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Have you heard of the Druids of Ireland? Long before Christianity reached Ireland’s shores, there was a complex culture of beliefs involving the practices of law, medicine, and the oral tradition. In this letter we discuss the Druids, the ancient intellectual class of ancient Ireland.
Are you a fan of “Downton Abbey”? As a television series, it seemed to divide the room into either diehard fans of costume drama and a lot of others who wonder just what all the fuss is about! Do let me know which side of the fence you are on. It often surprises visitors to…
Let me start by asking you two questions: Have you ever been to the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland? Have you ever boarded a submarine? Our letter today will tie together this unusual combination of questions with the story of one remarkable man from County Clare. On Christmas day, we traveled to a neighbour’s house…
Have you ever had a nickname? In your family – or with your friends – or maybe in school? I remember many of my teachers by their nicknames. There was “Small Tobacco”, “Seán Fada” (long John), “Birdie” and so on. That’s what we’ll chat about this week – the relationship between the Irish surnames in…
Did you realise the difference a local Irish accent can make to the spelling of your surname? One of the harder parts of tracing the origins of your surname in Ireland are the different regional variations that it may have. In this letter, we will use one surname as an example of the way in which a name can evolve to have different spellings and pronunciations, but the same history.