Irish language

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 novelist Liam Mac Cóil

Liam Mac Cóil

-Career:Born in Dublin in 1952, Liam Mac Cóil lives in the Gaeltacht of Ráth Cairn, County Meath. He has written three novels, An Dochtúir Áthas , An Claíomh Solais , and Fontenoy, as well as a writer's journal, Nótaí ón Lár , all published by Leabhar Breac...

's second novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

,An Claíomh Solais, is set in the Co. Meath Gaeltacht of Ráth Cairn.

An Claíomh Solais (The Sword of Light) is set in the Co. Meath Gaeltacht

Gaeltacht

is the Irish language word meaning an Irish-speaking region. In Ireland, the Gaeltacht, or an Ghaeltacht, refers individually to any, or collectively to all, of the districts where the government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant language, that is, the vernacular spoken at home...

 of Ráth Cairn

Ráth Cairn

Ráth Cairn is a small Gaeltacht in County Meath, Ireland. It is about 55 km northwest of Dublin....

 in the months preceding the setting up of the first Irish language television channel, TG4

TG4

TG4 is a public service broadcaster for Irish language speakers. The channel has been on-air since 31 October 1996 in the Republic of Ireland and since April 2005 in Northern Ireland....

, as a young independent television producer returns to Ireland and installs himself in the Gaeltacht to take part in what he hopes will be a cultural revolution. A parallel subplot deals with Irish nationalist George Augustus Moore's return to Ireland to take part in the Irish Literary Revival

Irish Literary Revival

The Irish Literary Revival was a flowering of Irish literary talent in the late 19th and early 20th century.-Forerunners:...

, and Wagner's opera Siegfried

Siegfried (opera)

Siegfried is the third of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen , by Richard Wagner. It received its premiere at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus on 16 August 1876, as part of the first complete performance of The Ring...

.