"Halloween in Irish Folklore" by Irish Archaeology

"Halloween in Irish Folklore", a blog, by Irish Archaeology, filled to the brim with excerpts, and well worth the reading:

"These folklore accounts detail some of superstitions and festivities which once surrounded Halloween in Ireland. They are based on information supplied by schoolchildren to the Irish Folklore Commission in the late 1930s."

Halloween by Dúchas.ie

A downloadable presentation:

"From earliest recorded history in Ireland, Halloween (All Hallows Eve), or Oíche Shamhna was considered a turning point in the calendar. 

Samhain (November 1st), meant the start of winter, when cattle were brought down from summer pastures, tributes and rents paid, and other business contracted.

Samhain, marks the close of the season of light and the beginning of the dark half of the year, and was therefore perceived as a liminal moment in time when movement between the otherworld and this world was possible. ... "

Déithe na Spéire | Baile | Seinnteoir | TG4

A Science/History documentary from TG4 gives viewers a revolutionary new insight into Ireland's ancient sites: Déithe na Spéire | Baile | Seinnteoir | TG4

Irish Myths: The Children of Lir

Irish Myths: The Children of Lir

Today we have a featured story from The Emerald Isle, and Dee Dee Chainey talks to Ronan Burke, who runs the website – a great place to find stories of Ireland and its legends! - See more at: Folklore Thursday

Today we have a featured story from The Emerald Isle, and Dee Dee Chainey talks to Ronan Burke, who runs the website – a great place to find stories of Ireland and its legends! - See more at: http://folklorethursday.com/myths/the-children-of-lir/#sthash.MoSpAuKi.uDww3Ny2.dpuf

Today we have a featured story from The Emerald Isle, and Dee Dee Chainey talks to Ronan Burke, who runs the website – a great place to find stories of Ireland and its legends! - See more at: Folklore Thursday

Today we have a featured story from The Emerald Isle, and Dee Dee Chainey talks to Ronan Burke, who runs the website – a great place to find stories of Ireland and its legends!

Read it here: Folklore Thursday.

Barry Cunliffe: Who Were the Celts?

Exploring Celtic Civilizations | An Online Celtic Studies Coursebook

Exploring Celtic Civilizations | An On-line Celtic Studies Course-Book

Exploring Celtic Civilizations is an on-line course book suitable for undergraduates introducing the field of Celtic Studies: the various kinds of evidence available about Celtic-speaking communities through over two millennia and the methods available for understanding them. This digital course book thus presents texts as well as other sorts of evidence, such as aspects of material culture (e.g., archaeological artefacts), through on-line exhibits and data visualizations.

"Does Witchcraft Work?" by Professor Ronald Hutton

Professor Ron Hutton @ 5X15 Bristol from 5x15 on Vimeo.

Ronald Hutton is Professor of History at Bristol University and the historian on the trust which runs English Heritage. He is a leading authority on the history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs. He has published fifteen books and seventy-four essays, on a wide range of historical subjects.

Metamorphoses: a Comparative Study of Representations of Shape-Shifting in Old Norse and Medieval Irish Narrative Literature by Camilla Michelle With Penderson

This is the thesis by Camilla Michelle With Pederson, BA, titled "Metamorphoses: a Comparative Study of Representations of Shape-Shifting in Old Norse and Medieval Irish Narrative Literature"

Traditional Fairy Beliefs from the Isle of Man

Traditional Fairy Beliefs from ManxHeritage on Vimeo.

In this lecture Professor Ronald Hutton looks at how the Isle of Man is famous as an island full of fairy traditions: in some ways it may be regarded as having the greatest concentration of them in the British Isles. It therefore seems a good place in which to address the question of what traditional fairy beliefs - those shared by ordinary people until recent times - actually were.


A fascinating evening at the Gaiety Theatre, Douglas
with Professor Ronald Hutton
Friday 14th January 2011

Gaelic Proverb

Bho: Gaol Naofa air Facebook.

Lore of the Land

Medieval literature scholar Dr Carolyne Larrington examines the enduring relevance of the creatures of British folklore: BBC Radio 4.

Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks: 1969 – The Táin, by Thomas Kinsella and Louis le Brocquy

The poet and the artist collaborated to produce a blunt, muscular reimagining of the Ulster legend of the Cooley cattle raid 

One of the odder effects of the explosion of youth culture in the 1960s and early 1970s was what might be called a second Celtic Revival in Ireland. In the search for an alternative, anti-establishment aesthetic, the notion of a pre-Christian “Celtic” world promised a kind of authenticity that dovetailed with the international counterculture. It manifested itself in everything from jewellery to the graphic art of Jim Fitzpatrick (see 1968) to the invention of “Celtic rock”. 

This interest in turn gave an unexpectedly contemporary energy to one of the most prestigious high-art projects of the era: the collaboration between the poet Thomas Kinsella and the painter Louis le Brocquy (see 1951) on a translation of the old Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley).

The Táin is the centrepiece of the Ulster Cycle of legends, describing the mythic conflict that erupts when Queen Medb of Connacht invades Ulster to capture its most prized treasure, a great brown bull. Ulster is defended by its youthful champion, Cúchulainn.

Read the entire article at The Irish Times.