Irish language book set in Derry launches this week

The book is titled Ór agus Mil, which translates to Gold and Honey, and tells the story of two friends who, fresh out of the local tech, open their own hairdressing salon. The books takes readers on a journey as the young women navigate the business world as well as their own relationships.

Dave said: “Ór agus Mil, which translates to English as Gold and Honey is my second novel in Irish, my fifth overall. I primarily write dramas for stage, screen and radio but I have a nice strand, as I look back, of novels in both languages and this is the latest one. Ór, meaning gold, is about business and money, and Mil translates to English as honey, is about relationships, love, friendship.

"Ór agus Mil is situated in a hairdressing salon in Derry. Fiona and Josie are the heroes and they’ve just qualified from the tech as hairdressers. What a wise head would have told them to do is go into an established hairdresser, learn their trade, get a bit of a client list, see how the business runs and then go out on their own as they wished. But they are two quite powerful young women and they decided to do it themselves. They get a site down a back lane, out of the way, behind an old shirt factory. Their landlord, who is called Tightener, lives in the flat upstairs. He’s fairly easy on them in terms of rent and it suits them to have them there. He has secrets in his past and he’s a feisty character. He’s not great at admitting his age but he’s up there, he’s certainly older than Fiona and Josie. He has a great interest in a range of middle-aged women in the area, who also have a great interest in him. There’s an interesting inter-generational observation around relationships and then they find out that things are not as salacious as they thought.

"I’m currently working on a book of essays called ‘Journey Work’. It’s a set of reflections on my work, the genres and styles I’ve worked in. I’ve been working as a writer for 30 years, full time for 25 of those. That book is in good shape now so I’m putting steps in place to get it published now. I haven’t written a stage play for quite a while so I feel one of those gathering steam. That might come by the end of next year.”

The bilingual book launch for Ór agus Mil will take place at 6pm in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin on Wednesday, October 19. Everyone is welcome. The book is also available in Little Acorns Bookstore on Foyle Street.