John Michael McFadden

Deidre's Dawn John Michael McFadden

During the first millennium year, young Deidre and her friend Culain love reading ancient manuscripts in their Abbey studies -- even helping the good monk Angus re-do bindings and repair vellum pages. But are there dark secrets in these stories? Especially their favorite-- the Book of Invasions, the saga of the forming years of Ancient Ireland, including their own Ulster. Is Abbess Brigit right that the tales of the Tuatha race, the great heroes of yore and ancestors of the magical faeries, mostly myth? Culain believes the sagas are true and faerie magic is real. Deidre doubts--until encounters with an old hag with strange spices and an odd pot-maker with a curious cauldron visit her at the Boar's Inn where she suffers as the scullery-wench daughter of oppressive innkeepers. Cruel punishments finally propel Deidre to doubt that these are her real parents and to imagine running away. To become a gypsy, she thinks. But a deep belief that her true parents are still alive convinces her to consider Culain's proposal to seek the faerie world and ask for help. Overcoming fear, she agrees to his plan to travel into the Enchanted Ards Forest to find answers - but danger lurks! Little does she know that she too will become a part of the Ulster legends and lore.