"favourite irish fairy Tales" the brown bull of cooley illustration

"Favourite Irish Fairy Tales" by Soinbhe Lally and illustrated by Finbarr O'Connor.

this illustration is from the story named "The Brown Bull of Cooley". It's a story about a King and a Queen arguing about each of their riches. They compared each other riches to see who is better but the result ended with both of them being equal, until the king showed his White Bull of Connacht. No bull could match his so the Queen tried to find one that would rivel the white bull. Soon it has been discovered that the brown bull from Ulster was the best in Ireland. The Queen has requested to borrow the bull for a year but her request was denied. she decided to go at war with Ulster to get the bull. once the brown bull was taken to Connacht the white bull felt indangered as a rival has appeared. It charged towards the brown bull and fought. 

The illustration above is the perfect representation of the battle that went on between the two bulls. i really like it due to the amount of detail that has been put into the illustration, making the image jump out on the two page spread. The dark background with the sun setting makes it look more like a battle to the death that is happening as the two bulls charge towards each other both aiming to not only defeat but to kill one another.