Frank Delaney (1942–2017)

Here's the thing about Frank Delaney - when that blurb on sites like GoodReads and Amazon refer to him as "unparalleled" when it comes to Irish History, they aren't exaggerating.

Delaney is the real deal.

I've loved this series ever since reading the first page about Ben and Venetia in Venetia Kelly's Traveling Circus. I was drawn in by the whimsical, perfectly illustrated cover of that book, and since then I have been wooed and won over by the lyricism of Delany's storytelling ability.

There show more are times when a writing is so powerful you can hear the accent, or the coloring of the speech, and it is that way with this book. When Delaney talks about the old storytellers, when he describes the way the voice sounds, the rising and falling of the rhythms, I feel transported, and am enchanted right along with the characters who, enviably, get to hear more than I do.

That's right, I said enviably. It's not often I envy a character, but man.. This book made me do so.

While I loved the continuation of Venetia and Ben's story, I have to say the diverging into the old tales (there was one story in particular that had me gasping - think banshee) is what made this book a treasure to me. I felt as if I were part of that privileged circle that gets to experience what it must have been like to listen to the Bard's of old.

Mr. Delaney, thank you. You do those Bards credit - and personally, I think you should sign your name "Frank Delaney, Bard" from now on. show less

Played out against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent periods of Irish history, Tipperary doesn't read like a history lesson, yet it paints a vivid picture of those brutal days. If it is a love story, then it is a tale of the Irish and their great love of the land, revealed through journal entries, some penned more than half a century apart. This device works well, if a bit awkwardly in a few places. The overall effect is one of a chorus of voices weaving a complex tale of turmoil, show more with the predominant theme being the people's great passion for Ireland itself. The romances between people mostly take a back seat here, thankfully.

We see predominantly through the eyes of Charles O'Brien, who has an almost Forest Gump-like ability to meet and interact with nearly every important player who graced that period of Irish history. His encounters include that tragic genius Oscar Wilde, the legendary Charles Parnell, those brilliant writers William Butler Yeats and James Joyce, and culminate with his interactions with many crucial participants in the battle for Irish Home Rule, including Michael Collins himself. While I initially felt these meeting to be too contrived, I came to the realization that a member of the Irish upper class in that period could indeed have interacted with many of the history makers of those days.

I could barely put the book down while finishing off the final third of it, and having finished, I am left not only with a longing to fill those woefully large gaps in my knowledge of Irish History, but also with a desire to seek out more works by Frank Delaney. show less

Written as a companion volume to a 1987 BBC miniseries, The Celts has the grand ambition of covering the entire sweep of Celtic history in an accessible format, and does a good job, with some compromises in terms of organization and systematic oversight.

Starting with the Hochdorf and La Tene archaeological finds, moving through Roman and Greek interactions with high Celtic culture, decline and Christianity, and the modern Celtic revivals. Art and stories are the center points, with lots of show more beautiful photographic plates of Celtic grave goods, along with translations of several Celtic myths. Unfortunately, a lot of what made the Celts tick as a culture is lost to time: their druid priestly class refused to write anything down to preserve their own power, which means that the accounts we have are Roman and Greek. From a culture which controlled territory from Austria to Ireland in the centuries BCE, the Celts were consistently forced backwards, by Roman invasion and cultural domination, by waves of Germanic migration, and then by Christian missionaries, who replaced some local heroes with saints, and then by Medieval and Early Modern monarchs who colonized Ireland, enclosed the Scottish highlands, crushed independent Brittany, etc.

For the Celts, history was very much written by the winners, and Delaney is aware that much of contemporary Celtic culture was made up wholesale by folklorists in the 19th century, that there are enough gaps in the oral tradition that reconstructing something from an old fisherman storyteller who died in 1956 may not be sufficient, that the modern (i.e. 1980s) Celtic language revival is about identity rather than history. But read with a critical eye, this book is a useful survey and introduction to the topic. show less

Charming, Educational, and Entertaining

Don't let a so so name and awful cover fool you!

I can barely put into words how much I loved this book and the reading by the author!

It's like sitting in conversation with a knowledgeable, thoughtful, and charismatic pibling and just getting to absolutely nerd out about Bram Stoker, Dracula, and vampires. The tone is gloriously conversational and insightful with the reading being so natural and engaging. I believe this is the first I have read or heard show more of Delaney and I was put in mind of Gaiman and the enthusiastic charm and wit he brings to subjects he is passionate about.

Absolutely worth a listen regardless, but if you have any interest in any of the above it's essential listening.

Bloody brilliant! show less