#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: Dún Dealgan means ‘the stronghold of Dalgan’ in #Irish. According to legend, long before it became the home of Ulster’s hero, #CùChulainn, it was originally the site of a fortress constructed by a Fir Bolg chieftain by the name of Delga.
This legendary and historic site is situated on a ridge just outside of Dundalk, overlooking the Castletown River, known also as Abhainn Chaisleán Dhún. The tower, known as ‘Byrne’s Folly’, which is still standing today, was built by a local landowner named Patrick Byrne. He was quite a character by all accounts, as he was reputed to have made his fortune by smuggling.`
Source: Ali Isaac
19 May 1649: Westminster Parliament passes an Act declaring England (& dependent territories) to be a Commonwealth & a Free State #otd (eebo) - note the #Irish harp alongside the George’s Cross
18 May 1534: Pope Clement VII provided Roland Burke to the see of Clonfert #otd In spring 1536 Henry VIII nominated Richard Nangle an #Augustinian to the same bishopric. This became the first time there were both royal and papal bishops for an #Irish diocese. (JohnArmagh)
18 May 1580: Fynes Moryson matriculates at Peterhouse #Cambridge#otd. A voluble travel writer, on #Ireland memorably : ‘the #Irish are naturally given to religion & naturally to a #monkish life of ease'
16 May 1639: The #Irish Privy Council orders all #Scots over 16 years of age living in #Ireland to take an oath abjuring the National Covenant #otd (BL)
#FairyTaleTuesday: Like the seal, the badger was sometimes seen as a shape-shifting person; the #Irish hero #Tadg found their meat revolting, unconsciously aware that they were really his cousins.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
The National: Glasgow airport has been told to act after a sign for a restaurant appeared to mix up Irish and Scottish Gaelic… The slogan on the sign currently reads “An bhfuil ocras ort?” with [Murdo] MacSween explaining it should instead say “A bheil an t-acras ort?”
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: „The names of the #Irish goddess #Medb and the #Gaulish goddesses #Meduna and the #Comedovae may be derived from an Indo-European word *médhu– signifying ‘honey’, ‘intoxication’, and designate the fermented drink extracted from honey, that is ‘mead’. If this etymology is correct – other possibilities have been suggested -, their names may be therefore glossed as ‘Goddess of Intoxication by Mead’ or ‘Mead Goddess’.“
#MythologyMonday: The #TuathaDéDanannrefined the art of brewing until the ale of their smith and brewer #Goibniu was strong enough to endow the drinker with immortality. #Irish epics connect ale with the festival of #Samhain, when the boundaries between this world and the #Otherworld were blurred.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
‘Transgressing into poetry’: Nationality, Gender & Sexuality in SONNETS FROM SCOTLAND by Edwin Morgan & THE PRICE OF STONE by Richard Murphy
by Prof Tara Stubbs
Both #Scottish poet Edwin Morgan & (Anglo-) #Irish poet Richard Murphy transgressed poetic norms: contradicting ‘nationalist’ poets of their respective traditions, making playful use of language, & treating #gender & #sexuality in daring ways
8 May 1666: d. John Sinnich of #Cork professor of Theology at #Leuven & canon of Sint-Pieterskerk #otd He made his career as a vigorous defender of Jansenist opinions, & was Rector Magnificus of the university (googlebooks) He left money to support #Irish students to study law.
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: The #Irish ritual of the one-legged crane dance curse (corrghuineacht) is a form of magic-working, the power of which is intensified when practised standing on one leg, with one arm outstretched, and with one eye closed like a crane (ir. corr). The ritual position itself is known as glám dícenn (meaning ‘satire which destroys’). It was thought that the open eye was able to look directly into the magical #Otherworld, whilst standing on only one leg indicated being present in neither one world or the other.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
The Aisling is a dream or vision in which a poet meets a beautiful, magical woman, probably a woman of the Sidhe, symbolising #spring, the bounty and beauty of nature, and love. During the troubles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Aisling developed into a patriotic poetic genre in #Irish language poetry, in which the fairy woman became a Goddess representing #Ireland’s sovereignty.#Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
The placenta has always been seen as something mystical.
In #Australia, if it was believed that, if the mother had launched the afterbirth into the water, the baby would have been a good swimmer.
Batak¹ people from Sumatra, #Indonesia, buried it under the house; it was believed to be the newborn's sister or brother.
Similarly, Baganda² from #Uganda believed that the placenta was a doppelgänger of the child – this is similar to the #Irish (or #British, in general?) concept of fetch.³