THE NOMAD GIRL AND THE OLD MÉABH - Taschenbuch

Taschenbuch

The first story in this volume begins in one of the narrator's two favourite pubs, Lil's Bar, by a crackling peat fire. Where else? It tells of a strange encounter with an old man who makes an equally strange wish. The attentive reader will not fail to notice that the narrator meets himself.

The idea for the title story was born in Joyce's Bar, on one of the days of a storytelling festival, the narrator's first in this country. The story of Saóirse and Méabh also begins on a weekend during a storytelling competition. It tells the story of the nomad girl Saóirse, who has just turned sixteen. On the first day of the festival, she is allowed to gain unaccompanied experience in the small town of Kiltimagh for the first time. It is a time full of stories and Saóirse learns about love. Watching over all of this is the wise old Méabh, who advises the girl to listen only to her heart. This is not so easy and as a result, she ends up making a difficult and painful decision.

The narrator speaks from the perspective of Saóirse, who is dressed by Méabh in such a way that she is not recognised as a nomad girl.

In Ireland, the nomads are called Tinkers or Travellers, the travelling people. The nomads themselves prefer the term Traveller and call themselves Pavee. The Pavee are ethnically Irish themselves and have historically been excluded from the majority population through socio-economic processes. In the days before modern media, they played an important role in the dissemination of news, stories and music. Irish folk can also largely be traced back to them. Without them, Irish culture would not be what it is today.

The Pavee lived in large family groups, mostly in wagon castles. There was deep prejudice in Irish society against this part of their people. The little episode in a shop from Saóirse's point of view at the beginning of the story was also experienced by the author, except that he was on the other side, in this shop.

In the third story, an overtired driver is travelling west towards Galway along the sometimes-narrow roads. As he is about to fall asleep, he leaves the road to rest. In the darkness, someone knocks on the rear window and asks for a lift in accent-free German. During the journey, he recognises a former best friend from his youth in the person who got on the train, and a journey back in time to a repressed past begins.

Finally, the fourth story is about a narrator who has forgotten how to tell a story.

He spends a night at Joyce's and, as if by magic, he regains his ability. Let's wait and see how much mysticism and magic there really is.