About this Event
All welcome to celebrate Derry-born author Eoghan Mac Cormaic's latest two titles in Little Acorns Bookstore, Derry on Saturday 11 April 2026 at 1.30pm until 2:30pm.
Both books are histories but there the similarity ends. Beart le Briathar (Deeds with Words) is a book which examine the role of Conradh na Gaeilge in Pr*son campaigns between 1971 and 2000 while Buataisí Dearga (Red Boots) is a historical novel set in Derry and Donegal between 1892 and 1992.
This research into the role of Conradh na Gaeilge is based on first-hand sources in the Conradh archive, located in the University of Galway, where a huge volume of correspondence between prisoners in jails in the north, the south and in England grew up beginning just after the introduction of internment in 1971. Conradh was an organisation pledged to non partisan politics but the leadership quickly realised that they had both a historic and a moral duty to stand up for human rights and language rights. It was in this context that Conradh played a leading role in campaigns over extradition, strip searching, language bans in Portlaoise and other prisons and most importantly, in the five year protest in the H Blocks and Armagh Pr*son that ended in the death of ten hunger strikers. That story is revealed factually and comprehensively in Mac Cormaic's book.
The second book to be launched, Buataisí Dearga is a novel, set in Derry and Donegal. The story traces the stories of several families as their lives intertwine and move apart over one hundred years. Mac Cormaic was described by the reviewer Dave Duggan as an activist writer, and this book is a work of fiction framed in politics. The story weaves its way with sometimes dramatic turns, giving an account which has all the elements of human life: migration, war, social conditions, love, treachery, tragedy and all set in what Mac Cormaic says is a re-imagined landscape of Derry's streets and characters.
Books will be available for puchase and for signing. Light refreshements included.
**
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Little Acorns Bookstore, 18 Great James Street, Derry, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
