Category: Ireland
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Banshee Legends—Keen on Death
My fascination with Celtic mythology began with the 1959 movie Darby O’Gill and the Little People. It wasn’t O’Gill’s obsession with the mischievous leprechauns that caught my attention. Nor was it the handsome Sean Connery, or even the pretty young girl who fell over a cliff—and for him. It wasn’t even the headless horseman who…
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Frightful Fantasies of Irish Faeries
From banshees to vampires, frightful faeries comprise the mythology of both ancient and contemporary Ireland. Understanding Irish mythology begins with understanding the Celts and pre-Celts who inhabited the isolated island. When the Celts (also known as Milesians) arrived in Ireland between 500 and 300 BC from Central Europe, they found a diverse group of people…
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Blackberry Pie
Come to think of it,wouldn’t you like some blackberry pie?Right now? Hi!Can I come byand make blackberry pie with you? Top it with creamand pack it with dreamsof succulence, decadence, merry?Your crust or mine,either is fine,As long as it’s filled with berries. Berries are fun.They soak in the sun.They ripen when we are not looking.Theirs…
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Strong and Mysterious, the Alder Facilitates Transition
In the Celtic Tree Calendar, the Alder (or Fearn) Moon spans mid-March to mid-April. Coinciding with the spring equinox, the Alder Moon symbolizes balance and transition. The Alder month, called fairin by the Celts and fearnóg in Modern Irish, is represented by the third consonant in the ogham alphabet and comes from the Proto-Celtic **wernā.…
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Hounded into a Story
As published in the Gazette, a publication of the Gulf Coast Writers Association, January 2025 Imagine a Celtic Karate Kid in a Percy Jackson adventure. The result is Hounded, a contemporary coming-of-age novel inspired by the legendary Irish warrior, hero, and demigod Cú Chulainn [koo KULL-an]. Written for a middle-grade audience, Hounded tells the story…
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Samhain—Enduring Night of the Living Dead
With its ghouls, jack-o-lanterns, and trick-or-treaters shouting BOO, Halloween is the unadulterated descendent of Samhain, the ancient Celtic festival of the dead. Pronounced SOW (rhymes with cow) –in, the word comes from the Proto-Indo-European root word *semo- (summer), and the Proto-Celtic *samoni- (reunion, assembly). It literally means “an assembly to celebrate the harvest.” The Celts…
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Fired Up—
Bealtaine Celebrates Fire, Fertility, Festivities, and Faeries Bealtaine, the Gaelic May Day festival, celebrates the powerful Sun, the fertile Earth, new life, and the official start of summer. Celebrated about halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, it is one of the four cross-quarter days and one of the eight seasonal celebrations of…
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Etched in Stone
Sprawled along the River Boyne, in County Meath, Ireland, is a complex of the largest passage tombs (burial mounds) in Western Europe. Comprising an eight-square mile UNESCO World Heritage site, and carbon-dated to circa 3200 BC, Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth are hundreds of years older than Stonehenge and the Giza pyramids. Some cultural anthropologists suggest…
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Skip the Groundhog—Milking the Origins of Imbolc
Part 2 of 2 Last month, we looked at Brigid, the goddess, warrior, and saint who is honored on February 2. This month we’ll explore Imbolc. Although commonly celebrated on February 1–2, Imbolc is a moveable feast that marks the beginning of spring. Since 1886, the United States and Canada have observed February 2 as…