Para Handy, the anglicized Gaelic nickname of the fictional character Peter Macfarlane, is a character created by the journalist and writer Neil Munro in a series of stories published in the Glasgow Evening News under the pen name of Hugh Foulis. Para Handy is the crafty Gaelic skipper of the Vital Spark, a Clyde puffer (steamboat) of the sort that delivered goods from Glasgow to the Hebrides and the west coast highlands of Scotland in the early 20th century. The stories partly focus on his pride in his ship, "the smertest boat in the tred" which he considers to be of a class with the Clyde steamers, but mainly tell of the “High Jinks” the crew get up to on their travels. He had at least one crossover with Munro's other popular character, Erchie MacPherson of Erchie, My Droll Friend. The name is an anglicisation of "Para Shandaidh", which means "Paddy son of Sandy", and he is content to describe himself as "Chust wan of Brutain's hardy sons". The other principal characters forming the four man crew include Dan Macphail the effete engineer, Dougie the superstitious ship’s mate, The Tar (first name Colin) the lazy deckhand and The Tar's replacement Sunny Jim (real name Davie Green and cousin to the Tar), as the young squeezebox-playing deck hand. Also featured is Hurricane Jack (real name John Maclachlan), Para Handy’s rather more outrageous adventurer friend. One inconsistency in the stories is that Dougie the mate has the choice of two surnames - Cameron or Campbell. Key points of friction among the crew are: transporting Ministers (bad luck), the small chain-driven boats carrying passengers across the Clyde called the Cluthas (in Para Handy’s view, the lowest of the low in Clyde shipping), and Macphail’s taste for bodice-ripping women’s pulp fiction. In addition to the stories, Para Handy has appeared in three television adaptations of Munro's stories:
- Para Handy, Master Mariner starring Duncan Macrae as Para Handy
- The Vital Spark starring Roddy McMillan - perhaps the definitive version, with John Grieve, Walter Carr and Alex McAvoy
- The Tales of Para Handy starring Gregor Fisher.
Published Collections of the Para Handy Stories: Para Handy - First Complete Edition: The collected stories from The Vital Spark, In Highland Harbours with Para Handy and Hurricane Jack of The Vital Spark Introduced and Annotated by Brian D. Osborne & Ronald Armstrong, published by Birlinn Ltd 1992, ISBN 1874744025
External links
- The Vital Spark, text version of the following stories: Para Handy - Master Mariner, The Prize Canary, The Malingerer, Wee Teeny, The Mate's Wife, Para Handy - Poacher. The Sea Cook, Lodgers on a House-Boat, A Lost Man, Hurricane Jack, Para Handy's Apprentice, Queer Cargoes, In Search of a Wife, Para Handy's Piper, The Sailors and the Sale, A Night Alarm, A Desperate Character, The Tar's Wedding, A Stroke of Luck, Dougie's Family, The Baker's Little Widow, Three Dry Days, The Valentine That Missed Fire, The Disappointment of Erchie's Niece, Para Handy's Wedding.
- the Neil Munro Society - bibliography
- Gutenberg Australia has several volumes of Para Handy stories
- The New Tales of Para HandyThree new adventures for the crew of the Vital Spark, staged and filmed in front of a live audience at The Warehouse Theatre, Lossiemouth, Scotland (available on DVD)
