Brigid’s Day/Imbolc
by Hilary Kiely The first of February marks the beginning of Spring. It is known as Imbolc and is what’s called a cross-quarter day, falling …
The Electrification of Rural Ireland
by Hilary Kiely On the 15th of January in 1947, the lights went on for the first time in Old Town in County Dublin. This …
Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas
by Hilary Kiely The old year may technically end when the clock strikes midnight on the first day of January, the Christmas season does not …
The places marking the Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne
by Hilary Kiely Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne: Landscape, Literature, and Cultural Heritage The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne (Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne) is an epic …
Yeats and a sense of place
by Hilary Kiely It was in November, 98 years ago in 1923, that William Butler Yeats received the Nobel Prize for Literature. His writings include …
Booleying in Buaile Beag
by Hilary Kiely In Ireland there can be millennia and layers of meaning packed into a place name. The name can tell you about the …
The Shape of Killannin Parish
by Hilary Kiely Sir William Wilde, in his 1867 travelogue, Lough Corrib, Its Shores and Islands describes the parish of Killanin in this way: The …
Patrick (Pádraig) Pearse in Rossmuck, Connemara
A glimpse into 1916 Leader Padraig Pearse’s relationship with the Connemara Gaeltacht by Hilary Kiely Residing in the collection of Padraig Pearse’s papers in the …
The Serpent in the Churchyard
The Serpent in the Churchyard by Hilary Kiely Exploring some local folklore around Lough Corrib and a corpse-eating eel. Here is an interesting tale, recorded …
An Tobar Cuana/ St. Cuana’s Well, Collinamuck
by Hilary Kiely According to William Wilde’s Lough Corrib – It’s Shores and Islands, St. Cuana, or Coona, was born at the end of the sixth …