Kilkenny interest in new book of captivating tales

An eclectic book of tales, including a novella with links to Killamery, has been penned and published by Clonmel native Vincent Murphy.

‘The Secret of Killamery and Other Tales’ is a playful read brought to life by an author brimming with imagination.

There are the six short stories in the book which draw on legends (ie ‘The Strange Case of Timmy O’Neill’) and other interesting concepts.

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‘The Kyiv War Museum’ for example, focuses on the idea of reincarnation, with a very familiar protagonist!

The idea of ancient knowledge providing a cure is the thread tat winds its way through the short story ‘Mikey’.

Meanwhile, ‘An Invasion Announced’ is more historical in nature, touching on intelligence that the Germans were about to invade Ireland in the summer of 1940.

Also historical is ‘Butter’, which looks at finding a way around butter rationing during The Emergency.

Human emotions and psychology are also explored by Murphy.

For example, the trauma of a man finding himself branded an informer when all he wanted to do was his civic duty fuels the short story ‘The Reluctant Informer’.

“In all these stories I draw on my interest in various fields including history, astro-physics, reincarnation, myths and legends and more,” Murphy told the Kilkenny People.

“All my stories are peppered with humour, wild imagination and an occasional dollop of mischief.”

The centrepiece of the book is the title novella ,‘The Secret of Killamery’.

“My interest in the Celtic High Crosses of Ossory finally brought me to the ones at Killamery and Ahenny a few years ago,” the author explained.

“Afterwards I started musing on the old monastic site at Killamery — founded by St Goban and with up to 1,000 monks at peak in the 8th and 9th centuries.

“I began to think: what if a monk had experienced inter-world travel in this multiverse of ours? How would his story be received by his fellow monks? Bit by bit the story formed and the novella emerged.”

‘The Secret of Killamery and Other Tales’ is available to purchase at The Book Centre, Khan’s Bookshop and Bargain Books.

It is also available online at buythebook.ie, an Irish bookseller, and on lulu.com for overseas deliveries.

Previous works by the author include Goodbye Kit, It May Be for Years and It May Be Forever, an imagined autobiography of Michael Kickham of Mullinahone, who at just 23 years old arrived in New Zealand in 1884 as a missionary priest. He encountered an environment uncomfortable for Irish secular priests, which led to a petition to Pope Leo XIII concerning their plight.

Another notable title is Conor O’Brien – Sailor Extraordinaire, a biography of Conor O’Brien, who circumnavigated the globe between 1923 and 1925 in his self-designed 42’ ketch, Saoirse. He was the first to sail a small private yacht eastward through the Southern Ocean, passing south of the three great capes: the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin (SW Australia), and Cape Horn.

For further information see flaglane.ie.

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