Uncle Remus
-
Mammy, Where’s Me Tay?
Mammy, where’s me tay? Mammy, where’s me tay? I’m your pride and joy, your blue-eyed boy, Though me hair is turning gray. Mammy, where’s me tay? Mammy, where’s me tay? Your love for me, given tenderly, Made me what I am today. Mammy, where’s me tay? Last Saturday night, June 27, I was at the…
-
Three Dips, Three Sips at St. Brigid’s Well in Kildare.
One of my favorite stories about St. Brigid is about how she destroyed her beauty – long red-gold hair, big blue eyes, peachy skin – so that she wouldn’t have to marry and could devote her life to her faith. Once she took her vows, her beauty was restored. The way I tell it…
-
Yes We Did! (Visit Obama’s Ancestral Irish Hometown)
Mark and I drove to Moneygall in Co. Offaly on Friday. Moneygall is the hometown of Barack Obama’s great great great grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, who left Ireland when he was 19 and arrived in New York on March 20, 1850. I’d heard about it during the election, and on inauguration day CNN showed the residents…
-
There Once Was a Charming Larne Farmer
There once was a charming Larne farmer, His soul clad in poetic armor. When he was reciting, Those verses inviting, We forgot he was ever a farmer! One of the special guests that Liz Weir invited to the session on Saturday night was Wilson Logan. Wilson is a very accomplished reciter, and he…
-
The Two-L Llama? In Ireland?
The one-l lama,He's a priest;The two-l llama,He's a beast.And I will betA silk pajama,Saint Patrick neverSaw a llama. (with apologies to Ogden Nash) It was a gloriously sunny, bright day. Liz Weir drove us up narrow Knowehead Road, between Broughshane and Ballyeamon Barn. The trees made a green tunnel. Slemish, where Patrick worked as a slave after…
-
The Saturday Night Session at Ballyeamon Barn
Liz Weir hosts a session every Saturday night in the bottom floor of the new addition to the barn.The addition was completed about 18 months ago. It has an apartment on the top floor, and an open space for workshops or sessions on the ground floor. The downstairs has a toilet and a small kitchen with beautiful cabinets made…
-
The Esker Castle Sheela-na-gig in Doon
Barry and I were looking at maps the other day, and I remembered that I'd read about a Sheela-na-gig on a castle seven miles east of Clonmancoise. We were invited to dinner with friends in that general direction yesterday, so Barry drove Bob Farwell and me to Esker Castle in Doon on the way. …
-
Storytelling = Energy
I can’t remember where I first learned that. I know Marilyn Torres has talked about it, but I don’t think I heard it from her first. I couldn’t help but think about how storytellers move energy as I reflected on the annual evening concert of the Three Rivers Storytelling Festival. This year’s concert was…
-
A Wonderful Morning with Liz Weir
Last Thursday, June 18th, I had the good fortune to spend most of the day with Liz Weir. She started off her day with my Irish Storytelling Tradition students at the Croi Oige Student Accommodation on the Dublin Road. Early afternoon she was in the Aidan Heavey Library, right next to the Athlone Towncenter…
-
Scoil An Chroí Naofa
Yesterday I had my third and last session with the Third Class at Scoil An Chroí Naofa (pronounced skwel on kree nayfuh), at the library in Ballinasloe. Scoil An Chroí Naofa, or Sacred Heart School, is a national school which means that a large portion of the curriculum is conducted in Irish, or as Gaeilge. More and…
-
The Sheela-na-gig at Clonmacnoise
For years Barry Vaughan, the director of Study Abroad Ireland has been telling me that there was a sheela-na-gig on the Nun’s Chapel at Clonmacnoise. So, this year, on our annual trip to the beautiful monastic site set at a crucial crossing of the north-south Shannon and the east-west I thought Barry knew…
-
Banshee Bones
I was over at Danielle Allison’s the other day for lunch on my way to Ballinasloe to tell stories at the library. She handed me a packet of crisps, which is their generic term for potato or corn chips, plus anything else crispy that comes in small sacks. Chips, by the way, is what…