THE BOOK OF CONQUESTS, published in 1978, is the first volume of a trilogy of works, which tell the story of the ancient and magical race: the Tuatha Dé Danann. The second volume, THE SILVER ARM was published in 1981; while volume three, THE SON OF THE SUN is in preparation.

THE BOOK OF CONQUESTS tells the story of Nuada, king of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and the First Battle of Moy Tura, one of the most important sagas in Early Irish Literature.

To give the narrative cohesion and sequential flow I found it necessary to fill in the obvious gaps in the original accounts. I have tried to do this as honestly and accurately as possible by drawing on manuscript and other reliable sources.

My other main concern was to try to stay faithful to the intuitions and transformations of that oral tradition which first transmitted to me the precious heritage of my country's past. I hope my writing is still informed by those passionate accents that fired my boyhood imagination.

In my paintings for THE BOOK OF CONQUESTS I have tried to express the immense power, vitality and majesty that characterises the sage of the conquest of Ireland by the Tuatha De Danann. The graphic styles of Mucha and Beardsley, which influenced my earlier work, are now much less in evidence. I feel my paintings for this book are more original in style, colour and composition. The work of this period owes more to Japanese Ukiyo-E prints and Irish Manuscript Art than to early 20th Century European illustration.