Single combat was a high point of many of the old heroic stories in the Fianna Cycle and Ulster cycle of Irish Mythology. In the Táin conflict between Ulster and Connacht, Cúchulainn fought and killed many of Queen Maeve’s warriors. Finally Cúchulainn was pitted against his closest friend, Ferdia, who […]

Following on from last month, Eugene Daly continues sharing some of the legends and sayings around cats in Ireland and other countries. There are many legends of cats in other countries. In Brittany a silver or ‘money’ cat (chat d’argent) could serve nine masters and make them all rich. In […]

In part one of two-part article, Eugene Daly shares the many superstitions and stories connected with the cat in Irish folklore. A traditional Irish greeting on entering a house was; ‘God save all here, except the cat’, on account of its association with the devil. Despite this, it was believed to […]

If you missed Part I of Eugene Daly’s fascinating article on Mother Ireland (printed in the May issue). ‘Aisling’ (meaning ‘dream, vision’) is a type of Irish poem written in the 18th and early nineteenth centuries, based upon a forlorn hope that Ireland, having been destroyed in the wars of […]

The feast of St. Michael the Archangel falls on September 29. In the old Irish tradition, Michaelmas was known as ‘Fómhar na nGéanna’ – the goose harvest. Geese, hatched out in spring, were left outside all through the summer in what can only be called truly free range and organic! […]