Have you noticed that people who have ruled out all possibility of magic are a bit… depressed? And even, dare I say it – depressing? Please note that I didn’t say, “People who don’t believe in magic.” No. What I mean instead is people who have declared either with actual words or with their whole [...]
I’m getting ready to teach my first Irish language class through the Celtic Wisdom School, though I’ve taught Irish for about 25 years now at Harvard and a few times at Boston College – and so I’m grappling with the question: Why would anyone want to learn Irish? When I was falling in love [...]
The night was cold and windy and the hedges on either side of the narrow road that runs outside Ballyferriter, a town near Dingle in Ireland, were emitting a preternatural sound. My hair stood on end. I was twenty, my head full of tales and romance, and it’s not too much to say: I was [...]
Sir Paul McCartney is an honorary member of The Bardic Academy! In a recent interview, he claimed his bardic lineage: “My excuse (for not reading music) is that I have a Celtic background and they never wrote anything down. It’s all BARDS and you’ve got to remember it all… We just make it all up, and [...]
