Fieldnotes from Celtic Palestine

Fieldnotes from Celtic Palestine embodies a new type of sociological writing that weaves ethnography with memoir as well as fusing other convention-breaking literary forms, styles and devices. In its innovative analysis of the rhetorical power of the creative works of four Celtic witnesses to the conflict in Palestine, three Irish and one Welsh, it explores how the creative practitioner may effectively engage in political persuasion and activism without compromising their art. The book also reflects upon a series of encounters in the field between the author and various individuals – political prisoners, diplomats, members of terrorist organisations, members of the security services, journalists and politicians, and also ordinary people making their lives in a society profoundly shaped by brutal ethno-political occupation and conflict. Amongst these encounters is that of being served tea by the daughter of a Hamas suicide bomber, and that of being taken to Jewish settlements regarded as illegal under international law.

Fieldnotes from Celtic Palestine is an uncategorisable work of creativity and activism. Part lyrical memoir, it recounts Mac Giolla Chríost’s experiences in Palestine and in Derry, where his Irish-speaking Protestant family resettled after being threatened out of Belfast in the 1970s. It is also a poetic analysis of the work of four other Celts - Brian Keenan, Dervla Murphy, Colum McCann and Osi Rhys Osmond - who approached Palestine through autobiography, travel writing, fiction and visual art. The book creates an inter-textual conversation which shifts between theory and the sensory realities of cherries, sage tea, checkpoints and nightmares. Bearing witness to colonialism and conflict, it asks how identity shapes testimony. This is a complex and compelling book that underlines how art can illuminate the "moral heart of things."

Claire Mitchell, The Irish Times

‘This is a compelling exploration of the creative response to conflict in Palestine by three Irish writers and a Welsh visual artist. Diarmait Mac Giolla Chrίost’s extensive research and germane analysis questionswhat art is for, and bears witness to what can art do as political activism while still remaining art.’

Christine Kinsey, artist, author, curator, and co-founder and director of Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff