Dancing
to an Irish Reel
Claire
Fullerton
Genre:
Literary Fiction
Publisher:
Vinspire Publishing
Date
of Publication: March 3, 2015
ISBN:
978-0-9903042-5-8
ASIN:
Number
of pages: 220
Word
Count: 63,000
Cover
Artist: Elaina Lee for the Muse Designs
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Book
Description:
Twenty
five year old Hailey Crossan takes a trip to Ireland during a
sabbatical from her job in the LA record business. While there, she’s
offered a job too good to turn down, so she stays.
Although
Hailey works in Galway, she lives in the countryside of Connemara, a
rural area famous for its Irish traditional music. When Hailey meets
local musician, Liam Hennessey, a confusing relationship begins,
which Hailey thinks is the result of differing cultures, for Liam is
married to the music, and so unbalanced at the prospect of love, he
won't come closer nor completely go away.
And
so begins the dance of attraction that Hailey struggles to decipher.
Thankfully, a handful of vibrant local friends come to her aid, and
Hailey learns to love a land and its people, both with more charm
than she ever imagined.
Excerpt:
There’s
an energy that hangs between strangers even in a crowd. Call it
interest, or attraction, or the knowledge of things to come. It is
awareness, and I was aware to the exclusion of all activity around me
that Liam Hennessey was watching me. He was sitting at the corner of
the bar by himself, and because I could feel his gaze upon me like an
electrical current, I froze. I did not move an inch because I sensed
I didn’t have to, that something would come about with little
prompting from me. I don’t know how I knew this, but I was right,
it came about within the hour. It began as a series of introductions
to people near Liam, and drew itself closer until Liam was introduced
to me.
Right
before Leigh left, claiming she had to get up early the next day to
drive to Cork, Kieran pointed out that the Irish traditional
musicians playing in the corner were the father and older brother of
the lad sitting at the end of the bar.
“That’s
Liam Hennessey at the bar there,” Kieran gestured to my right.
“He’s the best box player in Connemara – even in the whole of
Ireland, many say. His family is long in Connemara; they’re all
players, so. That’s Sean Liam, his da, and his brother Anthony
there on the guitar.” Kieran seemed proud to know the facts. He
next took my arm and led me straight to Liam.
“I’ve
the pleasure of knowing this American here, her name is Hailey,”
Kieran announced to Liam.
I
had an uneasy feeling. It’s one thing to suspect you’ll cross
paths with someone again, and quite another to be fully prepared when
it actually happens. For some unknown reason, I kept thinking it was
strange to see Liam this far out in the country from Galway, but then
again, what did I know? I didn’t know anything about him.
Liam
looked at me with large dark eyes and smiled brightly. He was
different than I had imagined: he was friendlier, more candid. I
assumed because he looked so dark and mysterious, there would be a
personality to match. I assumed he would be reserved, aloof, perhaps
arrogant in an artistic sort of way. I was paying close attention,
and there was none of that about Liam. In seconds, I realized he was
a nice guy. I moved a step to my right as an older man approached the
bar.
“Would
ye give us a hand there,” the man said to Liam, and for the next
few minutes, Liam handed pints over his head to a group of men too
far from the bar’s edge to grab the glasses themselves. Just then,
Kieran said something that set off a chain of events and put the rest
of the night in motion.
“Liam,
will you watch Hailey for me, I’m off to join the sessiun.” With
that, Kieran produced a harmonica from his shirt pocket and walked
off to join the musicians in the corner.
I
stood at the bar and waited for the next thing to happen. The world
seemed to operate in slow motion. All the noise in the room subsided,
and the only thing I knew was I was looking directly at Liam
Hennessey. I searched his face for imperfections. I had never before
seen such beauty in the face of a man. I hoped my thoughts didn’t
show on my face. He was so good looking, I wondered why other people
in the room weren’t staring at him, then I realized most of Hughes’
patrons knew him and were probably used to the way he looked. I was
reticent, unsure of how to speak to Liam, unfamiliar with how
provincial he may or may not have been. Words tend to get in the way
in moments like this, but they lay in wait just the same.
“You’re
an American, yah?” he asked in that way the Irish have of answering
their own question. “I’ve been to America,” he said.
“Where
in America?” I encouraged.
“Boston,
New York, Chicago. My cousins live in Chicago. I even went all the
way to Niagara Falls.”
“Believe
it or not, I’ve never been to Niagara Falls. What’s it like?”
“Not much, mind
you, it’s a nice enough place, but ten minutes after I saw the
falls, I was asking where I could get a nice cup of tea.”
“I
imagine it would take a lot to be impressed after living here,” I
said.
“I’d
never want to live anywhere else. Everything you could ever want is
here in Connemara.”
And
it is, I thought. Connemara has a sense of peace I’ve never felt
before.
“Are
you long in Ireland?” he asked.
“I
live here,” I said. “I live in Inverin.”
“Ah,
so you’re just up the road. Me too.”
At
27-years-old, Liam lived with his parents in the house in which he
grew up.He was a world-class Irish traditional musician that traveled
often to places like Germany, Austria and New Zealand. He was in
demand as a player in touring bands because he was a master at
playing the button accordion. As such, he was more than a musician:
he was the bearer of a torch that represented the history of an old
culture. He brought the language of Irish music to regions that
otherwise would have never been enlightened.
Being
an Irish traditional musician is a feat not easily arrived at.
Rather, it is a feat painstakingly achieved. Most of the tunes in a
traditional player’s repertoire have been memorized through
listening and repeated execution, as opposed to memorization by
reading musical scores. Traditional music has been passed down
through generational lines, and with Liam’s family, there had been
no interruption. His father was a player, and the world in which Liam
grew up was one of constant exposure to traditional music as if it
were a language. I came to realize much later that Liam’s first
language was music, his second language was Irish, and his third was
English.
“So,
you must be another American looking for their roots, then,” Liam
stated.
If
that was a question, then it’s a fair one, I thought.
“Actually,
I’m working at the Galway Music Center,” I said, then I followed
with my poetry aspirations, hoping to impress upon him I was not just
passing through.
About
the Author:
Claire
Fullerton is the author of Paranormal Mystery, A
Portal in Time.
She is an award winning essayist, a contributor to numerous magazines
(including “Southern Writers Magazine) a former newspaper columnist
and a four time contributor to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul”
book series.
She
hails from Memphis, TN. and now lives in Malibu, CA where she is
working on her third novel.
@cfullerton3
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