A review by nigellicus
Clare Folk Tales by Ruth Marshall

5.0

A nice, varied little collection containing a mix of fairy tales, heroic stories, country yarns, and tales of saints and monsters. I enjoyed it. There's a fair bit on Biddy Early and the stories of the Gaban Saor, which I particularly remember from school. I do like the clever tales, though some of the cleverness becomes more obscure with time. I was fascinate by Maire Ruad and tickled by the idea of the ferocious fairy badger. As I've come to notice, it's the Christian stories that often end up being the more hair raising - their hagiographies rival the stories of Cuchulainn in heaping praise as well as holiness on the holy men. St Senan humbles the proud, lays low the powerful and kicks monsters in the bum by sheer dint of his utter awesomeness, then bans women from his island completely. Good man, Senan.