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A TALE OF HOME

I left Ireland in the early 80’s and ended up teaching in South Africa and later running an e-learning business. Distance crystallized my sense of the many good things there had been in my upbringing. There was a connection with previous generations and with the land that was both subtle and deep-rooted. I remembered stories being told in the kitchen at home. I knew of the magic that resided in the nearbyrath, fairy bushes, standing stones, and other ‘field monuments’ that would be invisible to the casual eye. But even more than any of that, in the layers of language and the subtle ways that people talk, the past is all still there. In some senses, the country was only ever colonized in the most superficial way. Scratch the surface of the religious and ‘modern’ overlays, and you realize that the connections with ancient ways are stubbornly resilient. Read More