I have included an introduction to the Irish Stories on this page. It is part of my -on-line ‘Stories in the Landscape schools’ programme. Contact me if you would like to find out more about this lively, cross-curricular schools” programme and how to book it for your class.. Choose from two of my favourite stories….
Category: Related Material
Explorations and developments of the themes of each episode
Walking with the Táin ~ Stories in The Landscape
The text of the Táin Bó Cúailnge is one of Irish story’s greatest treasures. The central tale of the two great bulls may be familiar but the wealth of wider stories that circle the Táin, involve some of the most colourful of Irish characters and encompasses almost the whole of the country. Since 2011, a…
Medb: Conquests and Consequences
Medb, Queen of Connacht, is rightly renowned in Irish legend and mythology, as a strong and influential woman leader. Her centre of power, Cruachan Ai, is still recognised as one of the most important Iron-age sites in Ireland. Medb lead her people in her own name and by her own right. She was a strong woman…
Robin Williamson: Five Denials on Merlin’s Grave
Robin Williamson released 1997 When I was putting together my audio-article on story telling, I mentioned that I owed a debt of honour to the musician, story teller Robin Williamson. I also mentioned that I once owned an entire vinyl collection of Incredible String Band albums! (that was in another country and besides …..) I…
Telling Stories : Continuing the Oral Tradition
Join Chris Thompson as she takes a story-teller’s view of the old Irish stories. Who told them and why were they so memorable. In this audio article, Chris celebrates the old stories and explores the challenges in telling them today. For those who have asked me for ideas and advice on story telling generally, I…
Story Archaeology Music
I have been meaning to put up a post recommending the musician whose composition ‘The Tamlin Jig’ has opened and closed Story Archaeology posts since the beginning. Isolde and I met Gian living in Drumshanbo, a few km from us, about the time we were first setting up the podcast. We were impressed with his…
Some questions answered by The Story Archaeologists
We regularly receive questions from listeners and readers. We try to answer them as soon as we can but many are well worth exploring in more detail. Here we discuss just three. Firstly there is the problem of ‘coir’, a word that we use regularly in episodes to express an important but complex concept. Another…
Could you help with ‘tech’ support?
Hi! Isolde and I are not exactly ‘techies’. We are competent but not much more. We waste so much time when there are minor connectivity issues with the website or podcast. For instance, why do we have to connect every post to Facebook manually? It should connect automatically but it never does. Why not? I have…
A Battle between Equals
In a recent episode, 6.01 – The Quarrel of The Two Swineherds, we discussed a magical battle between two equal antagonists. These were Friuch and Rucht, the swineherds attached to the chieftains of Munster and Connacht respectively. As we made clear in the podcast, this pair were in no manner low status menials. As with the cup…
Uaimh na gCait (Oweynagat)
The Cave of the Cats Taken from a personal journal entry after an early visit to the cave …..“There it is, by that house” and we tumble out of the car into the everlasting drizzle. The cave of Cruachán was said to be the most notorious otherworld entrance in folktale and legend. From here, so…