Meanderings along Ancestral Polytheist Paths: Eddie Lenihan

06 November 2011

"Away with the Fairies" - BBC Broadcast

Dominic Arkwright asks why fairies, once threatening and scary meddlers in human affairs, have become innocent, pink and fluffy.

He’s joined by Irish storyteller Eddie Lenihan, fairy illustrator and writer Faye Durston, and folklorist Juliette Wood. We hear how Eddie successfully campaigned to save an ancient hawthorn near Shannon Airport which was threatened by a new bypass. It was, he argued, the portal to the other world of the fairies of Munster. The tree still stands, though surrounded by cars on three sides.

Listen here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016wx2p

It is available on iPlayer worldwide, but only for the next few days, and a worthwhile listen it is, too.

Festival Calendar

Là Fhèill Brìghde ~ A time to celebrate the end of winter, welcome the beginnings of spring, and the start of new life (and love), usually by the cleaning and purifying the home, and the blessing of animals and children.

Bealltainn ~ The start of the season of fertility.

Summer Solstice ~ A personal celebration wherein I "sit out" all night in contemplation of my ancestors, and how they might have viewed this time of the year, as the days now become shorter, and the nights longer, but the weather warmer.

Lùnastal ~ A time to contemplate blood, family, and honour and the coming harvest.

Samhainn ~ The end of summer and the beginning of winter; a time to honour the ancestors, of the family, older clans, countrymen, and pagan forebears.

Winter Solstice ~ A personal celebration wherein I "sit out" all night to ponder how my ancestors might have endured, and considered during the longest night and shortest day of the year.