What it really meant to be poor and how to survive it. And a book about a priest who fathered a child with nun. Continue reading
Filed under Irish Culture …
John Corbett’s Reminiscence of Edmund Curtis
I read Modern History and Political Science in Dublin University from 1936 to 1940, talking my degree in absentia in January 1940. The most memorable lectures which I attended were those given by Curtis; he was always interesting and amusing, never the dry historian. Continue reading
On Rereading The Country Girls
I decided to read classics I had not read, and to reread some that I had. I was interested to see if books I had loved on a first reading when I was young, remained beloved. Continue reading
The Irish Travellers
Is this increased interest resonant of the current Australian focus on Indigenous recognition? Or is it a reflection of more attention to the topic of Irish Travellers in the Irish education curriculum? Continue reading
The Dictionary and Lost Irish Words
Is there bias in dictionary compiling? Ultimately, yes. Continue reading
Tribute to Sinéad O’Connor
So much has been said, in media all over the world, interviews, music played and replayed, so many tributes. For me? the shattering realization, she’s gone. Continue reading
Reflecting on The Banshees of Inisherin
I read The Banshees of Inisherin as an allegory of this vicious civil conflict, told in a loose but recognisable metaphor of the breakdown of a once close friendship. Continue reading
Fintan O’Toole’s Latest – an antipodean perspective
For the marginal outsider like myself, this book explained the geopolitical realignments that occurred so quickly and unexpectedly in Ireland between 1958 and 2018. Continue reading
Community Gatherings in Ireland: part two
The very earliest communal gathering and feasting for which we have solid evidence are known as fulachta fia. These were the locations where an animal, probably a deer or boar, was cooked following a hunt. The sharing of food is a social act that creates and maintains bonds and obligations within a group or community, which seems to have been the entire function of these feasts. Continue reading
You’ll take a cup of tea? Archaeological evidence for tea drinking at Baker’s Flat, South Australia
The fineness of the design and the stippling indicate a manufacture date in the early nineteenth century, suggesting that the teacup may have been brought to South Australia in an emigrant’s baggage rather than purchased locally in the years after arrival. Continue reading
Tinteán 