Ireland Journal
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A Spirit Washed Clean
May the blessing of the rain be on you— the soft sweet rain. May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up, and shed their sweetness on the air. May the blessing of the great rains be on you, may they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair…
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All for the Dead Man’s Penny
Later this week Liz Weir and Ciaran Mullholland will debut their new piece, “All for the Dead Man’s Penny,” at the Festival at the Edge in Shropshire, England. They were commissioned by FatE to create an hour-long performance on the theme “Forever Young.” I visited Liz in Cushendall in June and had the opportunity to hear…
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The Randy Mares of Fancy
In Ireland, which is between the 52nd and 55th parallel north, they do midsummer right. It never really gets completely dark on June 21st and as the sun moves slowly toward and then below the horizon it veers further and further north. Last Saturday night, the summer solstice, I was watching the sun makes this…
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First Stories of 2014
I have an excellent group of students this summer in Study Abroad Ireland. I was very pleased with the quality of their telling as well as the variety and richness of the stories they chose to tell. This was the first time for most of them to tell a story in front of others, so…
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Cliffs of Nowhere – I mean Moher!
We had our annual weekend in Galway June 12-15. On Friday the 13th things got a little spooky. It was a grey, off-and-on rainy day, but not too cold. We drove south-east from Galway to Ballyvaughan (Barry’s town), and then up into the Burren on the R480 to visit Poulnabrone Dolmen – a beautiful drive…
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Shannon Storytellers at Flannery’s
Several of my students and I went to the monthly meeting of the Shannon Storytellers Thursday night at Flannery’s on Sean Costello Street in Athlone. I’d heard about the group from Jackie Gorman before we left Arizona and was able to join on Facebook. The organizer is local author Karen Goode, and people come to…
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Final Reflections 2013
I had an excellent group of students this summer in the Irish Storytelling Tradition. Their final papers revealed the breadth and depth of what they learned about storytelling in general and Irish storytelling in particular. Here are some excerpts from each of them: Diana Lucente: I learned that seanchais are often folks otherwise thought to…
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Third Stories of 2013!
The students in The Irish Storytelling Tradition told their last stories in class on Wednesday, June 26th. I’m really proud of what they have achieved in four short weeks. They are a talented group that just kept getting better. They also write very well about their experiences. Here are excerpts from their reflections on their…
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Summer in Ireland
Summer in Ireland this year was from June 1st to June 9th – nine days of clear skies, bright sunshine, and (for them) high temperatures of up around 75 degrees. Everyone, including me, took advantage of it to be outside. On Saturday the 8th, Barry and I drove to Ballinderry Castle, a Gaelic Norman tower…
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Second Stories
The students in my Irish Storytelling Tradition class, shown above with their pipe-cleaner Brigid’s crosses, told their second stories last Wednesday, June 19th. They all did very good jobs of both selecting stories that fit their personalities and then telling them naturally and in their own voices. Here are some excerpts from their reviews: Bayliann…
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Got Gundestrup?
I was, as they say, gasping for a cup of tea at the National Museum in Dublin on Friday. I was following the signs to the café, when I came around the corner and saw the Gundestrup Cauldron. Not what I was expecting to see to say the least – last I’d heard it was…
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A Day in Dublin
On Friday, June 21, we all took the train over to Dublin. Barry and I only stayed the day, and Bob came back on Saturday. All but two of the students stayed for the whole weekend and by all accounts they had a blast. The picture at the bottom is the group in front…