Award-winning fiction writer Colm Ó Ceallacháin has written the Irish language story Cré for RTÉ Spoken Stories, read by Caitríona Ní Mhurchú - listen to Cré above.
In this story Móna, who lives in Ireland, is still very much rooted in the soil of her native country, from which she fled. However, in an unsettling turn, the soil of Ireland takes its toll on her, too.
For the current series of Spoken Stories, twelve writers were commissioned to write a new half-hour story of their own relating in some way to Creatures of the Earth, the title of a story and a short story collection by John McGahern.
About his story and commission, Colm Ó Ceallachain says: 'Taréis dom scéalta an chnuasaigh Creatures of the Earth le John McGahern a léamh, agus an teideal scéal ach go háirithe, bheartaíos ar scéal a scríobh a bheadh bunaithe go scaoilte ar choinchap na cré, nó ‘earth' i mBéarla. Ar ndóigh níorbh é seo a bhí i gceist ag McGahern óir is ag caint ar an domhan a bhí seisean nuair a luaigh sé ‘earth’. Ag baint ciall chontráilte as an bhfocal Béarla ‘earth’ atáimse, dá bhrí sin, ach braithim ag an am chéanna nach raibh an chré i bhfad ó lámh riamh i scéalta McGahern.
"I mo scéal féin, is carachtar inti féin í an chré a théann go mór i bhfeidhm ar phríomh-phearsa an scéil, Móna. Cé go bhfuil cónaí ar Mhóna i nÉirinn, tá sí préamhaithe i gcré a tír dúchais ach is í cré na hÉireann a ghreamaíonn di anois, go litriúl agus go meafaireach.
"After I read the collection of stories Creatures of the Earth, and in particular its title story, I set out to write a story that would loosely play with the very concept of the earth. Of course, this wasn’t what McGahern had in mind; he was more thinking of the earth as the world, when he mentioned ‘earth’. However, I feel the earth or soil of the ground was never too far from the stories of McGahern either. ‘
Spoken Stories 2: Creatures of the Earth, Sundays at 7.30 pm on RTÉ Radio 1 or wherever you get your podcasts - listen to more from Spoken Stories here.
