, they're off on a wild adventure followed by Fionn and the Fianna hellbent on catching up and killing them.

What follows are feats of bravery and magic as the lovers flee their pursuers. It ends, you think with relief, with an uneasy truce but there's one final twist of fate where Fionn Mac Cumhaill shows that even superheroes have a darker side to their nature.

This is a fine retelling of the Celtic legend that both kids and adults will enjoy. It has a scholarly prologue to it that enhances the reading of the tale itself. Gaelic words are spinkled throughout, rooting it to the original and reminding us of our rich cultural heritage. This tale make you want to read more Celtic legends.

Kids of 12 upward would enjoy it but equally younger kids would love it as a bed-time tale read to them by an adult. And as it's the summer hols another spin-off would be a trip to The Hill of Tara to see all the places named in the tale.

By Gráinne Campbell


Part of what we are



Lesbian and Gay Visions of Ireland
Eds: Ide O'Carroll and Eoin Collins.
Published by Cassell.
£14.99


Lesbian and Gay Visions of Ireland is an absoloute powerhouse of a book. With over 20 contributions by lesbians and gay men from across Ireland and the diaspora, this must be the most comprehensive and action packed volume of Queer writings published for some time.

Divided into five sections, Visions covers a breathtaking range of subjects from writers with an equally diverse range of backgrounds. Despite the diversity, the binding thread which holds the various contributions together is the sense of personal involvement that is invested in all of the narratives. Each essay not only speaks of a particular aspect of lesbian and gay exprience but offers a personalised acount of the many facets of those experiences.

For republicans, the high points of the book must be the essays by Brendi McClenaghan, Marie Mulholand and Kieran Rose. Each of these three contributions outline the many inter-realtionships between the marginalisation of nationalists and Queers, as well as outlining the need for an integrated political resistance to overcome oppression and create real democracy.

Of additional interest are William O'Connor's essay on AIDS in Ireland, Anne Maguire and Cherry Smyth's essays on emigrant life in the US and London, and the poetry of Cathal O'Searcaigh.

Of course selecting these essays for individual comment does an injustice both to those contributions not mentioned as well as the collection as a whole. If you want my advice, just go out and get the book, read it from cover to cover without interruption and choose your own favourite bits. A book for all the family, whether that family be straight or Queer.

By Eoin O'Broin


An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland