"The Country of the Young: interpretations of youth and childhood in Irish culture"

The Four Courts Press have just published this very interesting book:"The Country of the Young: interpretations of youth and childhood in Irish culture"

I was honoured that Kelly Matthews (co-editor with John Countryman) asked to use a detail of this rough I did for my Children of Lir stamp for the cover.


Here's the blurb:"Throughout the history of modern Ireland, cultural representations of youth and childhood have served as focal points for discussions of social and political issues. Topics for the essays in this collection range from Famine-era women’s autobiographies to filmic portrayals of post-Good Friday Northern Ireland; from considerations of Patrick Pearse and Máirín Cregan to Anne Enright and Claire Keegan. The result is a complex and provocative view of childhood experiences in modern Ireland, and of the ways in which youth and childhood have been interpreted in the work of Irish writers, politicians, dramatists and filmmakers."

The Children of Lir; Unpublished Stamp Designs

I think these pictures, and other roughs I posted earlier, give a good idea of my stamp design process.

I decided against using the full image of the swan children of Lir sheltering from the storm and went for the transformation scene instead. But I was able to adapt the first design for use as a decorative panel on the stamp sheet.

Amongst some old roughs I found the mock-up below where I was considering the tragic image of the old children of Lir from The Names upon the Harp. 

It makes a nice companion piece to the scene of the four of them huddling together as swans.

The Country of the Young

I was recently asked to hunt out this rough I did several years ago for a stamp design based on "The Children of Lir".
The rough, complete with sticky tape and photocopied serrated edges, will be used on the cover of a book of academic essays edited by John Countryman and Kelly Matthews.
It is called "The Country of the Young: Interpretations of Youth and Childhood in Irish Culture" and publication by Four Courts Press is in April or May.
Below is the finished artwork that I did for the An Post stamp design.