Liam's Bird 1

'Liam & the Most Wondrous Bird

PREFACE: Several years ago, while visiting my Grandmother Gertrude MacCashland's home in Salt Lake City, I had a great desire to relate several strange and powerful dreams I had experienced to my brothers, Kevin and Mark. I believed that these dreams revealed certain aspects of both our eternal and earthly relationships which I had not considered before, and I hoped that by telling them these dreams they would understand the messages in them as I had. Although they thought my dreams were certainly strange and exciting, it seemed to me that the messages which I understood in those dreams had completely escaped them. Believing they should understand these meanings of their own accord, I felt constrained from any attempt at further explanation of my own interpretation of the dreams. So feeling frustrated as well as very tired due to an ongoing illness, I decided to take a short nap in my grandmother's easy chair. Before I drifted to sleep, I prayed I would dream a story they could well relate to and understand concerning our brotherly relationships during this worldly sojourn together. To my great suprise that is exactly what happened to me that afternoon, and the following story is the result of these desires I had. It was the first time I was able to experience a dream based on a the desires of my waking self.

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here was in the village of Brì a most capable man known in those parts as Aed-'Liam ÓBrannain, but to all the folk of the village he was known simply as 'Liam the WoodSmith, for by his trade he was a carpenter. From his father it was he became so, seeing how a good father in fair love of his son blesses him beyond the days of his own life. And justly proud of his work so he was (for some there were who boasted 'Liam in very deed to be the the finest wood-smith of the Tír Chonnaill withal). Still 'Liam knew a longing from within his own self to find expression for the feelings of his heart by the work of his hands in ways more delicate and wondrous than could be had by the hewing of roof timbers and the building of four walls to hold them.

So it was that in addition to his reputation as the most able carpenter of his village, 'Liam also gained renown as an artist of wood and stone. For it was a fine sculpture he became as well, and as the poets express their love of the language of Erin through the poetry from their lips, so 'Liam did express his love of the word through the artistry of his handiwork; and as the bards show their love of the music of Erin by the songs on their tongues, so 'Liam did express the music in his soul in the harmony of the figures he carved with his hands; and even as the clerics of Erin display their love of God by their vows of poverty and pious ways, so 'Liam did prove the love in his heart by giving the most beautiful works of his hands to the poor and impoverished of the land. And this he did that the downtrodden and meaner races of the land might delight in the inspiration fine craftsmanship can bring on a soul as well as the noble and rich.

For 'Liam was a man a few words spoken. The things he knew of his mind and felt of his heart he could fain give fair expression to for he was slow of speech, and given to stuttering when he tried to tell of his joys or of his sorrows. And so you see how it was that the works of his hands came to be for 'Liam as the fair words of the tongue, for his fingers were nimble and quick, being sure in their ways, whereas his tongue was slow and halting, being ashamed of its speech. And so it was that the beauty of his artistry was well known and appreciated in the lands round about his home.

Now 'Liam had carved many works from the wood of the local trees he used as lumber in his carpentry. On occasion he would come across a burl from an old tree in the forest that would make for an interesting piece. Other times while searching along the coast, he would come across odd shapes of driftwood from ships dashed to pieces in some far off storm, the remains of the once proud vessel being washed ashore as was the will of the wind and the sea. "Better it may be for the lonely souls of those lost at sea to find their rest in a work of art by my own hands than to drift forever in the deep with no meaning," Liam would say to himself when he came across such a wave-worn ship's timber heaved up upon the rocky shore by the waves of Mannannen.

And as he considered what form to reshape the well-worn wood into, he would often ponder in his heart the soul of the brave vessel and her crew whose remains now lie in his hands; for he fancied that whatever glories and travails they shared in their sea voyages past remained somehow embedded in the very grain and twisted shape of the timbers tossed so long within the foaming seas.

"The wood remembers the desires and deeds of the men she has born," thought he as his hands began working the salted wood, "just as an old wash woman remembers her love's first embrace. It is the unsung song of their tragedies and triumphs together, remembered now through the very feel of the wood at the touch of the craftsman's hands. It is a new form I will give these bitter-sweet memories I now hold, and befitting of the finest service which they might have given each one for the other."

And this 'Liam did. And the shape each piece took in his hands was to be wondered at, no two ever being re-fashioned alike. And though the form of each had been carved from dead wood, all those who knew 'Liam's work could easily tell a tale of living deeds, for good or for evil, which was remembered in each sculpture.

Now it happened that 'Liam began to grow impatient at working his hands in wood, for over the years he had created many hundreds of wooden sculptures. He longed to put a chisel to fine stone, but there being few places near Bri to quarry suitable rock of desirable color and consistency, he had only managed to work a few small pieces.

Now on occasion 'Liam was obliged to hitch a cart to his mule and travel to the Dun naGhall to purchase specialty tools or timbers not known to the local woods near Bri. Being a busy sea port with much trade from Alba and lands foreign in addition to all of Eriu, 'Liam determined that one day he should be able to afford to place an order with the merchants there for a suitable piece of stone quarried from a certain place he had heard of in Alba.