Fiction

Maud Gonne's Upbringing: Open Post

A fictionalised summary of Maud Gonne's upbringing, based on extracts from, A Life Before, the first book in the Gonne-Yeats series by Orna Ross

"If she had more religion she would have less m...

My favourite 20th century poet, W.B. Yeats, was not a fan of my favourite 19th century novelist, George Eliot. He wrote about her in damning terms in a letter to...

Friday Fiction: Remembering the Irish Civil War...

Con McCarthy: died Jan 10th 1923 in the Irish Civil War Ninety-nine years ago, my great-uncle Con (my father's uncle, pictured left), was shot and killed in the Irish Civil...

Isabella Pollexfen Varley: Artist and Aunt of W...

One thing I love about writing historical fiction is doing the research. I often have to stop myself digging too deep while I'm working. I love the thrill of following...

"A Family, Together" Extract from the novel A L...

This is an extract from the first book in my Yeats-Gonne series, A Life Before This One, a biographical fiction series about Maud Gonne, her daughter Iseult and the poet,...

Friday Fiction: A Traditional Irish Love Story

Below is the beginning of a short story about a famous Irish love story, the story of Líadan and Cuirithir (pronounced phonetically in English Leeadawn and Coorihir). One of the...