The old world in all its green and youthful beauty

I could fly from one side of Ireland to the other and I’d hear nothing but the rush of the wind, the running of the rivers and the wild creatures of the forests. There were no machines, no engines, no metal birds roaring through the sky. No roads and railways. No concrete buildings and smoking chimneys. No bellowing and rumbling of the industry of man. Just the old world in all its green and youthful beauty. Oh how I long for those days to return.

From The Cry of the Sebac, a novel by Anthony Murphy. Available on Amazon Kindle and coming to print soon.

https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Sebac-Anthony-Murphy-Journalist-ebook/dp/B01DE75Z50/

'Newgrange - Monument to Immortality' is out of print, but the good news is it's being reprinted for November

Newgrange Monument to Immortality.

Some very significant news (and opportunities hopefully) on the publications front. My book Newgrange: Monument to Immortality has sold out. This is very positive news and shows how popular this work has been as an alternative avenue into exploring Ireland's most precious ancient treasure. The even better news is that I've just spoken to The Liffey Press and they're going to do a second print run, which should hopefully be available some time in November.

This is the second time one of my books went out of print. Island of the Setting Sun (with co-author Richard Moore) sold out in just 12 months after its initial publication in 2006, and was revised and expanded and republished in early 2008. HOWEVER, Island of the Setting Sun also recently sold out (again), and in this case it is not being republished by The Liffey Press. So I will be seeking an alternative publisher as I believe this book will continue to sell for years to come.

On the fiction front, my novella Land of the Ever-Living Ones is almost out of print and although it is available for Amazon Kindle, I would like to have it reprinted in hard copy format. This simple story of a lovely dialogue between a young boy and a wise sean-draoi (old druid) set in ancient Ireland has proven very popular and has received some very positive reviews. Here's one from Amazon.com:

Having read Anthony's excellent non-fiction titles, I was enthusiastic about his foray into fiction. What a treasure! I smiled, laughed, thoughtfully let tears run down my cheeks and didn't want it to end! Sometimes I felt myself telling the story of the seandroi, others I was the young, rapt listener and throughout felt that this is how history is supposed to be conveyed. My wife and I rarely like to read the same genre but I had to share this with her and she loved it too! Anthony, please publish in hardcover so this wonderful gift can be passed on and on!

Anthony Murphy's books - non-fiction (left) and fiction (right).

Further to all this, my first full novel, The Cry of the Sebac, has not yet been published in hard copy format, although it is available on Amazon Kindle. I would LOVE to see this book in print and believe it has a very strong message for today's world from the myths and megaliths of ancient Ireland. Here's a brief summary of The Cry of the Sebac:

One boy can be more powerful than an army.

A boy meets a mysterious talking bird, a floating hawk who claims to have lived forever. Guided by the bird, he glimpses his own destiny. He alone must save mankind from rushing over the precipice to his doom. The boy will have to prevent an apocalypse. But how? The bird, who calls himself the Sebac Gaoth (Hawk on the Wind), takes him on an extraordinary journey through mind and space to meet the Tuatha Dé Danann, those who are foretold to come to the aid of man for a battle to save the world. In the process of revelation, the boy helps the Sebac to realise something of his own origins and destiny.

On top of all of the above, I am continuing research into another work of non-fiction, which will be based on some of the most ancient myths of Ireland, offering new insights and tracing the creation and origin myths of this ancient island. I'm hoping to make progress on this book during the coming winter, all going well.

Click on the video below so see footage from the launch of Land of the Ever-Living Ones in 2013:

Links:
Newgrange: Monument to Immortality - Amazon reviews
Land of the Ever-Living Ones: Amazon reviews
Island of the Setting Sun: Amazon reviews

The Cry of the Sebac and the survival of ancient wisdom

Over the past few years I've taken a great interest in the creatures of Irish myth. Among the animals that have great significance in the ancient mythology of Ireland are the bull, the cow, the pig, the swan, the salmon and the hawk. I've been greatly taken by the old story of Fintan mac Bóchra, said to have been the lone survivor of the great flood when he fled to Tul Tuinde and swam in a cave in that mountain in the form of a salmon, later transforming into an eagle, and then a hawk. A similar tale is told of Tuan mac Cairill, the sole survivor of the Partholonians, who relates the story of the Lebor Gabála (Book of Invasions) to St. Finnian of Moville. Tuan transforms into a swan, a boar, an eagle and finally a salmon. As a salmon, he is caught and eaten by the wife of Cairill, who gives birth to him again in human form so that he may recite the early history of Ireland.

Thus the personages of Fintan and Tuan come to represent the idea of the embodiment or survival of ancient wisdom. Fintan is the one to whom the people of Ireland turn for advice in The Settling of the Manor of Tara, when there is confusion as to how the lands around Tara should be divided up.

There are many characters, themes and narratives from Irish mythology that have inspired me in the writing of my latest work of fiction, a novel. This novel was completed earlier this year and was proofed and edited and is currently being considered for publication by a Dublin publishing company. The transformed druid in the guise of a bird of the air serves as a very vivid archetype for me, and one that I have borrowed for this latest work.

The novel is tentatively titled 'The Cry of the Sebac' - sebac being the Early Irish form of seabhac, a hawk. This hawk relates how he has survived since the appearance of the first humans in Ireland after the retreat of the ice, and tells of his dramatic survival of the inundation in a cave in a cairn on the top of Tul Tuinde. He has lots of advice for a young boy whom he befriends. The novel is set in modern Ireland, but the hawk is very definitely a voice from the ancient world:

“One person can be more powerful than an entire army,” said the hawk. “That’s what Manannán represents – the power of one man to repel a whole battalion of enemies. They say that Manannán controlled the waves. He had learned to love the ocean, and all its murky and impenetrable parts, and all its harsh noises and bitter storms, and all its creatures, marvellous and grotesque, even down to its lowest depths. And when he learned to love even its most hideous and abhorrent parts, he became the ocean. Manannán and the sea were one. Thus, he was able to drive back the Fomorians, terrible and despicable and powerful as they might have seemed. They had no might that could match him. He was the indefatigable and undefeatable enemy. He was everywhere, and that was terrifying for them. Become the storm, and you will change the world.”

Following the hawk's advice to the boy, the youngster, in a trance-like state, perhaps reminiscent of a shamanistic dream, has a conversation with an unknown entity:

A familiar voice called out to him, softly.
“Why have you come here?” it said.
“I have come here to live forever,” he replied, after just a moment’s thought.
“It’s not your time. Why else did you come here?”
“To hear the Great Song.”
“What power brought you here?” the voice asked.
“The power of my own mind, which has existed since before I was born.”
“What did you bring with you to this place?”
“Nothing, except my imagination, and my soul bird.”
“Your soul bird?”
“Yes, he is the Sebac Gaoth, the Hawk on the Wind, the one who has lived beyond memory. He sees my thoughts and interprets my dreams.”
“And what dream do you have?”
“To heal the world.”
“But you’re just a boy.”
“One person can be more powerful than an entire army,” he replied.
“How did you calm the storm?” the voice asked.
“I didn’t calm the storm. I AM the storm.” 

The antediluvian druid-bird is there to convince the boy that he is the 'Little Flame', a light for the world. And he encourages the boy to become the Samildánach, the many-gifted hero of light:

“So then, young flame keeper, the Samildánach who can see beyond obscure horizons . . . are you ready to look beyond all the known horizons, to a place in the unendurable darkness where the magnificent light will be made to shine again?”