Welcome to my weekly blog,  SATURDAY SESSIONS!

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture.

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

POWERSCOURT GARDENS in County Wicklow, 'The Garden of Ireland'

The 2km-long avenue to Powersourt is lined with beech trees, hundreds of years old. On the right as you enter, you see the magnificent Powerscourt golf course.

Powerscourt was a Norman-Irish castle dating back to the 13th century and was reconstructed in 1741. (Stanley Kubrik's Barry Lyndon was filmed there.  Great film! An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th century England.)

Today, the big house hosts a variety of quality shops and restaurants. The location - with a superb view of the Sugarloaf Mountain - and the design of the buildings and delightful gardens is irresistible for photographers.

Powerscourt Gardens were recently voted by the National Geographic as the third most beautiful gardens in the world, after Versailles in Paris and Kew Gardens in the south of England! 

To walk around the Italian and Japanese gardens on a sunny day and enjoy the splendour of the huge variety of trees is a great pleasure. There is also a Pet Cemetery.

The Waterfall nearby, the highest in Ireland at 121 metres, is a lovely spot for  a picnic.

LXIV

at the table

consumer and consumed

sunlight

LXV

the treasure-hunt

the treasure in the hunt

the treasure-hunt

LXVI

rush hour

rhe trees at the roadside

serenity

THE FAIRIES, PART 4

Welcome to my weekly blog,  SATURDAY SESSIONS!

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture.

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

THE FAIRIES, PART 4

This is the final part of SATURDAY SESSIONS' introduction to the fairies in Ireland.

The following three fairies are notorious. The first two are amongst the nastiest individuals you are likely to come across if you find yourself walking the roads of Ireland after sunset.

Should you wish to avoid a confrontation with these unhappy creatures, our advice to you is the same in all three cases:                                           Do not be afraid.

THE SHEERIE

These fairies are often described as the creepiest of all. They appear around twilight as a floating glimmer of light. Some say they are the souls of dead babies trying to return to the mortal world.                                         

The sheerie (singular and plural) are hostile to humans and are only happy when they can cause misfortune.                                                            

There are water sheerie and land sheerie. One may find the land sheerie in fairy raths and they are very active around Bealtaine (30th April) or Samhain (31st October).                                                                         

They are about the size of a day-old baby, with a baby face. They don't speak but instead, they emit a high-pitched shrill. They carry a lantern or a branch that seems to be burning at one end. Some sceptics say that it's only marsh gas but others argue that marsh gas doesn't flit about like that.

Sheerie lure people to their death in dangerous countryside or bog-holes. They do this by pretending to be a welcoming light in the dark bog.

The land sheerie flit about and confuse travellers, forcing them to run backwards and forwards until they become irrational and lose their self-control. It is always a good idea to sit on the road, at this point, and turn your jacket or pullover inside out to regain your composure.                                                 

They can also appear as a little goblin with a long, grey beard, holding a straw, lit like a candle. These goblins pretend to welcome travellers by showing them the way or leading them to a place where money is hidden. Just ignore them and they will go away!

THE DULLAHAN

The Dullahan is a headless horseman who carries his glowing head (the colour of mouldy cheese) in his right hand or on the saddle-brow of his black horse. His whip is a human spine. The face of the head he is holding grins from ear to ear. The small, dark eyes swivel about mischievously.

Wherever the Dullahan stops, a human dies.                            

The head can see across vast distances, even at night. By just looking at him, you could be blinded in one eye. The horse emits sparks from its fiery nostrils. In some parts of the country, the Dullahan drives a coach with six of these black horses.                                                            

The disembodied head has a limited power of speech; when the rider stops, it calls out the name of the person who is about to die.                                The best way to scare them off is, yes, you guessed it, have no fear.                                                        

MERROWS

Merrows are the Irish equivalent of mermaids but the only difference in Ireland between them and humans is that merrows have very flat feet and webbed fingers. They are amphibious.                                             

The males are rare and not very handsome-looking, but merrows are all very beautiful and are attracted to humans, even though they may not actually like them.                                                                                           

Fishermen in Kerry will turn back to port if they see a merrow on a rock. They don't trust them. There's one who sits combing her hair on  a rocky island in the Shannon estuary, for example. Anyone who sees her dies within a year.

Having said that, the O'Flahertys, the O'Sullivans and the MacNamaras all claim to be descended from a union with merrows.   

If you find a merrow cap or cloak, the merrow cannot return to sea until she retrieves them so there are many stories of bargains between people and merrows in relation to the return of their belongings.

Merrows are wealthy. Their fortunes are normally acquired from shipwrecks. They also tend to be great cooks.

But they are cold and aloof.  They rarely laugh. And sadly, merrows show little or no affection for their husbands and children. The lure of the sea often draws them back home, so they can abandon their families in an instant. 

LXI

outbreath of  leaves

inbreath of lungs                                                                                                       

barter

LXII

the fear of isolation

the attachment to the shoal

the fish 

LXIII

fear of the future / fear of the past

in the present

fearlessness

Welcome to my weekly blog,  SATURDAY SESSIONS!         

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture.

