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AUTHORS OF THE publishing phenomenon Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling have signed a two-book deal, with the possibility of a film deal, to continue the story of country girl Aisling as she makes her way in the world.
The novel has been an outstanding success, remaining at the top of the bestsellers list since it was published in late August.
Authors Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen met in college in Dublin and bonded over being from Kildare and Carlow. The witty pair were inspired to create the character Aisling around 10 years ago after meeting lots of girls like her.
When they set up the Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling Facebook page a number of years ago to catalogue Aisling’s life and the antics of her friends and family, they never dreamt it would end up being so popular. But the page now has over 40,000 members.
This year, Aisling has proved to be such an enduring character that the pair secured a book deal with Gill Books and published their debut novel – Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling.
It has been announced today that McLysaght and Breen have signed a two-book deal to continue the adventures of Aisling. A film deal is currently being negotiated by Curtis Brown.
“One piece of feedback we’ve had time and time again is that Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling is now set to emulate the success of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly,” Commissioning Editor for Gill Books, Conor Nagle said.
“Its success lies in the fact that there’s a bit of Aisling in all of us, as well as in the authors’ skilful ability to capture a certain slice of Irish life with humour and a light touch. It brilliantly manages to deal with real issues and tug at the heartstrings while also making you laugh out loud.”
The authors have already begun working on book two, due to be published in Autumn 2018.
They are keeping the plotline firmly under wraps, for now, just hinting that Aisling will be spending a lot more time “down home”.
Describing their year of success, McLysaght and Breen said: “The success of the book took us completely off guard. We never in a million years expected so many people to fall in love with Aisling. But now that they have, we’re excited to continue her adventures with Gill Books.”
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A couple of things were learned. You cannot have a U.N. force that is purely devoted to peacekeeping. They have to have the ability to enforce peace and not take a step back and watch. To this day the Canadian general (Romeo Daillane) is haunted by his inability to do anything except on a personal level in Rwanda.
If you have a force there is no point sending in a force not willing or able to undertake these tasks. General Daillane had a force of 2,500 men. 1,100 of these men were Bangladeshi who were utter cowards and didi everything in their power to not leave their bases. At least the Belgian and Ghanaian forces under the U.N. mandate were prepared to act until Kofi Annan said no. When the Belgian government took their forces out, Daillane could do nothing.
Another lesson was that Kofi Annan had to be the worst reader of reports who ever held a position at the U.N. The same guy a couple of years later became Secretary General. The mind boggles at that one.
A few good people could and did make a difference. Senegal Captain, Mbye Diagne under the noses of the Interhamwe managed to save 600 people. He was blown up by a mortar bomb at the end of May, at a roadblock. Laura Lane at the U.S. Embassy managed to rescue some and got them out by convoy to Burundi. Carl Wilkins (A 7th Day Adventist missionary) saved many hundreds through a network he managed quickly to set up. Gen Daillane and his deputy from Ghana, Henry Anyidoho saved many people and the head of the Red Cross mission Philippe Gaillard was heroic in his rescue attempts. It is a miracle he survived. Medicins San Frontiers were one of the few groups who begged and pleaded for help.
The last lesson to learn is that this can happen again so easily. Who is to say it is not already happening in C.A.R..Most of these murders that escalate to genocide start with unsubstantiated reports. We are hearing these reports even now from the C.A.R.
Me
Agreed Damian, the genocide continues in Syria, granted it’s complicated but millions displaced and 100000 dead. And guess what, the international community sits back. Without making light of this Eddie Izzard has a great perspective on this, kill your own and nobody cares.
Jesus, wot sum kids and families have went thru on this planet doesnt bear thinking about. Puts my petty problems into perspective thats for sure
Was in college with a Rwandan lady. She was directly affected by this. She told a story one day..moved most of us tears
This is one of the most devout RELIGIOUS countries on earth
What we have learned ?? People can carry out the most horrific and inhumane acts in the name of RELIGION ,,,
the Vaticans response to this genocide ?? NOTHING
RELIGION KILLS
This had nothing to do with religion you clown. But sure go ahead and dismiss the violent deaths if nearly a million people as long as it helps your cause.
Also ignore the fact that Muslims in Rwanda were some of the bravest people during the genocide and protected thousands.
Or the fact that the only Americans left in the country during the genocide was a devout Christian aid worker and his family.
And ignore the fact that religion had NOTHING to do with the conflict.
Probably an atheist.they just love to tell everyone else that they are wrong for having faith.
I don’t think the world had really learnt a whole lot since and before rewanda.
Genocide is still happening everyday.
