Sunlight rained down…

A short extract from LeafLight Moon, the novel I’ve just finished writing. If anyone reading this blog knows of an agent who’s looking for a unique and compelling novel :-), here’s the pitch: Sligo, 4000 BC: the world of the hunter-gatherers is threatened to its core by the arrival of Ireland’s first farmers...

Published in Africa Magazine, layout Loretta Brennan.
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Two writing workshops led by two award-winning authors

Image credit: RJMiller

Monica Corish’s Craft and Critique Workshops are for writers who are working toward publication. They are an opportunity to develop writing skills through constructive critique, insightful feedback and tailored craft exercises. Monica is an Amherst-certified writing workshop leader and award-winning writer of poetry, short fiction and memoir.

If interested, contact her at monicacorishwriting@gmail.com or 087 6414185

  • Kinlough Community Centre, Kinlough, Co Leitrim.
  • Fortnightly on Tuesdays, 7 – 9:15 pm (tea and chat afterwards, for those who want).
  • 10 sessions: January 17 & 31; February 14 & 28; March 14 & 28; April 4 & 18; May 2 & 16.
  • Cost €235; early-bird €200 before midday, Jan 13 (PayPal or cheque).

Shane Leavy’s Creative Writing Workshops are open to anyone with an interest in writing. Shane is an Amherst-affiliated writing workshop facilitator and an award-winning author and poet: instagram.com/shane_leavy_writing. If interested, contact Shane directly at sligoleitrimwriters@gmail.com or 086 3525988.

  • GlenCar TeaSHED, Glencar, Co Leitrim.
  • Weekly on Wednesdays , 7– 9:30 PM
  • 8 sessions: Feb 22 – Apr 12.
  • Cost €180 / early-bird €160 before Feb 1

A Brigid / Time Traveller / Nativity Story

Midwife at the Birth

She went into the stable and was in time to aid and minister to the Virgin Mother, and to receive the Child into her arms…

Genealogy of Brigid (451-525 AD), Carmina Gadelica

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gill-nativity-with-midwife-p08039
Nativity with Midwife 1913 Eric Gill http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P08039

Brigid threw her eyes to heaven as the priest droned his way through the gospel. It’s as if he’s telling a dirge for a death, she thought, not an anthem for a birth and the best story of the year. But he’s a good man, gentle with the novices and their small sins, and not given to fawning over the pretty ones. Her mind drifted. Was it cold there, cold as this stone church on Christmas Eve? How did that poor frightened girl manage with only her old husband to help? The innkeeper’s wife would have been too busy – the shepherds knew how to deliver a lamb, they might have known been some help – but the angels waited until after the baby was born before they sang their Hosannas. Not a lick of sense between them. Why on earth didn’t Gabriel ask a midwife to be present for the birth?

The scraping of pews broke her reverie. She wrapped her green shawl close and took her place at the back, behind the line of monks and nuns. She noticed that Mother Muireann’s limp was getting worse, that Sister Imelda needed to mend her hem. She inched her way toward the altar, her breath fogging the chill air.

“Corpus Christi.”

The host dissolved on her tongue. She bowed her head and prayed, her body suffused with the light of God incarnate. Her slave-born mother’s words flashed through her mind. You have the spirit of a nun, Brigid, and the soul of a poet, and the hands of a skilful midwife. As the choir sang the recessional hymn, she fizzed with fear and excitement. Can it be done? Could I do it?

*

When the abbey was fast asleep, Brigid rose from her bed. The Chapel of the Flame reminded her, as it always did, of a small child nestled beneath the protection of the great winter oak. She laid one hand on fissured bark, one hand on lichened stone, breathing deep, asking for courage. Then she lifted the latch and opened the door. Áine was dozing on a bench at the far side of the fire.

“Sister Áine.”

The young nun snapped awake. “Mother Brigid!”

“I will tend the flame tonight. You may go to your bed.”

