Category: connection to the past
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Imbolc: Foods of the Festival
It’s St. Brigid’s Day – Imbolc, the start of spring. 🌱 St. Brigid’s Day, the 1st of February Today St Brigid’s Day is marked as a mix of Christian and older seasonal and pagan traditions. Many people make St Brigid’s crosses from rushes, visit holy wells, or leave a Brat…
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Ireland’s Medieval Landscape: Round Towers
“Look! Rapunzel’s tower!” This was a comment I heard a little girl excitedly tell her parents in Glendalough car park. She was pointing to the round tower behind the trees with utter glee in her face. Her reaction captures something essential about these structures: their height, their drama, and their…
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Early Irish Farming by Fergus Kelly: A Window into Ireland’s Agrarian Past
I believe it is time for a revival – not necessarily of all the older ways themselves, but in how we think about the land, and of the knowledge and control we once had over what we eat. Ireland is at a crossroads, and much of what once grounded life…
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Solstice and Reading the Sky in Prehistory
At this time of year during the winter solstice, Ireland offers stunning views of sunlight streaming into the chamber of the passage tomb Newgrange in County Meath, one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments. But what exactly is a solstice, and how did people in the past understand it?…
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Winter Orange & Cardamom Baked Rice Pudding (Gluten-Free)
With the cold winds blowing and the threat of snow in its breeze, it’s time for a warming traditional sweet treat to soothe and uplift – rice pudding has always been one of those recipes. At this time of year it benefits from a touch of citrus brightness and fragrant…
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Fire and One Million Years of Cooking
I have just returned from a walk, and it is safe to say that today feels like the first day of winter – the coldest day of the year so far (it’s –1°C as I write). Passing the houses in my neighbourhood, I could already see Christmas beginning to take…
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Archaeology: Connecting Past and Present
Take a moment to close your eyes and picture a monument, a ruin, or an old building in your local area. Perhaps it’s a stone wall, a church, a dolmen, or the remains of a long-abandoned structure. Imagine the hands that built it, the lives that unfolded around it, and…
