Children’s books reviews: Characters lost to history, celestial shenanigans and rediscovering hope
Some of Ireland’s most utterly underrated get their moment in the sun in Myles Dungan's offbeat collection 'The Forgettables'.
“We Irish like to think of ourselves as being against ‘empire’,” asserts Myles Dungan.
“This probably stems from the time we spent as a reluctant part of the British version. So we don’t like to be reminded of the enthusiastic role Irish men [and one or two women] played in the creation of that empire.
“Ireland provided many of the soldiers who either won, or guarded, British colonies, as well as a lot of the civil servants who governed places like India.”
Remarkably though, at a time when the British East India Company, including its Irish contingent, was seizing control of vast swathes of India, one man who travelled in the opposite direction in search of adventure ended up having a significant impact on Irish society.
Dean Mahomet, aka Sake Dean Mahomed, soldier, sometime surgeon, writer, and entrepreneur, is one of the ‘forgettables’ of Ireland’s past, selected by historian and broadcaster Dungan for his collection of fascinating “pioneers” whom young readers are “very unlikely to have heard of”.
Mahomet, born to a Muslim family, in Patna, in 1759, at the age of 11 lost his father, who died in battle while serving in the Indian army on behalf of Britain. The boy was taken under the wing of Irish-born Indian army officer, Captain Godfrey Evan Baker, who came from a wealthy Cork family.
When Baker returned to Ireland in 1784, Mahomet came with him and later married a Cork woman, Jane Daly, with whom he subsequently lived at the Fort William estate in Glanmire.
Mahomet became a well-known Cork society figure, his book entitled attracting 300 subscriptions, described by Dungan as “a bit like a Kickstarter campaign”.
More notably, perhaps, Mahomet is credited with introducing Western European palates to curry, opening London’s first Indian restaurant, as well as pioneering therapeutic massage treatments and becoming ‘shampooing surgeon’ to British kings George IV and William IV under royal warrant.
Mahomet joins dozens of others whose sometimes obscure claims to fame have been erased by time, including Queen Gormlaith, who (probably) married Irish High King Brian Boru, and ‘Humanity Dick’ Martin of Galway, a 19th century campaigner against animal cruelty, who killed his own cousin in a duel.
Then there are those who are best forgotten, such as the 3rd Earl of Lucan, George Charles Bingham, who in the Crimean War ordered the charge of the Light Brigade of mounted soldiers “into the valley of death” against Russian cannons, going on to mercilessly evict hundreds of his starving tenants during the Famine upon his return to Mayo.
There are, however, some among Dungan’s selection of ‘forgettables’ who are in fact well known, though his young target readership may struggle to match them with their notable deeds.
Mayo’s Delia Murphy, for instance, is famed for her singing but, until recent years, her bravery in saving the lives of Jews and escaped Allied prisoners of war in occupied Rome during the Second World War was largely unrecognised.
Meanwhile, union organiser Mary Harris, aka Mother Jones, the “grandmother of all agitators”, despite fame in her adopted America is “almost unknown in Ireland”, according to Dungan, who may be due an invitation to the annual ‘Spirit of Mother Jones Festival’ in the activist’s native Cork.
Some of Ireland’s most utterly underrated — from the man who discovered why the sky is blue to the most awful poet in the history of rhyme — get their moment in the sun in this offbeat collection, illustrated by Alan Dunne, with Dungan’s dad-joke asides adding to a truly unforgettable reader experience. Ages 7+
The sun and the moon, though as different as night and day, were in their younger days great friends who lived together in a little house.
If the moon was a neat, tidy character, the sun was the opposite, as brash and loud as the moon was quiet and reserved. To make matters worse, whenever the moon would lie down to rest, up the sun would pop and start banging and clattering, preventing the moon from sleeping.
“Níl spás dúinn beirt anseo!” the moon snaps one day. “Caithfidh mise imeacht. Tá mo spás féin uaim.” Off stomps the moon, wheeling her suitcase behind her as she sets off around the world in search of her own personal space.
She looks everywhere under the sky before the fractious pair come to the realisation that they may be worlds apart in character but each still means the sun and the moon to the other.
A charming bedtime story from Cork native Muireann Ní Chíobháin of Irish language TV channel Cúla4, carrying a gentle message regarding acceptance of difference.
How far will Hope go to save the planet, like her idol Greta Thunberg?
She’s tried guilt-tripping her family into spending less time in the shower, cycling to the shops, and handing back plastic packaging to stressed supermarket cashiers.
Her insistence on adopting a vegan diet is proving challenging, not just for her ultra-patient dad, but for Hope herself. She watches in pious abstinence while the rest of the family dines out on meat and dairy products, tucking into meringues and cream while Hope attempts to swallow mouthfuls of soggy green beans.
This particular dining experience proves extra challenging for everyone, however. Hope and her twin sisters, who are grieving the loss of their mother, are on their first visit to the swanky house of their dad’s new girlfriend, who just happens to be the mother of Rebecca, the most annoying girl in Hope’s class.
Despite her own struggles, however, Hope has room in her heart to feel sympathy for mean girl Rebecca, whose remarried father has shunned his daughter in favour of his new family.
While her twin sisters lean on each other for support, Hope feels alone in the world, her craving for a meaningful purpose in life amid the darkness of her grief driving her obsession with saving the planet.
Though met with derision from her sisters, Hope’s attempts at making her family live a more eco-friendly lifestyle are lauded by her proud dad, even as he struggles to cycle home from the shops in torrential rain with a cargo of unwrapped toilet rolls and a soggy box of washing powder.
There are copious amounts of humour here, but have the tissues at the ready too as Sinéad Moriarty transfers her considerable skills as a writer for adults to create a powerfully emotional and thought-provoking novel for early teens.
