The resulting book renews the connection between Gaelic Scotland and Ireland and is an extraordinary celebration in words and pictures of the diverse strands of contemporary Celtic culture from the earliest times to the present day. The 100 visual artists - 50 from each country - were commissioned to respond to the poetry in a variety of media. Comedy, tragedy, love, death, the spiritual and the bawdy are all represented in poems by Sorley MacLean, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Iain Crichton Smith, Michael Davitt, Kevin MacNeill and Cathal Ó Searcaigh. The selection features work from almost every century from the 6th to the 21st and includes the earliest Gaelic poetry in existence. The 100 Gaelic poems have been nominated by leading poets and writers such as Seumas Heaney, Hamish Henderson and Alistair Macleod as well as the contributing poets themselves. Through An Leabhar Mòr/ The Great Book of Gaelic, the work of more than 200 poets, visual artists and calligraphers from both countries has been brought together to create a major contemporary artwork in the form of a visual anthology. The Gaelic language remains the most potent living link between Scotland and Ireland. O’Brien’s Crime in Verse grants the same attention and status to poetic representations of crime. He was hugely popular and when he died in 1899, his funeral procession from Balaclava to the Melbourne General Cemetery.
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