*

She gazed into the leaping flames, seeing again the old woman, the one who had tended the flame before the coming of the Christ-story. They shared the same name, Brigid, woman of valour. The old Brigid had been the last of her kind, the seer-women who communed with the goddesses and gods of old Ireland. She remembered her words: This flame sits over the eye of a holy well. It is a marriage of sacred water and sacred fire. It will not burn your flesh. This flame is a doorway into the time before, and a doorway into the time that is to come. If your intention is pure, this flame will take you where you need to go. She had never, in all her years as abbess, tested the truth of the old Brigid’s story. Because, she thought, I am still wary of the pagan mysteries, I worry that their power might seduce me away from the Christ-story. But now, tonight, my intention is pure – none purer – to serve the Mother of God. She thrust her hand in, whipped it out. The small hairs on the back of her fingers had not been singed. She reached in again, felt a liquid coolness. She stared at the drops of dew in her palm.

Do it now, she told herself, before your courage fails. She cleared a level space in the centre of the fire with the poker, then closed her eyes. With her inner eye she saw where she needed to go – the stable – the ox and the ass – the young woman, her belly huge with child – the old man Joseph – the guiding star.

She stepped in.

She was standing in the middle of a forked tree, three splayed trunks fanning out, one bent low to touch the ground. Between her feet, between the sister-trunks, she found the small un-burning flame, her pathway home. She sighed with relief. A drunk sang a tuneless song, someone shouted at him to shush. She became aware of the bustle of the inn – the star – the lamp-lit stable.

She stepped out from between the tree-trunks and walked across the sandy ground. Through the open doorway she saw Mary and Joseph, the young woman’s face knotted with pain, the old man’s face racked with fear. She knocked on the lintel.

“Greetings,” she said. “I am Brigid of Ireland. I have come to be midwife at the birth of your child.”

Documenting 100 Years of History and Heritage in Co Leitrim

Artists Grainne McMenamin and Catherine Bourne are facilitating a series of public drop-in sessions, to document objects & stories from Leitrim at the time of Irish independence. They especially hope to create a fuller picture of women’s lives, so personal/domestic items and crafted/ everyday heirlooms are of great interest, especially if they have a story to tell…  Grainne and Catherine are also available for one-to-one appointments, in person or online, if the library sessions are unsuitable. They can be contacted at northworksireland@gmail.com.

Writerly Events at the Allingham Festival, on-line and on-stage

Interesting happenings at this year’s Allingham Festival, 3rd to 7th of November 2021, taking place both at the Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon, and online. Here’s my personal selection of writerly events – click on the links to go to the relevant page on the Allingham Festival website:

Nets of Wonder: Stories on the Wall

Nets+of+Wonder.jpeg

Abbey Centre, Wednesday, November 3, 8:30 PM

A creative collaboration between writer Olive Travers, of frequent Sunday Miscellany fame, artist Barry Britton, and musician/composer Eamon Travers.

Readings by Lepus Authors

 

Brian Leyden will introduce readings by poet Mary Branley and novelist and filmmaker Johnny Gogan. Brian will also talk about Lepus Print, the new independent publisher of fiction, poetry and non-fiction based in the North West, dedicated to the discovery and curation of exceptional Irish and international literature.

Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Awards

Literary Awards Adult.pngOnline, Friday, November 5, 2021, 18:00 – 19:00

The finalists in the Poetry and Flash Fiction competitions will be joined by the judges, Afric McGlinchy and Nuala O Connor, to read their entries before the winners are announced. This year’s record number of entries will ensure that the standard of writing will be as high as ever. 

 

An anthology of stories and poems inspired by the River Erne. Contributors to the collection include Colin Dardis, Kate Ennals, Monica Corish, Tom Sigafoos, John McIntyre, Pat Joe Kennedy, Trish Bennett, Teresa Kane, and Jenny Brien.

The Colour Red Has Many Flavours

I’m delighted that my flash fiction has won the Myslexia # 91 Flash Challenge. You can read Judge Meg Pokrass’s generous comments below.

The Colour Red Has Many Flavours is a potent story of realization. In this epiphanic moment, a woman in an abusive relationship recognizes what she’s been living in, as if waking up from a terrible dream. The way the story builds makes us see, through the main character’s perspective, just how unhappy she has become. Earned through the careful crafting of language and world building, the author brings realistic and often shocking insight. This insight comes from the sort of questioning that ensues when something bleak is transformed by a moment of brightness or when something seemingly mundane is suddenly revealed as earth-shattering. Because the story is loaded with masterful use of sensory detail, and the reader is treated to a most satisfying ending—something we wish happened more often in the real world.

Meg Pokrass