About the Author
James Kilcullen was born and reared in Ballina, Co Mayo in North-West Ireland.
Although he has lived in Dublin for the past thirty six years he is inspired by some of the wonderful characters, and awesome rugged scenery to be found along the Atlantic seaboard. He still spends some months there each year.
About the Book
In The Rape of the Rath an ambitious arrogant EU transport commissioner, Jacques De Lack - having spent years fighting the environmentalists of Europe - has finally obtained a site for his new mega airport designed to cater for the gigantic X719 jets that will carry twelve hundred passengers. The site, near the town of Conna in west Galway, happens to be beside Rath Pallas, the home of the little people (leprechauns) who are not best pleased that their peace and quiet is going to be destroyed.
Dandaboy is unique: he is the only one of the little people who - through his alter ego, Ozzy, an affable innocent old Connemara man - mixes with the local people. Dandaboy has remarkable powers; he can appear anywhere - and disappear at will, and rarely shows himself. But with all his powers, he cannot use force, he has no right to do wrong: he has to rely on his ingenuity.
Kingpa, the High King, and Dandaboy consult Ulick Joyc, a local solicitor and TD, with a view to having the planning permission withdrawn. Two hilarious court actions are followed by a deputation to Brussels where Ulick is arrested. An assortment of characters - some very dubious - become involved as the story progresses. De Lack sends in the bombers to destroy the Rath. The ever more arrogant commissioner arrives for the opening ceremony. It appears the little people have lost.
In The West's Awake, Ulick and his colleagues in the western counties become disenchanted with being continually neglected by the Dublin bureaucracy; millions of barrels of oil are being pumped daily to the refineries on the Aran and Achill islands. They decide to set up a separate state within the USE - the United States of Europe. Ulick Joyc is elected President of the new state of Hi-Brazil. At this time, the USE is governed by Count Otto Von Vernher, an autocratic dictator, who will not accept any deviation from his edicts.
There's immediate conflict when the new parliament in Galway is required to approve a constitution that hands over ownership of its oil fields to the USE. A much greater and more contentious issue arises. The people won't back off: the Count is not for turning. The big Count has might on his side. What can Dandaboy and Ulick do to stop him invading their little country?
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