Wild Cats And Colleens

Wild Cats And Colleens


O Sweet Mother Ireland, now where have ye gone?

You've left and abandoned your poor weeping son

You cooked bacon and spuds in your own modest way

We laughed and we cried, oh yes, many's the day



Now you're in the ground and all covered in earth

Your rosary beads, they are wrapped round your girth

Once you were alive wearing diamonds and pearls

At seventy-six, still a helluva girl!



You were Mother Ireland, my own mammy too

There'll ne'er be another will ever match you

With your tidy red hair all tied up in a bun

Oh how I miss you -- your desolate son.

© 2001 Morag Prunty

Morag Prunty. Now there's a name to conjure with, isn't it? Morag Prunty is the author of three published novels, Painted Arrows, Disco Daddy and Dancing With Mules (renamed Wild Cats and Colleens: A Novel by her American publisher, HarperCollins Publishers).

I'm reading her first novel, Dancing with Mules, hereinafter shortened to Colleens. Set in Dublin and New York City, it's a romantic comedy inspired by the current crop of reality shows on TV. "Irish-American Billionaire seeks bright, beautiful, independent, but, above all, Irish wife. Please send photo and three-hundred-word essay about yourself to P.O. Box NY 14786. Looking for genuine love. No time-wasting money-grabbers please."

Hilarity ensues.

I am getting a real kick out of this book. The POV is most definitely Irish. She has excellent characterization skills -- you understand where her people are coming from and why. Her narrative could use a little punching up, but that's an editorial fault as much as anything.

Based upon my reading the first quarter of Colleens, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend picking up any of her books and giving them a whack -- you'll be glad you did.

Oh. That poem up there? The satirical lyrics to an imaginary Country-Western Dirge by an even more imaginary Irish band written and performed at the behest of the billionaire in memory of his mother. Really. I will go to hell for failing to obtain permision to use it, except it's the start of Chapter 4, so in that sense, it's an excerpt under the "Fair Use Doctrine." Still, it's so gag-me-with-a-spoon, don't you think?



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