The Abha Mháirtín/Martin River which flows through Blarney has a wide, flattish boulder a few hundred metres upstream from where it hits the village. Locally, there’s an old story about a tailor who was being chased by two policemen who managed to escape capture by leaping to that stone from the bank and then crossing… Read more »
It’s just about four years since I published the second Liath Luachra book and, keen to distinguish it from the Fionn mac Cumhaill Series, I had the action take place much further south in the area that was once called ‘Usraighe‘. I also incorporated a number of elements from ancient stories associated with Usraighe as… Read more »
A potential site of interest for those with a cultural history/mythology bent is Drogheda ( a port town on the eastern coast) that came up with an interesting artistic initiative over the course of the Covid pandemic. ‘Drawda’ (a very clever play on words) was a curated public arts programme that took take place in the… Read more »
This charming story is associated with Áed Uaridnard, who was one of the senior Northern Uí Neill chieftains. According to the source, he was passing through monastic land controlled by Saint Muru when he stopped to wash in the river flowing through the town. As he did so one of his men warned him not… Read more »
A blast from the past with this old post (and draft cover) from 2015. At the time, I was still writing the first Liath Luachra book with the intention of using it as a prequel for the Fionn mac Cumhaill Series. That plan went kinda sideways. After an initial lacklustre reception on it’s publication, more… Read more »
‘Turning Roads’ is an innovative anthology of short narratives centred around the theme of ‘Irish Folklore’ and told through the medium of comics. Consisting of 18 different stories contributed by a range of creators from Ireland and overseas, it was edited and produced by Paul Carroll in early 2022. It’s probably worth noting up front,… Read more »
This is a selection of some of the images I used when I was originally conceptualising the woman warrior Liath Luachra. This particular set (from Spanish artist/photographer Lídia Vives) visually captured the savage/thoughtful aspect of the character and proved a helpful prompt when writing. I’ll probably be using these again for the next book (Liath… Read more »
A selection of production shots from Macnas’ ‘Gilgamesh’ (a Galway 2020 project). The final product was a short 20 minute movie, of which you can find various snippets online. The Macnas visuals – as always – are sublime but I didn’t think the script worked particularly well. Given theat the original myth takes places in… Read more »
It’s already been a year since I released the first ‘Irish Imbas Catalogue’, but of course its already out of date!In any case, if you want to know a little more about what I do and why I do it, you can find it here: Irish Imbas Catalogue
Over the last few years. I’ve restricted my public work on Irish culture and mythology to the three Celtic Mythology Collections and haven’t really published anything further on the topic. This was predominantly due to a growing cynicism with the ‘spiritual’ industries and ‘new age’ style religions who regularly comandeer elements of Irish culture and… Read more »
‘Scéal’ is an interesting little story-based game I came across last year (although it was actually released way back in 2016!). Originally created by Sandro Magliocco, the Slovakian-based developer drew on childhood holidays in Carlingford to set the overall look and design of the project. ‘Scéal’ tells the story of the ghost of a young… Read more »
Ever since the infamous Battle of the Books (when the force of Saint Columba and Saint Finnian ended up fighting over the illegal copying of a psalter), Irish people have been opposing each other over the creation and ownership of works of art. It’s been particularly interesting to watch the dynamics in the Irish art… Read more »
