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Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Darkling Thrush', by Thomas Hardy
I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-grey, And Winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled...
The Irish Keening Tradition: Singing the Soul Home
Keening, which was once an integral part of the Irish grieving process, began to vanish from before the 1880’s. In many academic papers...
The Sheela na Gig - An Ancient Fertility Goddess?
Sheela na Gig’s are stone carvings of women exposing their genitals which are found mostly on church buildings associated with the...
The Folklore of Daffodils and the Return of Spring
I noticed that the first daffodils are beginning to emerge on our local fairy fort, Rathvilly moat, so I wonder if this is a sign of...
Tír na nÓg & The Irish Otherworld
Where, or even what, is Tir na nÓg? Being a Fortean writer who happens to be Irish, as opposed to being an invested scholar or advocate...
Brief encounter with a strange sea creature in the waters off Inis Meáin
"My father was out fishing one night and something came beside the boat, that had eyes shining like candles. And then a wave came in,...
The Secret Fairy-Paths of the Air
In previous posts I wrote about the argument that a person today is so embedded in contemporary life that they have little chance of a...
How can an Owl catch a Mouse underneath a foot of snow in total darkness?
Owls do have excellent vision, but one would need either infrared or x-ray vision to see a small mammal under snow. Instead, owls do much...
An insightful description of the Leprechaun
The Leprechauns are merry, industrious, tricksy little sprites, who do all the shoemaker’s work and the tailor’s and the cobblers for the...
Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Man who Trod on Sleeping Grass', by Dora Sigerson Shorter
In a field by Cahirconlish I stood on sleeping grass, No cry I made to Heaven From my dumb lips would pass. Three days, three nights I...
A Faerie Horse?
"Long ago there lived in the townland of Doon a man named Harty. He had a farm of land near the Shannon. Every morning Harty used to find...
Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Dream-Song', by Walter De La Mare
Sunlight, moonlight, Twilight, starlight— Gloaming at the close of day, And an owl calling, Cool dews falling In a wood of oak and may. ...