I’ll tell you why I returned last October to the misty, velvet shores of western Ireland, where I once spent a year: it is the setting for my novel, “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” and I wanted to reinvigorate my standing amongst the land and its people before my book was released. In order to do that, one has to show up in person to let the very air saturate the skin until it permeates to a cellular level and recalibrates the soul.
Ireland affected me deeply when I lived in the rural village of Inverin, in the western region of Connemara, yet it took a few months before I allowed myself to let go of my American frame of reference. Once I did, there was such a shift in my being that a local at the grocery store (or the shops, as they call it there) did a double take upon seeing my tranquil face and commented, “Claire, you look more Irish!” I knew just what she implied. I could already feel a newly acquired demeanor settle upon me, one that relaxed me physically and slipped me into a present tense mind frame where a type of willing acceptance of events replaced my harried propensity to manipulate my way through life. Ireland will do this to a person quickly, for it is an island with its own peculiar consciousness spawned from its cloistered history and its humble dependence upon the vagaries of the weather. I see it as an overarching attitude of rightful thinking, something which suggests there’s no point in becoming too worked up over much of anything, for change will rule the day of the best laid plans, and in the meantime, we’re all in it together, safe under the watchful eyes of God. And the Irish are a reverential people. And it’s not just God they revere. They pretty much hold all things sacred: the land, Irish history, each other. And because they comport themselves this way, they don't take themselves too seriously, which is exactly why they have the reputation of being the friendliest lot on earth.
Let me now digress by confessing I over use the expression, “I can’t tell you how much I love” this or that. The fact is, I can tell you, and I did when it comes to the subject of Ireland. I wrote many of my thoughts and impressions of Ireland in my novel “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” by working them into the story of a twenty five year old American named Hailey Crossan, who leaves the record business and moves to rural Ireland, where she meets an Irish musician who won’t come closer not completely go away. The story depicts the ambiguity of attraction, with all its hopes, excitement, doubt and often times, confusion.
Since Hailey is a stranger in a beautiful, but strange land, she is uncertain of Ireland’s cultural nuances, and begins to think her lack of understanding might be behind the perplexing dynamic of her budding romance with Liam Hennessey. But thankfully, she is surrounded by a handful of vibrant Irish characters who help her decipher the codes of attraction, as well as the mixed messages Liam displays, as she comes to feel at home in a land that has more soul than any place she ever imagined.
Ireland affected me deeply when I lived in the rural village of Inverin, in the western region of Connemara, yet it took a few months before I allowed myself to let go of my American frame of reference. Once I did, there was such a shift in my being that a local at the grocery store (or the shops, as they call it there) did a double take upon seeing my tranquil face and commented, “Claire, you look more Irish!” I knew just what she implied. I could already feel a newly acquired demeanor settle upon me, one that relaxed me physically and slipped me into a present tense mind frame where a type of willing acceptance of events replaced my harried propensity to manipulate my way through life. Ireland will do this to a person quickly, for it is an island with its own peculiar consciousness spawned from its cloistered history and its humble dependence upon the vagaries of the weather. I see it as an overarching attitude of rightful thinking, something which suggests there’s no point in becoming too worked up over much of anything, for change will rule the day of the best laid plans, and in the meantime, we’re all in it together, safe under the watchful eyes of God. And the Irish are a reverential people. And it’s not just God they revere. They pretty much hold all things sacred: the land, Irish history, each other. And because they comport themselves this way, they don't take themselves too seriously, which is exactly why they have the reputation of being the friendliest lot on earth.
Let me now digress by confessing I over use the expression, “I can’t tell you how much I love” this or that. The fact is, I can tell you, and I did when it comes to the subject of Ireland. I wrote many of my thoughts and impressions of Ireland in my novel “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” by working them into the story of a twenty five year old American named Hailey Crossan, who leaves the record business and moves to rural Ireland, where she meets an Irish musician who won’t come closer not completely go away. The story depicts the ambiguity of attraction, with all its hopes, excitement, doubt and often times, confusion.
Since Hailey is a stranger in a beautiful, but strange land, she is uncertain of Ireland’s cultural nuances, and begins to think her lack of understanding might be behind the perplexing dynamic of her budding romance with Liam Hennessey. But thankfully, she is surrounded by a handful of vibrant Irish characters who help her decipher the codes of attraction, as well as the mixed messages Liam displays, as she comes to feel at home in a land that has more soul than any place she ever imagined.
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Dancing to an Irish Reel
Claire Fullerton
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publisher: Vinspire Publishing
Date of Publication: March 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9903042-5-8
ASIN:
Number of pages: 220
Word Count: 63,000
Cover Artist: Elaina Lee for the Muse Designs
Book Description:
Twenty five year old Hailey
Crossan takes a trip to Ireland during a sabbatical from her job in the LA
record business. While there, she’s offered a job too good to turn down, so she
stays.
Although Hailey works in Galway,
she lives in the countryside of Connemara, a rural area famous for its Irish
traditional music. When Hailey meets
local musician, Liam Hennessey, a confusing relationship begins, which Hailey
thinks is the result of differing cultures, for Liam is married to the music,
and so unbalanced at the prospect of love, he won't come closer nor completely
go away.
And so begins the dance of
attraction that Hailey struggles to decipher. Thankfully, a handful of vibrant
local friends come to her aid, and Hailey learns to love a land and its people,
both with more charm than she ever imagined.
