Book review
By Michelle Montovio
“An Cailleach Gaeilge” (The Irish Witch) is Walter A. Crisp’s first foray into the realm of historical fiction; he made his debut as an author in 2012 with the publication of “The Call of Duty – A History of Gibraltar and the Wars in Europe 1757–1815”.
This carefully researched work focuses on the connection between Gibraltar and the conflicts in Europe arising from the Rock’s association with the British Navy.
Although many admirals have been associated with Gibraltar, Horatio Nelson is by far the most famous and inspirational naval hero, having led the British Navy to victory against the French at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805.
Crisp’s “The Call of Duty” explores the close relationship between Nelson and The Rock.
Although An Cailleach Gaeilge (The Irish Witch) is a work of fiction inspired by Percy Bysshe Percy’s poem The Witch of Atlas and set largely in Ireland and London, Gibraltar takes centre stage as the sequence of events in the plot leads two main characters to the final déroulement to the Rock.
The novel is divided into two sections, the first of which is Beyond the Pale. The Pale was a region in medieval Ireland that was under English control, particularly around Dublin.
The area within the settlement area was considered more civilized, whereas the areas outside the settlement area, such as County Donegal, where the action begins in 1483 at the time of the plantations, were considered uncivilized.
It was a place where people adopted different faiths, including paganism (due to their Celtic and Druidic ancestry) and Christianity.
Here we meet the main character of the novel, the red-haired Claire with her enchanting emerald green eyes, known as “the wild Atlantic-Celtic girl”.
She could hear the voices of spirits and had extraordinary healing powers. Her unwavering devotion to the 5th century Saint Abigail, the patron saint of bees, is manifested in her bond with them.
These powers are passed on to their descendants and are alluded to throughout the novel to hint at what is to come. Claire hides in her fisherman father’s boat and is found and raped by him and his nephews. A mysterious storm causes her to perish at sea. The only survivor is Claire, who has conceived a child the night she was raped and is washed up on a beach in Cardiff.
She is found by a young man who takes her to London, where Claire becomes a regular visitor to Blackfriars Monastery (an image of which appears on the cover of the novel).
Blackfriars plays a central role in the first part of the novel, “Beyond the Pale”, and the author describes in detail the contribution of monasteries to society, the symbiotic relationship between monasteries and the poor, and the terrible consequences of their eventual dissolution during the reign of Henry VIII.
Despite Claire’s altruism and kindness towards others, her life is put in danger by the Church’s attempt to crack down on witchcraft.
She is branded an evil witch and it is not long before Claire – who is already the mother of two girls, the younger of whom has inherited her characteristic green eyes and red hair – disappears. A body is washed up on the Thames, her face unrecognizable.
Although she is no longer physically present, her spirit permeates the entire novel, which spans nearly four centuries and follows the lives of several generations of women descended from her, all of whom have inherited her red hair, her mesmerizing green eyes, and an enlightened awareness of her spirituality, for, in the narrator’s words, “her spirit and powers lived on in their descendants, for the daughters of witches are witches too.”
A recurring theme in the novel is that the dead coexist with the living, support them, and are omnipresent in the lives of the living.
Considered witches by the unenlightened, these women are miles away from the widows who make their living as healers using herbal medicine and superstition. They are in tune with the forces of nature, divinity, the universe and the supernatural, all of which are inextricably linked.
The second and final part of An Cailleach Gaeilge (The Irish Witch) is entitled “While the Moon Waxes and Wanes” and is set in impoverished Dublin in the 19th century. Over a million people died in 1847 as a result of the Irish potato blight.
We meet Patricia, who was born on March 17 of the same year, the feast day of Saint Patrick. Like Claire, who was born almost four hundred years earlier, she has emerald green eyes and red hair.
Patricia is possessed by the spirit of her mother and grandmother. After losing her mother at a young age, Patricia is taken to Saint Mary’s Work House and Orphanage.
Here she befriends a young man who suffers from epilepsy and is in solitary confinement because his illness suggests a form of demonic possession.
Although he cannot speak, the young man named Danny paints childlike pictures of the view from his window. The most remarkable thing about his paintings, however, is the image of the moon in various stages of waxing and waning. These images take on magical and symbolic meaning as the novel progresses. The reader quickly realizes that there is a special connection between Danny and Patricia.
By far my favorite parts of An Cailleach Gaeilge are those set in Gibraltar.
In Part II, the action briefly shifts away from Dublin and focuses on Stuart Ballantyne, an army surgeon working at the naval hospital, and his family.
At this point in the novel, the reader is transported back to the days of military personnel in 19th century Gibraltar. There are references to the Gibraltar Chronicle, the King’s Chapel, the Garrison Library and even La Calle Comedia, where prostitutes plied their trade.
Powerful forces are at work to bring together the life of Lan, who lives hundreds of miles away in the British colony of Gibraltar, with that of Patricia in an orphanage in faraway Dublin.
In the universe of An Cailleach Gaeilge (The Irish Witch), there are no coincidences – ghosts of the past, acting as guardians, shape the characters’ life path. After a series of events in Lan’s life, he decides to go to Ireland to help the poor and meets Patricia while caring for the dying Danny in the orphanage. He falls madly in love with her.
When they decide to return to Gibraltar, life is not easy for Patricia, who is pregnant with her first child.
In the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned, an apparition of her late mother warns her daughter that the road ahead is paved with evil. As we approach the climax of the novel, a strong sense of foreboding takes hold. Patricia has another vision of her mother, who tells her that her baby will soon be born and that the souls of all departed loved ones will finally find rest. The novel comes full circle and the cycle is finally completed with the birth of Patricia’s baby, an emerald-eyed daughter. Her chosen name takes our breath away – Claire.
There is a final episode at the end of the novel that reminds us that daughters of witches will always be witches, and with this crucial moment, An Cailleach Gaeilge (The Irish Witch) ends.
Although I personally had a desire to read this novel (the author is my father, after all), I find An Cailleach Gaeilge (The Irish Witch) to be a fascinating story that seamlessly blends historical realism and fiction. It is written with incredible attention to detail (even the street names are historically accurate) and contains a wealth of information spanning four centuries of British and Gibraltarian history. As a significant portion of this novel is set in 19th century Gibraltar, it will appeal all the more to the local reader.
Crisp succeeds in portraying the harsh reality of life on the disease-ridden rock, the bitter poverty of its inhabitants and the enormous class differences between the English and the locals.
The interspersing of Spanish phrases throughout his narrative as the novel reaches its climax is a nod to our unique bilingual identity and our shared history. The author could not have chosen a more meaningful setting for the end of his novel than the Rock of Gibraltar.
An Cailleach Gaeilge (The Irish Witch) is printed by Gibraltar Chronicle Printing Ltd and is available from BOOKgem Bookshop and the Gibraltar Heritage Trust.
