Endurance

Heroic Journeys in Ireland

Kidnap, escape, murder, power, faith, scholarship, survival and, above all, sheer endurance - all are themes in Dermot Somers' graphic accounts of heroic travels through Ireland, from Iron Age myth to the dawn of modern Ireland.

The Iron Age: Queen Medb and the epic cattle-raid of Cooley.

5th Century A.D.: Caoilte - last of the pagan warriors of the Fianna - encounters St. Patrick.

1006: Brian Boru parades through Ulster in a show of military might.

1588-9: Captain de Cuéllar of the Spanish Armada on a harrowing odyssey of survival.

1591-2: Red Hugh O'Donnell escapes across the freezing slopes of the Wicklow Mountains.

1602-3: Driven from his lands, O'Sullivan Beara takes to the hungry road with a thousand followers.

1626-36: The Franciscan monk, Michael O'Clery, travels through Ireland, to preserve its ancient lore and learning in the Annals of the Four Masters.

With maps and photographs, Dermot Somers - mountaineer, Gaelic scholar, writer and TV presenter - follows in the footsteps of these epic journeys.