The gift - or curse - of ‘the seer’

From the pen of Dromineer-based author Siobhan MacGowan comes a new novel, ‘The Graces’, a story based on a woman with powers of precognition and healing whose ‘seeing’ gifts are much sought after in Dublin in the early part of the last century by fashionable society and political agitators alike.

Set mainly in Dublin but also Co Clare, Rosaleen Moore’s powers of premonition inherited from her grandmother prove more of a curse than a blessing when growing up in the Banner County. But later Rosaleen moves to the capital and finds herself revered as a spiritualist who is in great demand for her gifts of ‘seeing’.

But when something goes terribly wrong, tearing her inner circle apart, Rosaleen’s extraordinary final prophesy brings her fame throughout the city.

‘The Graces’ has already been lauded by the Nenagh Bookshop - which actually has signed copies in stock - as “a compelling historical novel” that is set in a milieu “where science and faith collide”.

Described as “a masterclass in storytelling” by Nenagh’s famous writer Donal Ryan, and “beautiful, compelling and exquisitely told” by the UK author Ruth Hogan, ‘The Graces’ is a novel that has been capturing a fair share of attention in the national media since its launch last month.

It's MacGowan’s second published work in less than a year, following the launch in 2022 of her debut, ‘The Trial of Lotta Rae’, a well-received historical novel set in Edwardian London that was lauded by author Richard Balls as “an absolute triumph”.

DROMINEER

Siobhan MacGowan is a journalist, writer and musician who grew up and lived and worked in the UK for many years, and who now resides with her husband, Anthony, in Dromineer – coincidentally just a 15 minute drive from where her late mother’s people, the Lynch family, farmed for generations in Carney Commons.

She is from a family of great storytellers, the most prominent being her brother, Shane, the lead singer with The Pogues, who tells stories in his own inimitable way through his famous songs that are loved the world over.

Much of the story of ‘The Graces’ is drawn from the lives of Siobhan MacGowan’s mother’s people, particularly her maternal great-grandmother, Maggie Lynch, who had a terrifying premonition that one of her sons would die tragically. Sadly, it was a fate fulfilled when young Tommy Lynch got caught up in a threshing machine while harvesting corn on a neighbour’s farm many decades ago.

MacGowan’s mother, Therese, was raised by her aunts and uncles, the Lynch’s. And the tragedy of that awful episode still resonates in the family to this day, its surviving impact prompting the author to give the main character in the book the powers of seeing just like her own great-grandmother.

MacGowan says the gift – or maybe curse - of premonition has passed down the generations of her family and is inherent in many people; ‘a seeing’ some of us can discover by looking deeply inwards.

“We all have an instinct and intuition, but I think some people can take it even further to a highly developed, sense,” says MacGowan.

She recounts a story about her mother as a teenager during the Second World War seeing her Uncle Bill’s face in the reflection of a window. A fortnight later her family learned that their US based relative, who served in the US Airforce, had died unexpectedly.

In another incident decades later, in 1998, her mother had a premonition that MacGowan herself was going to be in an accident. Shortly after she was involved in a car crash on the way from Nenagh to Limerick that, fortunately, resulted in just a bump on the head and concussion.

One doesn’t hear so much nowadays about people who can see into the future or have premonitions. MacGowan puts this down to lack of insight into ourselves due to the busy world in which we now live.

She says: “People might not tap into it anymore, but it’s definitely there. People had quieter times back then. Ok, television was coming in the 1950s, but people back then did not have as many distractions. You could tune in because it was quieter. People didn’t have the buzzing here and buzzing there and life was a lot slower. When you’re frenetic you can’t tune in, but when you’re quiet you can.”

MODERN MEDICINE

One of the insights that the process of researching the book has given her is just how modern medicine has dramatically improved the lives of people today.

As MacGowan points out, life was a lot more precarious during the era the book is set in the early decades of the last century. Incidents such as her father’s uncle dying from sepsis after a thorn pricked his finger are drawn on for a scene in the book. For such a calamity to happen today would be very rare and deeply unfortunate.

And, though not revealing for fear of giving away too much to prospective readers, she says the main character, Rosaleen, is dying from a disease that is not fatal today, though the author’s own aunt died in her prime from the same disease in the 1920s.

“All this really opened my eyes to what we have in medicine today,” she says. “We are so fortunate now, but I don’t know if people think about that; I think they just take it for granted - I don’t think we should take it for granted.”

SUMMERS IN CARNEY

MacGowan says that much of the inspiration for the book comes from her experiences of returning from holidays from London as a child and spending long summers with her paternal grandparents in Dublin and her mother’s people in Carney Commons. Arriving with her parents and brother Shane to the Lynch farmstead near Puckane from the confines of the metropolis, the freedom of the expansive fields were a child’s wonderland, she recalls, and giggles when she also remembers how she and Shane hid out in the fields when their grandaunt called them each evening for the Rosary.

Parts of the feast laid on for the MacGowans on their arrival off the ferry – often arriving in Carney in the dark of night - are woven into the novel, such as the cross carved into the brown soda bread made by a grandaunt.

Celebrating her 60th birthday this year, it has been a long writing journey for MacGowan, who admits to having many of her previous works rejected by publishers.

“I was always a writer, but it was not until last year that I could really claim to be an author,” she laughs. “I have now finally got to where I wanted to be back when I was just 21, and I have learned the discipline of sitting down to finish a novel.”

Two published works published now in the space of less than a year, MacGowan is currently working on a third. “It’s going to be set in Ireland in the period just after the Civil War and how people were dealing with the ramifications of that conflict,” she reveals. She says she loves living in Dromineer. She likes being close to Nenagh where her 93-year-old father, Maurice, is residing, and she gets a sense of comfort from inhabiting the locality where her late mother, who sadly died in a car crash in January 2017, spent so much of her early life.

Judging from her current prolific output, Siobhan MacGowan seems to have struck a golden period as a writer and author. Better late then never, as they say - and nobody appreciates that now more than she.