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…
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…
Part IX of the Living Law series, exploring ritual, skin, and the memory of land. Originally written for The Brehon Academy. Nothing exists alone. Not land, not body, not thought.…
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,…
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
What follows is a 10th-century poem describing events set in the seventh century. It records an imagined conversation between King Guaire (Guare) of Connacht and his brother Marvan (Marban), a…
When people imagine early Irish law, they usually picture the brithem — the brehon — weighing evidence and handing down a careful judgement based on precedent. That's true enough for…
Imagine a political idea so old and so serious that a king who told a lie could, in theory, cause the harvest to fail.