Home » Tag Archives: Eddie Lenihan

Tag Archives: Eddie Lenihan

Learning lessons from the past

BACK in the 1980s when Eddie Lenihan’s eldest son Keith was four years old, Eddie started telling him stories about Fionn Mac Cumhail. From those beginnings Eddie’s stories about a legendary Irish hero have enthralled and delighted both children and adults, with another book having just been published, Fionn Mac Cumhail and the Baking Hags. It’s certainly a title that catches the attention and the plot has echoes of Eddie’s own battle to preserve a thorn bush when the M18 was being constructued, over 20 years ago. While it is suitable for young readers, there are also political undertones that more mature readers will appreciate. “There’s a big road being built from Tara, a new highway, sound familiar? Of course on their journey, of all the building and digging, they come across something in the landscape, as these things usually do. Even though it’s a story back from the time of Fionn Mac Cumhail, I hope people see that it …

Read More »

Eddie shares stories saved from the institution

HE has interviewed hundreds of people over more than 40 years, but a handful stand out for Eddie Lenihan, among them the late Jimmy Armstrong of Quin. Back in 1982 Eddie’s book Long Ago By Shannonside brought Jimmy’s stories to the public, and he has now published a revised addition with some extra chapters, entitled The Man In The Big House. Eddie visited Jimmy numerous times in the early 80s at Our Lady’s Hospital in Ennis, where he lived for years, although Eddie says it is highly dubious that a man like him should have been there at all. In the preface to The Man In The Big House Eddie writes of Jimmy’s delight when the original book came out as it showed he was in a place that he didn’t need to be. “This was proof, if proof were needed, that he was a man of sound mind.” Jimmy petitioned successive Ministers for Health for a review of his …

Read More »

‘A lot of people have left Kilkee and they don’t come back’

SHORT term rentals has been a major factor in making housing unaffordable, not just in cities, but in places like Kilkee as well. Eddie Lenihan now lives in Adare, having had to leave Kilkee due to the near impossibility of finding a place to rent there year-round. Although a native of Limerick, he was spending much of his time in Kilkee from his earliest days. “My parents had a house down there from when I was born and I’m 42 now. I used go every Easter, Christmas, all summer. I played football there from under 14, we won a few underage titles, Kilkee is my community, it’s where I grew up, where my best friends are from. I’ve a deep connection with it.” A civil engineer, he left Ireland during the recession, but just after Eddie and his wife became parents, they moved back to West Clare, with plans to settle there that ultimately did not work out. “We were …

Read More »

Lenihan pitches for Púca after Ennistymon says no

THE hunt is on for a new location for the controversial Púca statue, after it was rejected in a public poll by the people of Ennistymon.  Interest has already been expressed by leading folklorist Eddie Lenihan who has been a long-time champion of the half-man, half-horse sculpture. The Crusheen man said his own village would make the ideal location, given its legendary links to the mercurial character reputed to lure people into all kinds of nocturnal adventures. “We have a place named Cathair an Phúca and there is a roundabout there,” the story-teller said. “What could be more appropriate? It’s an amazing coincidence really and maybe this is where the Púca was meant to be all along.” It remains to be see if Crusheen will fit the bill for the new location for the 2-metre high bronze figure, as Clare County Council announced its intention to find it an alternative home, somewhere in North Clare. Following a survey, which attracted …

Read More »

Debate rages over Púca of Ennistymon

WHILE plans for a landmark sculpture in Ennistymon have been paused, there has been no let-up in the debate over the proposed Púca. In recent days, celebrities, artists, historians, folklorists and an MEP have weighed in, in support of Aidan Harte’s proposals for a 2metre high half-man, half-horse on Lower Church Hill. Opposition to the bronze structure has also ramped up in recent days with an online petition under the heading of ‘The People of Ennistymon say NO to the Puca statue’. As of Wednesday lunchtime, it had gathered 244 signatures and is set to be forwarded to Clare County Council by the end of the week. Offers of alternative accommodation for the statue have come from all over Ireland, with folklorist Eddie Lenihan proposing that Crusheen might provide a suitable home. “It may not be the púca as portrayed in Irish folk tradition, but it is a fine piece of sculpture nonetheless,” he said. “Crusheen has grown enormously in …

Read More »

Irish tales live on through Eddie’s storytelling

Clare storyteller Eddie Lenihan years of telling his own children stories at bedtime gave him the ultimate preparation to write children’s books on Irish mythology and folklore. Speaking to The Clare Champion at the time of the re-release of his children’s book Irish Tales of Mystery and Magic, the Crusheen man says children still love a good story. “When my own children were young, I told them bedtime stories and for whatever reason – now quite a number of years later, I don’t know why – I picked Fionn MacCumhail and the Fianna as the story at night time?” he says. “And then it went on and on and on and there’s at least 30 books I could still write based on the stories I have at home.” Eddie says they are all his original stories but are based on the Fionn MacCumhaill legend, while he maintains all the places, names, settings, characters and, of course, the Fianna. Irish Tales …

Read More »

Eddie’s new take on Irish legends

THREE books by Crusheen author Eddie Lenihan have simultaneously hit the shelves, telling new stories of Fionn Mac Cumhaill. Speaking about the creative process behind his books, Eddie says it takes him quite a bit of time but that it is important to get some other perspectives on the work. “You can only do it gradually. The one I’m doing now, Foreign Irish Tales for Children, you’d be interrupted and interrupted and then when you have it finished, you’d have to go over it all again or give it to someone else and ask them what they think of this, give them a chance. “The problem is what I think is funny, someone else might be scratching their head at. It’s like Mrs Brown’s Boys, I think it’s a disgusting, repulsive programme, whereas Mary [his wife] loves it. Humour is a very strange thing.” He doesn’t see any problem with giving new adventures to ancient Irish heroes. “You might be …

Read More »