Tomorrow night is Oíche Shamhna, the eve of Samhain, and in houses from Donegal to Boston somebody will be carving a face into a vegetable without quite knowing why. I…
The old stone bridge at Doonbeg in West Clare carries the N67 across the Doonbeg River, right in the middle of the village, with the ruins of Doonbeg Castle looking…
Kuno Meyer was born in Hamburg, taught German in Liverpool and died in Leipzig, yet few people did more to put early Irish literature back into Irish hands. Here is…
Thousands of people walk past Isolde's Tower every week without knowing it is there. It sits behind an iron gate on Exchange Street Lower, on the western edge of Temple…
Part XI of the Living Law series, exploring ritual, skin, and the memory of land. There comes a point where separation no longer holds. Where the elements are no longerdistinct,…
Part X of the Living Law series, exploring ritual, skin, and the memory of land. Nothing we take is without consequence. Not always immediately, but eventually.Everything returns: to soil, to…
Kill the wrong dog in early medieval Ireland and it could cost you ten cows and a replacement hound. Let your own dog foul a neighbour's land and you might…
For over a thousand years, Ireland ran a legal system with no police force, no prisons, and no state courthouse, and it worked. Disputes were heard, judgements were handed down,…
Shrouded in the mists of early medieval Ireland, Ogham remains one of the most enigmatic writing systems of the ancient world. Its slender strokes and notches, cut along the edges…
Myles Dillon spent fifty years arguing that early Ireland and ancient India shared more than a distant ancestor — this is his story, and his case