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

THE FAIRIES, PART 3

THE GROGOCH

          The Grogoch is known as the phynnodderee on the Isle of Man. They seem to have arrived here from Scotland where they are known as brownies. They look like an old man; nobody has ever seen a female Grogoch (like the leprechauns). They are naked, unkempt, covered in dirty fur and about the height of a small child.  They are benevolent and sociable creatures - so no need to worry if you meet one! They can also make themselves disappear at will.  They live in caves or even between two standing stones leaning against one another. They are very tough and can survive on very little without either sleep or food. They are also workaholics, helpful to a fault!         They help human farmers in remote areas or women in the kitchen, often getting in the way. They hate laziness and will often jump on people's beds on a Sunday morning beating them on the face. Farm labourers in the fields taking a break are often annoyed by Grogochs who appear out of nowhere to prod them back to work.  They work for no pay and if you even offer them a small present, you will never see them again. All he asks for is a jug of cream first thing in the morning.

THE GREY MAN

          This shapeless being, the fear liath,  is the most sinister of all in Irish folklore. It often appears as a thick fog but it can also be a moving shadow trailing grey mist behind it. In the north of Ireland he is like a giant on the horizon but in Kerry and Clare he takes the form of a grey man, living off smoke from the chimneys of houses. At sea, he causes shipwrecks and loss of life or on the land, he may obscure a road or a path so that a traveller may get lost or fall over a cliff to his death. In the house, milk turns sour, potatoes turn black and the sods of turf stay damp when he is around. In north Antrim (Northern Ireland), there is a rock bridge known as the Grey Man's Path which the fear liath uses regularly. Brace yourself if you come across the Grey Man. Take a deep breath. Do not be afraid. After all, the Grey Man is nothing but a shape of mist or smoke. Harm will come only to those who are careless, who are not mindful, but above all, to those who are afraid. 

From the ET's Logbook:

I was returning from an early stroll this morning when a car, far too large for one person, pulled up suddenly beside me. The window came down automatically and the driver, wearing a suit and tie, called out to me. He seemed to be agitated as he checked his watch.                                                                                           

'What time does that shop open?'  he asked brusquely, pointing to the shop at the other side of me.

I told him that at a fundamental level, there is no time. His watch was purely a mechanism to measure basic oscillations, the recording of which people call time. Time itself, however, simply didn't exist, I added. 

I gathered from his immediate expression that I might as well have slapped him in the face. However, he looked at me and saw that I had meant no harm. His shoulders dropped, the window hummed back up and he gazed out the windscreen. Then he drove away.  Slowly.

          

Welcome to my weekly blog, SATURDAY SESSIONS!         

In this blog, for the perusal of all our students, past, present and future, I include an extract from our interactive presentation Course, Ireland and its Culture.

If you wish to ask me any question about the text, by the way, just send me an e-mail at greg@bluefeather.ie

THE FAIRIES (Part 2)

The banshee (bean sídh), or woman-fairy, wailed outside the house at night if someone was going to die. She could appear as an old woman or a beautiful young lady. You can spot her from a distance washing clothes or as a face in the window, combing her hair. On no account should she be approached!

Fairies were also known to steal babies from their cots and replace them with changelings. These changelings are usually very difficult (and often very ugly) babies. They also have huge appetites and don't feed from the mother's breast but from the table. However, they never put on weight. They only live to be two or three, even though it has been said that a few have lived into their teens. Curiously, you may also have adult changelings; the identical man or woman replacement is cold, distant and aloof with no interest in family or friends.

There is the story of a baby who was stolen by the fairies. He came back after twenty years, but as a young man, was disappointed when he compared the real world to the paradise he had been used to in the land of the fairies.

Once they take you and you eat food there, you can't return home voluntarily. They were also known to abduct young men and teach them how to play the pipes. Fairyland is a place of delights where music, singing, dancing and feasting are continuously enjoyed.

The men returned as great musicians and some of Ireland's most beautiful traditional songs, especially for the uileann pipes, are said to have come from the fairies. Often those same men died young because the fairies wanted them back to play for them.

Never disturb a heap of stones in a field or cut down a tree or a bush on a fairy rath. If you are out in the countryside and you think you are being followed by a fairy, find a stream and cross it and you will be safe.

Always leave a little food out for the fairies; they won't eat it, of course, but they will absorb the spirit of the food, so don't eat it the next morning or don't give it to the birds. When people made butter in the old days, they always left an ounce for the fairies. There is the story of the woman who was on trial for watering her milk and then selling it. Her defence was, 'Sure 'twas only the three fairy drops I added, you honour!'

The fairy wand or magic wand was said to have been from the branch of an apple-tree; the wand of the druids came from the yew-tree.

A fairy-woman from the sea or type of mermaid was known as a maighdean-mhara or sea-maiden.

The leprechauns made shoes for the fairy tribes. These little men (they are all male!) also seem to change their size but many people say they are about 60 cm tall.

The name 'leprechaun' may have come from the Irish leith bhrogán, shoemaker.You can hear them tapping on a shoe in the woods or under a hedge. They brew their own alcohol and although they regularly get drunk, they are known to hold their drink, even though they become irritable and argumentative. Leprechauns are the bankers of the fairy world and know where the containers (croc) of ancient gold can be found. They avoid humans because they don't trust them. They have a strong sense of honour and will always return one good deed for another.

If you catch a leprechaun, be sure to maintain eye contact with him all the time and he will take you to the pot (croc) of gold at the end of the rainbow. But if you lose eye contact with him for one second, he'll disappear!

That's why nobody has ever succeeded in getting the gold. The Hollywood version of leprechauns makes them about 10cm tall and of course, the fairies are like little butterflies in Hollywood. But having said that, fairies can also take on the shape of beautiful little butterflies!