Tales from Old Ireland retold by Malachy Doyle

Malachy Doyle and Niamh Sharkey bring this collection of seven folk tales from Old Ireland to life.  Doyle, a native of Ireland himself, retells his favorite childhood folk tales with a flowing narrative that captures the reader.  In the introduction, Doyle writes of the connection he feels to the Irish oral tradition and the responsibility to keep these thousand-year-old tales living.  He succeeds in continuing the tradition.

Doyle suggests to the reader that she read aloud as she explores the folk tales because "That's how they work best."  So that I did and I found myself absorbed in twelve brothers' woes of "The Twelve Wild Geese," caught in the soul cages of the Merrow (male mermaid) of the sea in "The Soul Cages," and homesick for Niamh's homeland in "Oisin in Tir na nOg." Doyle includes seven tradition folk tales, including "Fair, Brown, and Trembling," Ireland's version of the Cinderella tale.

Sharkey's illustrations are sprinkled throughout the tales with the occasional full page illustration.  I found her illustrations occupied a perfect amount of space, as I feel the images folk tales ignite should lie mostly in the unique imaginations of its readers.  Sharkey uses oils on a gessoed background which involves painting in layers and waiting until the preceding layer is completely dry to begin the next.  "It's a slow process," Sharkey comments in an interview with Embracing the Child, "but it produces a richness of colors that other mediums would not allow."  In a review of Tales from Old Ireland, Elizabeth Kennedy writes that "The illustrations, while at first glance deceptively simple, are sophisticated in color and design."  It's the sophistication of Sharkey's illustrations that I love, as children's imaginations can take off in a million directions as they interpret the layers of the illustrations for themselves.

Tales from Old Ireland provides a wonderful method to introduce your children or students to the oral tradition of another country.  The pronunciation guide of names used throughout the tales gives the opportunity to introduce children to the musical language of Gaelic.   The concluding sources[ page gives the reader the historical context of each story which can also serve as a tool to introduce students to how we have come to know and share the folk tales we read today.

Doyle in his introduction writes that Irish folk tales "have survived so long because of the great enjoyment they give in both hearing and telling."  Indeed they did for me.  The following tales are the seven tales in Tales from Old Ireland:

The Children of Lir

Fair, Brown, and Trembling

The Twelve Wild Geese

Lusmore and the Fairies

Son of an Otter, Son of a Wolf

The Soul Cages

Oisín in Tír na nÓg