Robin Flower

That is Shane Lehan there and his book, Always the New Day, is available in all good bookshops and it's available online as well.

We're going to take a break and after that, we're going to be hearing about this wonderful launch at the Killurum Vlaskeid for the launch of the 80th anniversary edition of Robin Flower's Blasket Classic, The Western Island with Lord Conall Canlada.

And later on, we're also going to be talking about the Desmond Hall, Newcastle West and the Kerry connections that are there.

The Saturday Supplement on Radio Kerry.

Well, Shane, the book is Old Ways to New Days, the Folklore Traditions and Everyday Objects.

that shaped Ireland, by Shane Lahan.

Now, on the 27th of September at 12 noon, as part of the closing day of the annual Caelura on Vlascaid, for the launch of the 80th anniversary edition of Robin Flowers' Blasket Classic, The Western Island, and it is with Larkon Canada at the Blasket Centre, Duncain, and this beautiful hardback collector's edition features a new introduction.

And I'm delighted to say Lorcan joins us on the line now.

He continues, the objective is emphasized again in his revised edition preface, where he explains that his intention for the second edition... was not to omit any love poem that was of merit, although he admits that one or two poems might have escaped his attention, and he goes on to assert that it was unlikely that any other love poems could be found that might be worthy of inclusion.

The introduction by Robin Flower, a well-known introduction that's come up with a lot of press, O'Higgins states, he sought to place the dents au gras in a wider European Kant tradition, pointing out that their subject was not the direct passion of the folk singers or the high vision of the great poets, but the learned and fantastic love of European tradition.

What we can observe in each of these definitive statements by these esteemed Celtic scholars and translators, O'Roughly and Flower, is the existing exercising of their power and considerable due authority and authorizing the parameters of a field, essentially.

For Flower, who has met much debate, as I mentioned, particularly with Otuma and McGrath, in making limiting definitions of genre in terms of source, of genealogy, relationship to other genres, the effective passion, i.e., tied to oral or song tradition, which Flower could not really ever really know, and population, something that's touched on much more in Michal's essay, not folk singers or high vision of great poets.

For O'Rahilly, in the act of physical selection, which manuscripts to consult, edit, as Michal talks about in his essay, more specifically related to the book of the Dean of Lismore, the framing of love poetry, quote, as the best in an anthology, which excludes, therefore, scores of other poems and other sources, which is relevant considering an anthology just came out this week, with Mary Louise Houhan's great ethology and witnesses is most significant for it excludes love poems, all poems not addressed or making relationality by male poets to women in one manner or another, or women to men, as with Catherine of Argyll, for example, or equally to the more than human.

I'm going to just jump ahead just for a little bit.