Barnacle Soup

by Josie Gray & Tess Gallagher

Josie Gray, a County Sligo painter and father of eight, tells yarns with the same passion some men court beautiful women or bet on horses, although he’s been known to do the latter as well.

Barnacle Soup and other stories from the West of Ireland is a collection of the stories narrated by the Irishman, Josie Gray, and transformed into a literary work by the American writer, Tess Gallagher. A beautiful little book with very cute monochrome linocut illustrations by Ann Anderson.

From A stray bullet and sick cattle Because, as I said, majors were scarce in the locality, we decided to manufacture one. We called him ‘the Major’. Major Donnelly never objected to the rise in rank of our Major, and could be heard calling him that himself on occasion. ‘Good day, Major,’ the Major would say. Maybe he liked having the company.