'Ghosts, dragons and evil incantations', all help to show local history

There was a full house yesterday in Woodbine Books for the illustration workshop for children and teenagers conducted by David Butler, writes Brian Byrne.

The full complement of 12 places for the event had been snapped up early, and would-be participants phoning in as late as yesterday morning were unable to be accommodated.

David shared with those there the basic skills used by illustrators and animators, using examples of characters and drawings from books he has worked on, notably the comic novel of Shackleton: The Voyage of the James Caird, which he published with writer Gavin McCumiskey.

Afterwards he and Mario Corrigan signed copies of their latest co-production for young people, Ghosts from The Other Realm. Set in Kildare town, the book is the latest in a series written with the help of school children and published with the support of the Kildare Library and Arts Service.

Dawn Behan of Woodbine Books with Mario Corrigan and David Butler.

In a unique way of developing a story for a locality, librarian and historian Mario spends time with school classes, talking about the local stories, myths and history, and comes away with what he calls 'the vocabulary' for a proposed book. "It all started with Do Fish Wear Pyjamas?, where I went into Scoil Bhride Naofa and Scoil na Mainistreach in Kildare town with a title and the name of a character. I worked up a full story based on that, David came up with the illustrations. We ran it by a few readers to make sure it wasn't useless, and then asked the Library to be nice to us and help publish it."

The concept was such a success that they later used it in Kerry for Listowel: The Writer's Revenge, with children from Knockanure NS, Scoil Réalta na Maidine and Dromclough NS, launched at Writers Week in 2014. A similar project in Roscommon with the pupils from Castleplunkett NS and Abbey NS resulted in The Battle for Coman's Wood. Ghosts from The Other Realm was developed with the help of students at St Brigid's Primary School.

"It's a great way of getting young people to look at their own area," Mario says. "We put the names of all of the pupils involved at the back, so when the book is published they all feel a part of it. It may even trigger one or two of them to go on to be writers."

David Butler explaining some graphics detail to Glenda Groome and her sons Daniel and James.

The stories can mix together dragons, Vikings, spirits and various historical happenings and local sights — "it's the great thing about children, they have no problem coming up with space invaders and vikings in the same breath". Mario recalls the story of a young reading fan from another part of the country who was enthralled when he came to Kildare and found that the round tower, Grey Abbey and Black Abbey in the story were actually real places. "I used those and threw in the ghostly knights, dragons, and evil incantations and other stuff. It's not tricking them into local history, but it puts it in front of them."

There's a school of thought that by setting books in a real local place you might be limiting the readership to that area. But Mario doesn't worry about that. "To anyone who doesn't know Kildare, or Roscommon, or Listowel, especially if they're from outside the country in the US or wherever, any of those places might as well be Hogwarts."

There's even a Kilcullen connection in the latest book — one of the 'ghosts' in the story lived in Old Kilcullen before he became a spirit.

Mario says he does his writing 'late at night when everyone else has gone to bed'. He has been involved in authoring history since 1998, and is currently the Executive Librarian at Kildare County Council. He has worked with the service since 1991. An avid local history buff, his Masters thesis was about Kildare in 1798.

Mario and David are currently collaborating on a graphic novel about Michael Collins.

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