Aodhan-art - Aodhán Makes Art

Seven stars in the still water,

And seven in the sky;

Seven sins on the King's daughter,

Deep in her soul to lie.

(By Oscar Wilde)

Brave little flowers on campus on Imbolc day.

Celtober 2023 Day 2: Feast

Aengus was with the attendants arranging and giving orders, and every kind of drink and delicacy was given out correctly so that the company were cheerful and gay.

Altram Tige Dá Medar

Tonaroasty (Tóin an Róistigh, something along the lines of 'The bottom end of de Roche lands') is a medieval ghost village in Co. Galway I accidentally came across when out to shoot a stone circle on a barrow (I did take photos of it too). Judging from the onomastics (and from the satellite photos clearly showing rectangular foundations and what seems to be a cross-shaped church) it was an Anglo-Norman settlement, so built no later than 12th c. This also gives us a clue about how and why it ended. When the Black Death reached Ireland, the Gaels were in a more advantageous position than the Normans as they lived in less crowded conditions and did not have any religious prejudice about cats (hence, less rats and less fleas carrying plague). The Norman settlers were traditionally living in a more compact way, were in frequent contact with people from crowded castles, and the relationship between cats and folk Christianity soon turned to be rocky at best (to put it very mildly). Therefore, the plague was feasting on them at will, and it was one of the factors that contributed to the subsequent Gaelicisation of the surviving Anglo-Norman nobility. The plague hypothesis also explains quite neatly why the site has not been used for settlement again ever since.

The Wren Prince VII - The Snail Druid

Orbsen mac Allot aka Manannán mac Lir giving a teenage Aengus Óg a much needed lecture on consent

Trinkets