Ali Isaac
celebrate bealtaine with fire at uisneach tonight online
The festival of Bealtaine will be live-streamed tonight on Facebook and Instagram at 2105 so you can participate wherever you are.
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Ali Isaac
Apr 16, 20213 min read
MAPPING THE LANDSCAPE WITH POETRY
The Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Global Geopark is calling for poetry submissions to their exciting digital Geopark Poetry Map!
Ali Isaac
Apr 5, 20214 min read
mullagh hill | saints, scenery, & sonnets
Mullagh is the home of St Kilian, but what draws me to Mullagh Hill above and beyond the solitude, the serenity, and the scenery, is poetry.
Ali Isaac
Mar 15, 20218 min read
the fairy council of ireland
Back in 2019, I graduated from Maynooth University with a First Class BA Hons in English and History with a Special Interest in Irish...
Ali Isaac
Mar 1, 20217 min read
daughter of Ireland, builder of churches
A sheelanagig, a golden chalice, and a woman who brought about the downfall of Ireland; truth, legend or fiction?
Ali Isaac
Jan 4, 20217 min read
mythical 'lake-bursts' of ireland
Did you know in early Irish literature there is a genre solely dedicated to lake-bursts? And they are often associated with men.
Ali Isaac
Oct 12, 20206 min read
the secret of lismore castle
The Book of Lismore is a fifteenth-century text found hidden in a wall during renovation work at Lismore Castle in 1814.
Ali Isaac
Sep 28, 20204 min read
knockdrum ring fort & the gurranes, Co. Cork
On a hot sunny day I visited Knockdrum ring fort and the Gurranes, a stone row also known as the Three Fingers, in beautiful west Cork.
Ali Isaac
Sep 7, 20204 min read
drombeg stone circle
Drombeg, or Liagchiorcal an Droma Bhig, as it is known in Irish, dates to the late Bronze Age, and consists of seventeen standing stones.
Ali Isaac
Aug 17, 20204 min read
the rock of dunamase
Dunamase is an Anglo-Norman castle located atop a craggy outcrop overlooking the rolling plains of Co. Laois, dominating the landscape.
Ali Isaac
Aug 5, 20208 min read
incredible irish women | rose ny neile o’reilly
In his 1641 deposition, Marmaduke Batemanson, an English Protestant settler, claimed his execution was ordered by a woman: Rose ny Neile.
Ali Isaac
Aug 3, 20207 min read
talking heads in irish myth
There has been much debate over whether the Celts practised a Cult of Heads. Even now, experts are divided over the issue.
Ali Isaac
Jul 12, 20208 min read
The Elixir of Youth Everlasting
Just what was the elusive Feast of Goibniu? It wasn't a feast at all, but magical drink which bestowed life and youth. Was it hazelmead?
Ali Isaac
Jul 6, 20206 min read
7 tales of incest in irish mythology
Three more stories of incest in early Irish literature, but does that mean Ireland was once in the grip of a Pharoah-like elite cult?
Ali Isaac
Jun 29, 20209 min read
reading the signs: understanding the megalithic artwork of the brú na bóinne complex
70% of Ireland's megalithic rock art can be found within the Boyne Valley. Many theories have been proposed concerning the artwork’s meaning
Ali Isaac
Jun 22, 20204 min read
incest in irish mythology
A new study finds evidence of incest in neolithic Ireland, but is there any evidence of incest in the early Irish literature?
Ali Isaac
Jun 15, 20206 min read
the ancient ecclesiastical site of clonmacnoise
Founded by St Ciaran in 548AD, the monastic site at Clonmacnoise continued until its destruction in 1552.
Ali Isaac
May 25, 20208 min read
fairy forts of ireland you can visit
Ireland's landscape is littered with ancient circular structures, the remains of Ireland's 'fairy forts', also known as ring forts and raths
Ali Isaac
May 18, 20205 min read
do irish fairy mounds really exist?
Early Irish literature is littered with references to the Danann and the Sidhe living in fairy mounds, or that they accessed the Otherworld.
Ali Isaac
May 10, 20204 min read
Yellow Gorse in Irish Mythology
Its official name is Ulex Europaeus. In Ireland, it is called aiteann, which, according to Cormac’s Glossary, means sharp and lacerating.
Ali Isaac is an author and blogger specialising in Irish mythology. Through word and image, she tries to draw the human story from Ireland's landscape and tumbled stones, with a particular focus on the women history has abandoned, and legend only half remembers.
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