Lora O'Brien – Irish Author & Guide
Your Authentic Connection to Ireland
I’m delighted to host a guest post by my friend Pat Booker, a wonderful Irish Pagan person who has in fact, grown up in Northern Ireland, and therefore knows more about it than I do. Northern Ireland 101 Northern Irish people are often asked to explain the latest news from our disputed territory. The question…
Pagan Holidays (Holy Days) worldwide are coming back to a more general use and understanding, with folk often asking questions about whether Christmas is a Pagan Holiday (it is, sort of), and observing the 8-fold Wheel of the Year. The current Neo Pagan calendar (and its primarily Wiccan holidays) is ostensibly based off the ‘Celtic…
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,…
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…
It’s been suggested a couple of times that I should get on ‘the other side of the interview’, and talk about my own Irish Spirituality, and Pagan or magical practices. So recently I queried my Community for their questions on Irish Paganism and Spirituality (or my history/practice in particular). Then I went on FB Live and…
Ok, so legally, you can’t. Or at least, you can’t in most places. In the Wicklow Mountains National Park, wild camping is allowed (with sensible restrictions), except in Glendalough. You can check information on this area here. A lot of folk camp on the beaches of Ireland, and some are more favourable than others. Fallmore…
… 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…
(There’s a presumption that American Tourists are) …insensitive rude people who think the only way to do things properly is their way. This presumption isn’t limited to Irish People of course. But I find I have to prove myself to not be “one of those Yanks” before people will trust me and open up. However,…
Flour. Baking Soda. Buttermilk. There you go, that’s your Irish soda bread recipe. Ok, so there MIGHT be a bit more to it than that, but seriously like, nothing a few practice runs won’t sort out. (Gluten Free flour works grand too, btw, just swap in a quality self raising kind for regular flour) Here’s…
Wikipedia says: “The River Saile (known also as Weile Weile Waile) is a children’s nursery rhyme from Ireland.” That’s true like, it is a song I heard as a kid, they taught it to us in primary school, so we would have sung it from about the age of 5 or 6 years old. I got all…