@Alan
Who were the Cockroaches ??? and what distinguished them,,,YOU MORON
@Ciaran
There is a documentary you may be interested on RTE tonight at 11:05 about Christine Buckley one of the MILLIONS of Children physically and mentally abuse by the abhorent religions,,
GET IT INTO YE,,,
@Greg, the Cockroaches, or Inyenzi as they were called, was how Hutu extremists such as those in the Hutu Power movement or the Interahamwe militias referred to the Tutsis. Strangely enough, there were very minor and largely superficial differences between Tutsis and Hutus…both were mostly Catholic, both spoke the same language, and if it were not for ethnic identity introduced by the Belgians in the 1930s, the differences between them would be hardly distinguishable. While religion has definitely played major roles in a lot of genocides, the Rwandan genocide had nothing to do with religious convictions, and rather with superficial differences which were exploited by elites in order to extend their power
@Ryan
They are valid points but in the history of Rwanda the churches flip – flopped between the ruling regimes( as they always do- see Hiltler ,Stalin, ) which ingrained the bigotry and ethnic divisions
This is a country where only 2 % claim to be of no Reiligion coincidence ?? I think NOT
If this was a secular society this would NEVER have happened ,,,
I believe that with all my heart
I think if people hadn’t been looking for power, then we could say it wouldn’t have happened. People will look for power through any means possible, and social structures like religion, politics…even big business are always likely to be abused in attempt to wield power. Of course religion plays a major aspect in violence for sure, but I would argue that the violence would not abate if religion was taken out of the picture, and if you actually look at the conflict in Rwanda, religious imagery hardly comes in, especially since both the perpetrators and victims of the violence were largely of the same religion. If you are saying that religion was the reason why the Hutus and Tutsis were at each others throats, I think you are missing the whole essence of the conflict, including the role of European colonialism.
This is by no means giving religious institutions a get out of jail card…genocide in Yugoslavia and even the violence in the North have used religious imagery, but trying to portray religion as the base of all the worlds problems completely glosses over all the other factors which play a role in genocide.
the only things we learned is that the UN is not fit for purpose ,
and that America and the west will NOT help , unless you have something of interest to them
What did the ‘East’ do to help?
There’s a difference though, Jeremy. No country in the ‘East’ proclaims itself to be the world’s policeman like the US in the ‘West’ does. This self-described force for liberty and world stability sat back and watch Rwanda burn, but has intervened in many other nations for far less compelling reasons, ostensibly to establish peace, when it suited their geopolitical agenda. It’s hypocritical.
If anything, the west helped the genocide and its perpetrators, with France having provided arms to the regime and the international community running refugee camps in Zaire, despite the fact that the camps were largely run by those who perpetrated the genocide, and who used the refugees as a shield from justice.
Rwanda thought me one thing we humans are as dangerous as cancer. The human race is a planet killer.
Mistakes? The world made huge mistakes? The world watched wholesale slaughter based on ethnicity. That’s not a mistake.
That Don Cheadle is a fine actor.
Joking aside, Rwanda has taught me that sometimes people are no better than the dogs on the street or, in this case, the ‘cockroaches’ that they accused their brethren of being.
It’s a bleak outlook really.
It would be good if France would take some accountability for its support of the Hutu regime both before and during the genocide. France (and other western countries like the US) were aware of the genocide plans yet did nothing, presumably because of legacy colonial “interests”. Well done to Rwandan president Paul Kagame for not letting them forget it. France are reacting with that inimitable kind of condescending outrage unique to them that confirms Kagame has hit a nerve.
Not to go there on your holidays !
What have we learned? Absolutely nothing – and unless you have oil, you are on your own.
We have learned that in a good number of African countries they place so little value on life that they will happily hack men women and children to death with machetes.. rape babies as a cure for aids and see no issue with it at all. Yet we keep feeding them and propping up dictatorships and dictators like Mugabe.
It should be confined to the history books as a lesson to us all not to let it happen again but we never learn and as I’m writing this thousands of people are fleeing to the borders of Chad, Camaroon and the DRC to escape a similar fate in CAR, african soil runs red with the spilt blood of it’s people while the world turns a blind eye, there are not enough heavy hearts in the world to end such madness, mores the pity!
A Recap of what happened in Rwanda
Million Voices – Wyclef Jean: http://youtu.be/m90rhKobovE
(warning contains graphic scenes)
Ne jamais oublier! xxx
(Never forget)
This just shows us that its a disguting world we live in at times.
I would say it was the worst thing ive ever seen or heard about in my entire lifetime, on the news of course.
You’d make a killing there as a prosthetics sales man ..
Africa..be a grand place except its
Stuffed with africans…..
We should always be grateful and thankful everyday we wake up alive and strong …. I myself witnessed post election violence back home in Kenya ……. And won’t want to see search horrific fight again
what’s been learned? unless you have oil, nobody gives a damn what happens.
Remember to speak Hutu or Tutsi
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