“As you are now, So once I was”
Samhain, the ancient Irish festival, marked the end of summer and the harvest season. It was an occasion to celebrate during a time of plenty before the harsh winter months brought shorter days, colder...
View ArticleCahir Castle 50 Years Open to the Public
In 1971, Cahir Castle opened its doors to the visiting public for the first time after a lengthy period of conservation and restoration by the OPW. Since then hundreds of thousands of visitors, both...
View ArticleFantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them…
************************************************************** Cormac’s Chapel remains somewhat an enigma to scholars. Its mismatched blind-arcades, unfinished floral patterns, and off-centre chancel...
View ArticleSagas & Scéals: The Hiberno-Norse of Waterford
**************************************************************** A young woman ambles down a dark and narrow laneway, followed by a shaggy grey dog. She is twenty, perhaps twenty-one, and wears a...
View ArticleSamhain: The Roots of Halloween
Every Halloween, people around the world dress up and take part in festivities, yet few are aware of its roots in the ancient festival of Samhain. In Irish folklore, the veil between our world and the...
View ArticleThe Rock of Cashel: Walking Amongst the Dead
One of the most commonly asked questions on a guided tour of the Rock of Cashel is “Are there ghosts here?” While I myself have never seen or felt anything out of the ordinary there are members of...
View ArticleWinter Walks: Biophilia and its benefits
In winter, the Irish landscape shines with a subtle beauty. Evergreen plants take centre stage. Deciduous plants bare their bones, providing elegant architecture. Delicate nodding snowdrops and...
View ArticleWomen, Water and Wisdom in Celtic Mythology
14 faces look out over Dublin City, their countenances ranging from pensive, to sorrowful, to jolly. These are the River God heads carved into the keystones of Dublin’s Custom House by Edward Smyth....
View ArticleWollemi Pine – exciting developments in the conservation of one of the...
In a world in which extinction and loss of plants and animals is a recurrent and depressing theme there are occasional glimmers of hope and examples of extraordinary survival. One such was the Wollemi...
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