Saturday, January 28, 2012

Irish tales by a master storyteller from Northern Ireland



If you’ve never been to Ireland or Northern Ireland, once you read these 12 tales by Northern Irish writer Gerry McCullough, you will want to go. In fact, you will likely want to go to Donegal, find a pub and wait for a seanachie (Irish storyteller) to begin spinning his tales. 
“Whenever I can,” the narrator begins, “I like to spend a week, or even a long weekend, i Ardnakil, the small Donegal village where I used to come to visit my grandparents -- too many  years ago. And when I’m there, I take the opportunity to call in on old Seamus O’Hare. Seamus taught me everything I know about fishing,poaching, and the countryside.” With that, I knew I was in for a very enjoyable experience. And I was.
Seamus O’Hare is the kind of irresistible old rogue, but he’s the kind people love to sit and listen to for hours on end whenever the opportunity presents itself. Life is a lot less interesting without people like him. He's the kind of wise rogue that adds dimension to everyday life. I’ll be looking old Seamus up from now on. I hope Gerry McCullough has another collection of these charming tales coming out one of these days. They’re irresistible.
A definite  5 star read.

1 comment:

Gerry McCullough said...

George, thanks so much for the lovely review – I'm so glad you enjoyed my stories. I love writing them. They're much lighter than my other books, Belfast Girls and Danger Danger, and than many of my other short stories; but none the worse for that. It's great when people like yourself take time to let me know you like them.