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Opera, plays with music, pantomime, folk operas...

Deirdre and the Sons of Usna

by Tim Porter


A Druid prophesies over a pregnant woman:

"...Bright are her lips, vermilion red.
She'll bring evil to Ireland.
As a ferret works destruction in a rabbit's burrow
So she'll work destruction in Ulster.
Truly, it is a girl there,
Deirdre, the Troubler,
And evil will come of her!"

To outwit fate, Conachur, the great King, has the child Deirdre brought up in a remote place, where she will see no man. As she grows, the King conceives a growing, wild, jealous passion for the girl he has not seen. Naoise, eldest son of Usna, has been schooled without sight of women. He and Deirdre happen to meet. And there the trouble starts. It is not the way of fate to be outwitted...

"Deirdre and the Sons of Usna" is based in part on James Stephens' version of the famous incident in the "Tain Bo Cuailnge".


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Last updated   8th January 2012    Copyright © Green Branch 2004 - 2012


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