Coming soon: two great picture books for adult readers: Sadhbh and Eoghan Béal by Darach Ó Scolaí and artist Alé Mercado. Both books are retellings of medieval tales, the story of Sadhbh from Ceasacht inión Ghuile and the story of Eoghan Béal from Cathréim Ceallaigh and the Book of Leinster.
Eoghan Béal: a tale of murder and horror
The story of Eoghan Béal tells of a king of Connacht who, on his deathbed, ordered that he be buried standing upright in the ground, facing the Ulstermen and with his spear in his right hand — and of the horrors that follow that burial: the slaying of a bishop, the torture of four monks and a murderous wedding feast.
Sadhb: a rabelaisian tale with a twist
Sadhbh is a completely different kind of story, a humorous Rabelaisian tale of a young woman who gets the better of the wise old king — and of the men who would belittle her.
Alé Mercado, artist of wonder
Hailing from Granada in Spain, Alé Mercado has given in to his great passion in life, art and drawing. He practices a style that is dark, strong, and rooted in the tradition of print — and, not surprisingly, he has won many awards. Since 2003, he has lived in Inistioge, near Kilkenny, with his wife, Siobhán, and their children.
Picturebooks for adult readers
Although a new concept for Leabhar Breac, the picture book for adult readers is something that has been around for a long time in Irish and in other languages. There is Scéalaíocht na Ríthe by Tomás Ó Floinn and Proinsias Mac Canna and, more recently, The Arrival by Shaun Tan, A Cloud where the Birds Rise by Michael Harding, and many others.
From Leabhar Breac’s perspective, this is an initiative that arose from the problem of making our oldest tales available to modern readers. By and large, old tales only contain between three and six thousand words — which means that it is difficult to allow them their proper dues as regular printed books (the exception being Táin Bó Cuailnge and a handful of other long tales). As a solution to this, Leabhar Breac decided to commission artists to work in partnership with writers to create picture books to do the old tales justice.
And in the pipeline …
Already, Deirdre and Bláthnaid by writer Darach Ó Scolaí and artist Anastasia Melnykova have been published. In the pipeline are Liadain by poet Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh and artist Chrissie Dervin and Mise Gráinne (a retelling of the Tóraíocht) by poet Louis de Paor and artist Rita Duffy.
In parallel, there are two picture books for adult readers that are not old stories at all but brand new stories, Ceas an Chait by Labhrás Ó Finneadha and artist Aodh Mac Lochlainn, and Sean-Dearc by Seán Mac Mathúna and the same artist.
It looks like a promising future for artists and readers alike.