Excerpt:
There’s an
energy that hangs between strangers even in a crowd. Call it interest, or
attraction, or the knowledge of things to come. It is awareness, and I was
aware to the exclusion of all activity around me that Liam Hennessey was
watching me. He was sitting at the corner of the bar by himself, and because I
could feel his gaze upon me like an electrical current, I froze. I did not move
an inch because I sensed I didn’t have to, that something would come about with
little prompting from me. I don’t know how I knew this, but I was right, it
came about within the hour. It began as a series of introductions to people
near Liam, and drew itself closer until Liam was introduced to me.
Right before
Leigh left, claiming she had to get up early the next day to drive to Cork,
Kieran pointed out that the Irish traditional musicians playing in the corner
were the father and older brother of the lad sitting at the end of the bar.
“That’s Liam
Hennessey at the bar there,” Kieran gestured to my right. “He’s the best box
player in Connemara – even in the whole of Ireland, many say. His family is
long in Connemara; they’re all players, so. That’s Sean Liam, his da, and his
brother Anthony there on the guitar.” Kieran seemed proud to know the facts. He
next took my arm and led me straight to Liam.
“I’ve the
pleasure of knowing this American here, her name is Hailey,” Kieran announced
to Liam.
I had an uneasy
feeling. It’s one thing to suspect you’ll cross paths with someone again, and
quite another to be fully prepared when it actually happens. For some unknown
reason, I kept thinking it was strange to see Liam this far out in the country
from Galway, but then again, what did I know? I didn’t know anything about him.
Liam looked at
me with large dark eyes and smiled brightly. He was different than I had
imagined: he was friendlier, more candid. I assumed because he looked so dark
and mysterious, there would be a personality to match. I assumed he would be
reserved, aloof, perhaps arrogant in an artistic sort of way. I was paying
close attention, and there was none of that about Liam. In seconds, I realized
he was a nice guy. I moved a step to my right as an older man approached the
bar.
“Would ye give
us a hand there,” the man said to Liam, and for the next few minutes, Liam
handed pints over his head to a group of men too far from the bar’s edge to
grab the glasses themselves. Just then, Kieran said something that set off a
chain of events and put the rest of the night in motion.
“Liam, will you
watch Hailey for me, I’m off to join the sessiun.” With that, Kieran produced a
harmonica from his shirt pocket and walked off to join the musicians in the
corner.
I stood at the
bar and waited for the next thing to happen. The world seemed to operate in
slow motion. All the noise in the room subsided, and the only thing I knew was
I was looking directly at Liam Hennessey. I searched his face for
imperfections. I had never before seen such beauty in the face of a man. I
hoped my thoughts didn’t show on my face. He was so good looking, I wondered
why other people in the room weren’t staring at him, then I realized most of
Hughes’ patrons knew him and were probably used to the way he looked. I was
reticent, unsure of how to speak to Liam, unfamiliar with how provincial he may
or may not have been. Words tend to get in the way in moments like this, but
they lay in wait just the same.
“You’re an
American, yah?” he asked in that way the Irish have of answering their own
question. “I’ve been to America,” he said.
“Where in
America?” I encouraged.
“Boston, New
York, Chicago. My cousins live in Chicago. I even went all the way to Niagara
Falls.”
“Believe it or
not, I’ve never been to Niagara Falls. What’s it like?”
“Not much, mind you, it’s a nice enough place,
but ten minutes after I saw the falls, I was asking where I could get a nice
cup of tea.”
“I imagine it
would take a lot to be impressed after living here,” I said.
“I’d never want
to live anywhere else. Everything you could ever want is here in Connemara.”
And it is, I
thought. Connemara has a sense of peace I’ve never felt before.
“Are you long in
Ireland?” he asked.
“I live here,” I
said. “I live in Inverin.”
“Ah, so you’re
just up the road. Me too.”
At 27-years-old,
Liam lived with his parents in the house in which he grew up.He was a
world-class Irish traditional musician that traveled often to places like
Germany, Austria and New Zealand. He was in demand as a player in touring bands
because he was a master at playing the button accordion. As such, he was more
than a musician: he was the bearer of a torch that represented the history of
an old culture. He brought the language of Irish music to regions that
otherwise would have never been enlightened.
Being an Irish
traditional musician is a feat not easily arrived at. Rather, it is a feat
painstakingly achieved. Most of the tunes in a traditional player’s repertoire
have been memorized through listening and repeated execution, as opposed to
memorization by reading musical scores. Traditional music has been passed down
through generational lines, and with Liam’s family, there had been no
interruption. His father was a player, and the world in which Liam grew up was
one of constant exposure to traditional music as if it were a language. I came
to realize much later that Liam’s first language was music, his second language
was Irish, and his third was English.
“So, you must be
another American looking for their roots, then,” Liam stated.
If that was a
question, then it’s a fair one, I thought.
“Actually, I’m
working at the Galway Music Center,” I said, then I followed with my poetry
aspirations, hoping to impress upon him I was not just passing through.
Claire Fullerton is the author of Paranormal Mystery, A Portal in Time. She is an award winning essayist, a contributor to numerous magazines (including “Southern Writers Magazine) a former newspaper columnist and a four time contributor to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series.
She hails from Memphis, TN. and now lives in Malibu, CA where she is working on her third novel.
@cfullerton3
1 comment:
Thank you so much to Wenona! I'm happy to be with you here today!
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