Category Archives: Related Material
The Story of Rúadán from Cath Maige Tuired
Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody ♦ 16/04/2016 ♦ Leave a Comment
from Cath Maige Tuired, The Battle of Moytura edited by Elizabeth Gray translation and notes by Isolde Carmody [Terms in bold have notes and discussions below] 544] Tánic didiu frisna Fomore annísin, go tudciset-som fer n-úadaibh de déscin cathai & cosdotha Túath nDéa .i. Rúadán mac Bresi & Bríghi ingene in Dagdai. Ar ba mac-side & ba úa do Thúaith Déa. 124. Things were going against …
Heapstown Cairn ~ The Well of Octriul
Chris Thompson ♦ 02/03/2016 ♦ Leave a Comment
Heapstown cairn is not impressive; well, not at first view. Not far away, high on the slopes of the Bricklieve hills, set against the skyline are the bald, one-eyed heads, like ancient Formoire giants. There are so many cairns, each evoking mystery and speculation. Then there is Heapstown, the greatest of all cairns outside the Boyne …
A Pilgrimage to Abydos
Chris Thompson ♦ 28/02/2016 ♦ 1 Comment
Getting to Egypt had always been the goal of a pilgrimage for me. This had been the case since my uncle, a very scholarly man, with a wonderful sense of humour and a gift of teaching, first took me to the British museum. I was ten and putting together a school project on 12th century illuminated …
John Barleycorn
Chris Thompson ♦ 25/02/2016 ♦ Leave a Comment
John Barleycorn is the titular character of a popular English and Scottish folk-song, found in a number of versions going back, at least, to the sixteenth century. John Barleycorn is given as the personification of ‘the nut brown ale’ (or the uisce beatha) and all the process the grain goes through in order to provide the welcome drink. The …
The Story of Airmed from Cath Maige Tuired
Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody ♦ 22/02/2016 ♦ Leave a Comment
from Cath Maige Tuired, The Battle of Moytura edited by Elizabeth Gray translation and notes by Isolde Carmody [Terms in bold have notes and discussions below] 133] Boí dano Núadae oga uothras, & dobreth láim n-argait foair lioa Díen Cécht go lúth cecha lámha indte. Meanwhile, Núada was debilitated. A silver hand / arm was set on him by Dían Cécht, with the power of every …
Many Shades of Darkness
Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody ♦ 30/01/2016 ♦ Leave a Comment
Irish colour words and concepts In primary school, I was very confused to learn two different Irish words for “green”: glas and uaithne. I knew there was a difference, but I wasn’t clear what that difference was. As my schooling continued, more confusion arose: black people were referred to as daoine gorma, “blue people” (according to the dictionary) and …
Texts of Ethliu
Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody ♦ 29/01/2016 ♦ Leave a Comment
From Tocmarc Étaine, “The Wooing of Étain” Edited O. Bergin & R. I. Best, Translated with endnotes by Isolde Carmody. Terms with related notes are in bold. View Bergin & Best’s edition on CELT While this text is included here in relation to “Tales of Eithliu”, we dealt with the whole of Tocmarc Étaíne in 3 episodes in Series 3, “Dindshenchas …
Cows as Currency
Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody ♦ 16/12/2015 ♦ Leave a Comment
As with many ancient societies, the early Irish did not use coinage. They still had a complex system of value, which may welll have changed over time or from area to area. One unit of value was cattle,which were used as currency up to around 1400 CE, long after the introduction of coinage. This could …
Noínden Ulad – The Story of Macha
Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody ♦ 09/11/2015 ♦ 1 Comment
Edited by Vernam Hull, Celtica 8 (1968), pp 1-42. Translation by Isolde Carmody. Annotated terms are marked in bold, with the notes at the end of the text. §1 Cid dia mboí in ces for Ultaib? Ni ansae From what [cause] was the debility on the Ulstermen? Not hard.
Navan Fort – Stories and Archaeology
Chris Thompson ♦ 06/11/2015 ♦ Leave a Comment
Emain Macha, known as Navan Fort, is one of the main settings for the great heroic tragedies of the Táin Bó Cullainge, as well as many other stories of great feats and tragic losses. Here we find Conchobar mac Nessa, the legendary king of Ulster, the poison-tongued Bricriu, Cathbad the druid who foretells the fate of Deirdre …
