Spoiler Alert! No. You don’t. The Number One reason we hear for folk joining the Irish Pagan School comes down to an Irish heritage connection or Irish ancestry… which is grand, and good for you if you have that and want to explore it! I’m here today to be the killjoy that tells you though…
Tag: Ancestors
Seeking Your Irish Ancestors – Irish Genealogy Tourism
It’d be fair to say that the Irish have always had a bit of a wanderlust. Which goes someway to explaining why Irish Genealogy is so popular. Sometimes, our travel has been caused more by necessity than the desire to see new sights. Although I guess if your sights at home were as horrific as…
Ireland’s First Female Veterinarian
Veterinarians have been around for quite a while now. From the Egyptian king Piyadasi, who made medicines available to animals as well as humans in 1900 BCE, and the Roman ‘Veterinarius’ who were mostly military doctors just for animals – we can trace the development of the field to the first official organisation – when…
Irish Medieval Cooking – Worties
‘Worties’ was the common name in Ireland, from the English ‘wortes’, which were vegetable greens and members of the onion family, such as cabbage leaves, spinach, beet greens, leeks, wild garlic leaves and so on, as well as some of the leafy herbs used for seasonings, like borage, parsley, and sage. When cooked together with…
The Mórrígan and Her Sisters
As part of our annual 6 month Intensive Programme, I answer questions from students who want to know more about our Irish Goddess The Mórrígan, with whom I have had a solid working relationship for about 15 years now… and the last 13 of them as Her priest. 8 of those years were spent in…
Don’t be a ‘Celtic’ Racist…
This blog has a lot of new visitors, and I’m really glad to see that! But I also don’t want to be fooling anyone into being a part of a community with me if the fit isn’t right either, you know? So, I figured I’d give ye a little dose of who I really am,…
The Banshee in Italy
Let’s go now to a lake away in Italy, where a group of distinguished visitors – all elegant and intelligent folk, we can be assured – had gathered on the private yacht of a good friend of theirs, an Italian Nobleman by the name of Count Neilsini. He was a proper gentleman, of refined tastes…
Irish Folk Magic – Local Cures
A cure of warts is to squeeze the milk out of a weed called the penny leaf. This milk is called the fairies’ milk. Goat’s milk is a cure for sore eyes or bad feet or many other things. An ointment can be made from goats’ milk to draw boils. To cure a blast,…
On Irish Ancestry and Being Irish
… This ‘Irish Accent’ shit though. And leprechaun hats and lucky charms and a ‘Brigid Oracle’ machine and ‘Irish Yoga’ memes – well, begosh and begorra sure aren’t all the Oirish quaint and charming funny drunks?! Ok, so that’s the frustrated rant part over. Well, the rant part at least. Ok, so I MAY rant…
The Red Haired Hare
The oak door boomed, with a fierce thumping that shook the drying bundles of herbs right out of the rafters across the great hall. The Chief, sitting up at the top table, plucked a bit of dried nettle that had fallen into his cup, and – as puzzled as the rest of them about who…