Musings, ramblings and thought provoking articles from our team of talented writers - all views expressed are their own!
Ancient Irish royalty was nothing like the Disney version. The kings and queens of Irish history and myth were fierce and fearless warriors. They did not spend their time attending lavish balls. They led their troops into battle to gain more wealth and power, and to avenge various wrongs. Maeve became famous as a queen, […]
A library loaning out a book is normally not a big deal, but when the volume in question is the ancient Book of Durrow, that’s another story. Trinity College Dublin recently lent the precious tome to the British Library in London for a special exhibit that runs until February 2019. It will join other significant […]
Ireland is surrounded by water. Twenty of the 32 counties on this island include coastal land. Our earliest legends feature the sea. Before the advent of air travel and phones, all contact with the rest of the world involved sea crossings. People and letters came and went by boat. Perhaps it is in our blood […]
Halloween has Irish roots. It was originally Samhain, the last day of the Celtic year. The ancient Celts believed a sort of veil separated our ordinary world from the spirit world. As the year went on, this veil got worn thinner and thinner until on the last day of the year, it was so worn […]
In October, people across Ireland are lighting fires in their fireplaces and stoves to take the chill out of the air. It’s starting to get cool, but it isn’t really cold yet. Outside of the cities, people often burn sods of turf they’ve harvested from their own plots in the bog. They go out in […]
The 2018 autumn equinox is on Saturday, 22nd September for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. On this day, the sun rises at due east, passes directly above the equator, and sets in due west. This divides the day into two equal halves of light and dark, but due to the way light passes […]
Wexford, with Vinegar Hill and its National 1798 Rebellion Centre, is the star of that particular effort to gain freedom from British rule. The county had many successes in that uprising. Insurgents captured the towns of Enniscorthy, Wexford, and briefly Gorey. The rebellion ended in Wexford in early July, but it had yet to begin […]
The Boyne Valley is home to an amazing site of Neolithic structures decorated with intriguing and distinctive swirls and spirals. It’s a must-see for visitors to Ireland, and the island’s recent drought conditions have revealed that it is even more amazing than previously known. Historian Anthony Murphy, who has written extensively about the area, was […]
Normally, water is indeed everywhere in Ireland. It rains so much we have developed a wide range of terminology to describe it from a ‘soft day’ to ‘bucketing’. But this summer, Ireland is actually facing a drought. Farmers are worried, lawns are yellow and inland waterways are low. So the beach is the place to […]
Some traits are more common among the Irish. The ability to turn an ordinary event into a great story. Hospitality. The musical talent to sing a ballad so it grabs your heart. Insults so subtle and witty the insulted person needs a few days to discover the slight in the words. And celiac disease, a […]
