Shiels

The following are letters and podcast episodes mentioning the above surname.

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Walking among the stones - Kealkil Stone Circle, County Cork

Celtic Druids and Irish Surnames – Do You See Your Family Name Here?

Explore the Druidic families of Ireland and their professions in this week’s letter. Some Irish surnames are associated with professions, such as “Hickey” for “Healer” and “Ward” for “son of the Bard”. Who knows, your family might have inherited a trait from these ancient times!

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Irish Surname Evolution.

We had a very interesting reaction to last week’s letter where I went through just some of the old Gaelic family names and their links to certain professions such as Medic, Judge, Poet and so on. I asked you to let me know if you had any of these names in your family – and…

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Ancient stone circle

The Stone Circles and Druids of Ireland

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.

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Saints, Scholars and Irish Family Surnames

A few weeks back, I mentioned Thomas Cahill’s book “How the Irish Saved Civilisation” – and I know a lot of our readers have already come across it. It tells the story of how Irish monks set about preserving Greek, Roman and early Christian knowledge through their manuscripts and teaching. It’s a wonderful little book…

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Aughnanure Castle, County Galway

Like to run an Irish Castle for a Day?

 We’ve just returned from County Antrim in Ulster – travelling between the Causeway Coast, the Glens of Antrim and taking many trips into the heartland of this fascinating and beautiful county. Did any of your Irish ancestors come from County Antrim?  As we travelled around Antrim, we saw many signs to places that featured as…

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