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! […]

At midsummer, the summer solstice, the countryside is bejewelled by our native wild flowers and herbs. Along the roadsides, brightening the hedgerows, flowers are everywhere – a blend of yellow, white, red, blue, green, pink and many shades in between. Today many of these plants are considered weeds but somebody […]

According to Edna O’Brien countries are mothers or fathers and “engender the emotional bristle secretly reserved for either sire”. Ireland has always been a woman, a beautiful maiden, a womb, a cow, a Rosaleen, a bride, a harlot and the gaunt Hag of Beara. For James Joyce, in ‘A Portrait […]