The Banshees of Inisherin and much more...

Ceád míle fáilte, welcome to your brand new Letter from Ireland “Shorts” – that we are delighted to launch today! Each Tuesday we’ll bring you a quick-read of some of our favourite and interesting Irish things for this week.

Look out for this new “short” email every Tuesday – and you can expect your regular Letter from Ireland on Sunday as usual.

FAVOURITE PLACES IN IRELAND
Achill Island, County Mayo. Have you watched “The Banshees of Insheerin”? Much of the movie was shot on Achill Island and actually features Keem beach which we photographed above. You can also see Carina on Achill visiting an abandoned farm cottage in this Youtube video.

FEATURED IRISH SURNAME
Our Irish surname of the week is MURPHY. This name comes from the Irish “Ó Murchadha” meaning “sea-warrior” and is found in many distinct parts of Ireland. In Ulster they are were generally the “Mac Murchadha” in Irish. To see where the name appears in Ireland in the mid 1800s go to this page on Johngrenham.com

BOOK I’M READING NOW
The Romantic by William Boyd. Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross moves from County Cork to London to seek his fortune in war and in peace. He travels the world as a soldier, a farmer, a felon, a writer, a father, a lover and experiences life through all the turbulence of the 19th century. Boyd is a wonderful writer and captures many of the events of that time in this widely sweeping piece of fiction with both adventure and romance at its heart. Highly recommended! See the book on Amazon here.

IRISH WORD OR PROVERB

“Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin”
(pronounced “neel ane teen-tawn mar duh heen-tawn fane”)

which translates as “there’s no fireside like your own fireside“
meaning “There’s no place like home“.

Never a truer word!

IRISH CRAFT/PRODUCT WE LOVE
We have purchased many woven goods from Foxford Mills in Foxford, County Mayo down through the years. We love their heritage and beautiful Irish products. The last thing we bought from them was a replica of a “Michael Collins” blanket – worn by “the Big Fella” on his final day as he was driven in his open top car in 1922. See more on the Foxford story here.

That’s it for this week. Send us an email with any of your own favourites for inclusion in future emails, or if you’re a plus member leave a comment below.

Slán for now,
Mike & Carina.