P. A. Ó Síocháin

Oh man, this is going to be a cranky review, he made me so annoyed with his paternalism and patronising attitude and how he regarded Christianity as the only logical choice and how there were no pagans who could have any virtue and how only with Christianity could there be honour. I've read too many legends and stories to fully trust that attitude.

And then I have to remember that it was written in 1962, that this was the attitude of many at the time, that the paternalistic attitude of both lauding traditional societies while at the same time questioning why they modernised and left tradition behind. Mourning the fact that people didn't embrace the past and keep things the way they were while not realising that he himself was doing the very same thing, that he was looking at a world his ancestors had lived in and had moved on from.

He also decided that Dun as not a word to use but insisted on using Doon, which wound me up a bit too. I read this in short bursts because I kept getting annoyed with him.

P A O Siochain wrote this, mostly about the myths and legends of Aran. Mostly about the Christian legends of the islands, an easy enough topic with the proliferation of sacred spaces on the islands. I was reading it more for details of costume and mention of knitting.

More on my blog http://wyvernfriendknits.blogspot.ie/2015/01/aran-islands-of-legend-review.html… (mehr)