Thrilled to say that my poem ‘Gallóglaigh’ was published today in the alternative-lit website The Scum Gentry. My thanks are due to Ross Breslin, the editor-in-chief at TSG, for publishing it.
Just to fill you in, the Gallóglaigh (or ‘galloglass’, meaning ‘foreign warrior’) were a corps of elite mercenaries from the Hebridean Isles in Scotland, commissioned by Gaelic chieftains to aid in the fighting against Norman invaders during the 12th century. Over the ensuing centuries they were deployed almost continuously to Ireland and mainland Europe as a mercenary force, right up until the early 1600s. Their prowess in battle earned them a fearsome reputation overseas; even Shakespeare referenced their ferocity (albeit anachronistically) in the opening act of Macbeth, while the German Renaissance painter Albrecht Durer sketched the image which thumbnails this post. My poem is written from the POV of one such fighter, adrift on the battlefield after the fighting’s done.
