Why a Booktrail?
Timeless – Meet Finn McCool – the largest giant in all of Ireland
Finn McCool and the Great Fish
What you need to know before your trail
Finn McCool is the largest giant that Ireland has ever seen. He’s a big, fierce giant and has fought off enemies to help save Ireland from the Scots.
He’s also got a nice gentle side since in the (fictional) village of Drumnahoon, he helps the farmers with the hay and generally helps the villagers in any which he can. He has power and strength – good traits for a giant but he lacks brains and he wants to change this about himself.
So when he hears the story of a wise man and a magical and very wise red salmon, he sets out to find this fish and to see if it can change his fortune.
Travel Guide
Drumnahoon may be fictional but it is a magical place in Ireland. A place where a giant lives and helps out in his community. He has fought another giant to keep Ireland safe and also likes to help the farmers and the villagers day to day.
Finn McCool is a well known and well loved character in Irish fiction. He is the giant who has strength and power but lacks intelligence and he fixates on the one thing he doesn’t have instead of looking at his strengths.
His home in Ireland is stunningly evoked in the illustrations and his journey to see the wise man and find the fish is evoked with illustrations of Ireland’s lush green landscape, rivers and the water. When Finn catches his finger on a fish hook, we feel his pain, see the blood and realise his difficulty in fishing.
The fable of the magic red salmon is a famous Irish tale evoked with lush images of a magical landscape.
You can visit The Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, where the Irish believe is the path of basalt rock columns where Finn McCool fought the giant Benandonneron from Scotland.
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