Colm O'Regan: 'I desperately want someone to make The Hounds of The Morrigan into a film'

HOTM was a book you didn’t want to end. Written for children, re-read by them as adults.

We climbed a stile to get to it. There are not enough stiles in my life. The magic passage through a ditch that seems very much out of favour these days. Fields are fenced and gated and generally discourage rambling. I don’t blame farmers. As a nation we are still incapable of passing through somewhere without falling and claiming compensation for it, or letting previously placid Bonzo the Dog go tearing off after the sheep or the in-calf heifers.

But there must be some sort of agreement at Hore Abbey near Cashel, because you can get to it over a stile and…across someone’s field. You mightn’t be familiar with Hore Abbey. It is very much the after-show party, the Big Brother’s Little Brother to the more celebrated Rock of Cashel.