James Stephens

The Demi-Gods James Stephens

In The Demi-Gods, a group of ancient heroes in the form of winged angels show up one night in the camp of the wandering Mac Canns (Patsy, his daughter Mary and their downtrodden donkey). Together the little group wanders around rural Ireland: telling stories, creating mischief and running into some familiar yet often unwelcome faces. James Stephens was an Irish novelist and poet and produced many retellings of Irish myths and fairy tales, which are marked by a rare combination of humour and lyricism; Deirdre, and Irish Fairy Tales are often especially praised. He also wrote several original novels, The Crock of Gold, Etched in Moonlight, and Demi-Gods, which are based loosely on Irish fairy tales. The Crock of Gold in particular has achieved enduring popularity and has often been reprinted. Stephens's influential book on the 1916 Easter Rising, Insurrection in Dublin, describes the effect of the deaths by execution of his friend Thomas MacDonagh and others as being "like watching blood oozing from under a door".