Lusk Heritage Group are delighted to make available a wonderful new collection of short stories entitled Tales of Gaels and Bales, written by Lusk’s very own Jim Monks, the treasurer and founder member of Lusk Heritage Group. These twenty three amazing short stories were years in the writing, some were recorded and preserved on audio by Jim Hawkins from Swords, while more of them were gathering dust on Jim Monk’s cluttered bookshelves at home. Aidan Arnold, Chairman of the Lusk Heritage Group and a good friend of Jim’s for the last fifty years, finally realised their potential as a treasure trove of local Fingallian folklore. He set about pulling the stories together into a single volume. He searched out and met a young Bulgarian girl called Yoana Topalska, living in Rush, working in Skerries and studying art, who produced 14 stunning illustrations for the book. Aidan, in cooperation with Lusk Heritage Group, has now published this beautiful little book which he feels deserves pride of place on every bookshelf in Ireland. The stories look back at much more than our history.You’ll meet the Dunne family from the Nevitt. In 1848, at the height of the Famine, Paddy and Sarah and John, Pat and Sally, went over the road, down the hill of the Nevitt, on their way to the North Wall of Dublin and a voyage to a foreign country. Jump forward 100 years to Paddy Farrell, a man totally at peace with himself, warm outside from the good log fire in the pub, warm inside from three bottles of ale, but World War 11 was about to change all that. Paddy’s only son Boot Farrell who deserves a book all to himself. Join Boot on his hilarious first visit to Skerries where everything that can possibly go wrong does go wrong. You never know where you’ll find yourself or who you’ll meet between the pages of Jim’s Tales of Gaels and Bales. You could be in Lusk, Rush, Skerries, Ballyboghill, Balbriggan, London, Santiago or New York, but everywhere you’ll find yourself in the company of real people, genuine laughter and simple human kindness. Tales of Gaels and Bales is available now to buy in local outlets. It will make a perfect stocking filler and Christmas present for anyone interested in Lusk, in Fingal or just curled up on the sofa enjoying a good book and a laugh.