Land of the Ever Young

An Anthology of Working People’s Writing for Children from Contemporary Ireland
Edited and introduced by Jenny Farrell

This is the third of a set of three volumes of the writings by the working people of contemporary Ireland. The project is a pioneering venture that has been fully supported by the Irish trade union movement in recognition of the importance of creativity and the right of the working class to express the wealth of their culture and to articulate their experience of life.

All the stories are packed with humanity, tenderness, and wisdom. The authors present children and adults who confront wrongs, challenge superstition and injustice, and who often see further than others around them. The heroines and heroes in these stories are always filled with a sense of the common good, highlighting the qualities necessary to make society a fairer, better place, a home for a happy future, a Tír na nÓg, the Land of the Ever Young.

Such a place can only materialise in the absence of wars, of profit-driven greed with its contempt for equality, humanity and the environment – a place where instead the common good is the measure of society.

Children read and re-read stories many times, and they often stay with them for a lifetime, acting as a moral compass. This is what makes literature for children so very important. The images that accompany children's stories are also remembered for a long time, and Land of the Ever Young has been beautifully and sensitively illustrated by the artist Karen Dietrich. Her images comment on and expand the humanist themes contained in the texts and help make them truly memorable for the readers, children and adults alike.

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