King Of The Blind (Carolan's Concerto second edition)
Back in the early 1980’s I travelled around Ireland on my personal pilgrimage. I was very fortunate to meet many fine traditional storytellers. The tradition was still very much alive at that time even if many of the greatest practitioners were in their 80’s.
Young Irish people around my age at that time weren’t interested in these tales so I was welcomed by storytellers with open arms. A number of times I was blessed to spend several days with an old man or woman who rattled off every tale they could remember. I loved it.
Not long after I arrived in Dublin, completely by chance, I met the late great Derek Bell, a master of the Irish harp. Though the meeting was all too brief he inspired me to look for stories about O’Carolan and his relationship to the Otherworldly beings known as the Shee in Ireland.
I’m the first to admit now that he may well have been pulling my leg, but at the time I was very excited by the few snippets of stories he told me. So, I set off on my quest and I collected many stories about Turlough O’Carolan, O’Carolan’s music and his encounters with the Shee-folk.
It never crossed my mind that one day I’d write a novel based on these tales. It was many years later I went back to them to form the foundation for “King of the Blind”. I just enjoyed them for what they were, folk-tales from a bygone age.
On my travels I also heard a version of history I hadn’t encountered before; told from the point of view of the defeated, rather than the victors. This was particularly eye opening for me because I was struggling to understand the on-going conflict between Catholics and Protestants. It seemed irrelevant and petty to me.
I eventually realised that the version of history I’d been taught was only half the story. Seen from the perspective of the ‘losing side’ in the conflict the official history was actually quite fanciful and offensive. Yet this official tale had come to dominate all discussions about the root causes of the conflict.
It was a deeply shocking moment when I realised how powerful stories really are. Whoever controls the narrative, controls the culture. Whoever controls the culture controls the society. And that’s what inspired me to write ‘King of the Blind”. It’s really a story about stories and storytellers.
The great composer Turlough O’Carolan represents only one aspect to this book.
I'm so pleased to announce that King Of The Blind, A toast to music, mirth, storytelling & whiskey, is now available to the world on Amazon Kindle.
Young Irish people around my age at that time weren’t interested in these tales so I was welcomed by storytellers with open arms. A number of times I was blessed to spend several days with an old man or woman who rattled off every tale they could remember. I loved it.
Not long after I arrived in Dublin, completely by chance, I met the late great Derek Bell, a master of the Irish harp. Though the meeting was all too brief he inspired me to look for stories about O’Carolan and his relationship to the Otherworldly beings known as the Shee in Ireland.
I’m the first to admit now that he may well have been pulling my leg, but at the time I was very excited by the few snippets of stories he told me. So, I set off on my quest and I collected many stories about Turlough O’Carolan, O’Carolan’s music and his encounters with the Shee-folk.
It never crossed my mind that one day I’d write a novel based on these tales. It was many years later I went back to them to form the foundation for “King of the Blind”. I just enjoyed them for what they were, folk-tales from a bygone age.
On my travels I also heard a version of history I hadn’t encountered before; told from the point of view of the defeated, rather than the victors. This was particularly eye opening for me because I was struggling to understand the on-going conflict between Catholics and Protestants. It seemed irrelevant and petty to me.
I eventually realised that the version of history I’d been taught was only half the story. Seen from the perspective of the ‘losing side’ in the conflict the official history was actually quite fanciful and offensive. Yet this official tale had come to dominate all discussions about the root causes of the conflict.
It was a deeply shocking moment when I realised how powerful stories really are. Whoever controls the narrative, controls the culture. Whoever controls the culture controls the society. And that’s what inspired me to write ‘King of the Blind”. It’s really a story about stories and storytellers.
The great composer Turlough O’Carolan represents only one aspect to this book.
I'm so pleased to announce that King Of The Blind, A toast to music, mirth, storytelling & whiskey, is now available to the world on Amazon Kindle.
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