Fantasy author Willie Collins. Kings, Druids and Traitors: Once Upon a Time in Ireland,
by William Collins, (Doon Press, from Amazon.ie, €15.27 pb / €24.88 hb, ebook is €4.35)
This is a darkly glowing saga, akin to the medieval dramas now so well-known from film and television in The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. The author is William Collins, whose own life story is quite as interesting as the story told between the covers of this fantasy novel.
Willie Collins a native of Doon, Co. Limerick, was the son of the village blacksmith – remember that smiths were linked with druids and witches in Gaelic Ireland. With a number of his companions in Doon, he travelled to England in search of employment in 1939. They ended up in Northampton, where they worked in the steel mills.
Returning to Ireland, Willie was able to secure only uncongenial employment. Throughout his life he was a keen reader. He also was blessed with an exceptional memory. Thus, he was a mine of information. This was to his advantage when he successfully applied for a post in the company which then published the Irish Press newspapers. He was appointed deputy editor of the Sunday Press, charged with supervising its weekly production.
In his free time, he wrote his novel and his two daughters transposed it into a neat typescript. Two of Willie’s special interests in Irish history were the prehistoric period and the period when the Vikings – the Norsemen in their longboats – terrorised the then Irish – burning down monasteries and religious centres and killing all before them.
These two periods he weaves into his narrative. There is a further Norse “angle”. He had two Norwegian grand-daughters and these appear in the narrative in the guise of Sigrid and Helga, the two main characters in the novel.
Willie’s work of fantasy fiction is essentially an odyssey. The two main characters – Sigrid and Helga – with the assistance of a guide, named Colm, whom they have rescued from certain death, travel across Ireland of the high-kings. They show up at the important locations, including Tara. They constantly stumble into hazardous and life-threatening situations and are rescued sometimes by humans, sometimes by animals.
The sisters meet bloodthirsty tyrants and their treacherous and fawning allies. But they also meet people such as Amergin the Druid, Dagda, the Chief of Men, the one-armed King Midir, Bres the Beautiful, Lugh of the Long Arm, and a host of other mythological figures. Eventually, Willie brings them all together in a bloody climax, which he names the second battle of Moytura.
Willie Collins gave his work of fantasy fiction the title Once Upon a Time in Ireland; the publishers have given it the present more descriptive title.
The author’s extended family showed little interest in his magnum opus, and for many years it lay forgotten in a drawer. Thus, congratulations to those who have motivated its publication this year, especially well-known journalists Liam and Stephen Collins. At the very least, it is a worthy memorial to a very worthy man, and it is surely a cherished heirloom.