''An Cléireach'' (Gaelic: The Clerk) is a novel by the Irish writer

Darach Ó Scolaí Darach Ó Scolaí is an Irish novelist, playwright, publisher, and artist living in the County Galway Gaeltacht of Connemara. He was awarded the Oireachtas Prize for Literature in 2007 for his novel,'' An Cléireach''. Writing His 2007 novel' ...

, published in 2007 and winner of the 2007 ''

Oireachtas The Oireachtas (, ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of: *The President of Ireland *The bicameralism, two houses of the Oireachtas ...

Prize for Literature''. It also won Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin in 2008. Set during the English Civil War, the book centers on the protagonist and narrator, a soldier and clerk in dispute with his colonel over a promotion. In north

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

in the year 1650, as the remnants of the royalist army flee from the victorious parliamentarians, a band of poets and soldier-scribes are brought together and, regardless of the proximity of the enemy, spend the night storytelling. In the stories recounted by Cearbhall Óg Ó Dálaigh, Toirdhealbhach Carach Ó Conchubhair and

Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh (1540—1630) was an Irish poet. Life Fear Flatha Ó Gnímh was a member of a hereditary learned family based at Larne, County Antrim, who was bard for the O'Neills. His known surviving poems are * ''A Niocláis, nocht an ...

, another theme surfaces in the novel, the story of a young man who has been entrusted with the safekeeping of an ancient

psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters we ...

that has been in his family's keeping for three hundred years, and who has to flee abroad with the book as the Tudor conquest of Ireland is completed by 1601. His hereditary responsibility brings him to the Spanish Netherlands, to

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

where he takes part in the Battle of White Mountain as a musketeer in captain

Somhairle Mac Domhnail Somhairle Mac Domhnaill (c. 1580 – c. 1632), called by English speakers Sorley McDonnell, was a renowned soldier for the Gaelic cause in Ireland and Scotland during the Thirty Years War and the patron who commissioned two 17th-century manuscript ...

l's company, and from there to the Irish College of St Anthony in

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

(''Louvain''), in the company of Brother Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and Father Brian Mac Giolla Coinnigh, and finally back to Ireland during the wars of the Irish Catholic Confederation and the

Cromwellian conquest of Ireland The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland or Cromwellian war in Ireland (1649–1653) was the re-conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell invaded Ireland wi ...

. And although the dispute between the narrator and the colonel is brought to a head that night in Ireland, the final strands of the novel are brought together in 1667 as the narrator lives in exile in the Spanish Netherlands. Tadhg Dubh Ó Cróinín in ''The Limerick Leader'' emphasizes the credibility and verisimilitude of the writing that succeeds in convincing the reader that at all times he is in the centre of the vortex no matter where the action takes him. Philip Cummings in ''Lá Nua'' reads the novel as a contemporary fiction, drawing attention to the author's tricks and modern conscious narrative.[//www.nuacht.com/index.tvt?_ticket=KZ4DALOLO9M2TRRIVPSE9NTHLZIZBHSJ7TRFPPPCCNVEILM9CHVRG13EIOQNANSEANYBEGSGW4UUHONCN15DALNNOPRGUT4STNNADYNWNKLAFUTKTRRITIAW9NTHNKLAITRGUXSEIOQLOGAWM97&_scope=La/Content/Faoi%20Chaibidil&id=7563&_page=&psv=20 Lá Nua, Faoi Chaibidil]

References

External links

website of the Publishing company, Leabhar Breac

author's website

2007 Irish novels Irish-language literature Novels set in the 1650s Novels set in the 1660s Novels set in Ireland Novels set during the English Civil War {{2000s-hist-novel-stub