Sligo Folk Tales
Sligo Folk Tales

Author: Joe McGowan

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2015-07-06

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 075096555X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For the devotee of Irish heritage, mythology or folklore, County Sligo has everything. From the Curlew mountains in the south, where Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill defeated an English army under Sir Conyers Clifford, to Benbulben’s slopes in the north, where St Colmcille battled the High King of Ireland, every hill and valley is linked by the gossamer threads of myth, folklore and legend. These stories, some age-old legends and fantastical myths, some amusing anecdotes and cautionary tales, are a heady mix of the bloodthirsty, funny and passionate and a selection of the best are retold here by professional storyteller Joe McGowan. In these pages you will find little-known anecdotes of the traditional rural ways of Sligo’s residents, their customs and superstitions; you will find stories of epic battles and heroic deeds; and you will also hear the fantastical accounts of mythical creatures, faeries, witches and the ghosts of Connacht itself.

Tales from Sligo and the West
Tales from Sligo and the West

Author: Dennis Sommers

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2005-07

Total Pages: 79

ISBN-13: 059536151X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Tales from Sligo and the West encompasses both historic and contemporary views of the magical and mystical nature of this region. The literary tradition in this area is as ancient as any on earth, dating back thousands of years, originating in the oral traditions of the Irish Celts, Druids, Poets, and Bards. These traditions were carried forth by the early Christian monks who incorporated and preserved the Celtic/Gaelic stories and artwork into their outstanding illuminated manuscripts, now realized as the oldest and most beautiful ever produced, many of which are now housed in the great library of Trinity College Dublin. The highly inspirational history of this small island has produced many of the world's greatest authors, including Jonathan Swift, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Bram Stoker, Sean O'Casey, C. S. Lewis, Kate O'Brien, Lady Augusta Gregory, Patrick Kavanagh, Brian Friel, Dermot Healy, Willie Joe Meally; and, includes four Nobel Laureates, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney. Tales from Sligo and the West is the next progression of this extraordinary tradition.

Mayo Folk Tales
Mayo Folk Tales

Author: Tony Locke

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2014-11-03

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 0750961147

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Those magic words 'Once upon a time' have been spoken around the flickering flame of the turf fire by storytellers for thousands of years. In this book, author Tony Locke has gathered together the rich tapestry of stories that make up the folklore, myth and legend of County Mayo. This book will take you on a journey through the rugged landscape of the west coast of Ireland, to its holy mountain, Croagh Patrick, and across the foaming waters of Clew Bay. Here you will read of Gráinne Ní Mháille, the Pirate Queen, the spectre known as the Fír Gorta who roamed the famine villages of west Mayo, the monsters that inhabit the deep waters of Lough Mask and the Matchstick Man of Straide. You will also read of the Love Flower and two young lovers, the land of eternal youth that is Tír na nÓg and the night of the Big Wind. So why not pull up a chair and sit awhile? You know you're never too old for a story.

POPULAR TALES OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS Vol. 1
POPULAR TALES OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS Vol. 1

Author: Anon E Mouse

Publisher: Abela Publishing Ltd

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 1907256024

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This second volume of Tales of the West Highlands contains thirty ursgeuln, or tales, fifty riddles plus a few extra stories. As always, these are tales and stories in which something 'Fairy' or magical occurs, something extraordinary --fairies, giants, dwarfs, princes, princesses, kings and queens, speaking animals and the remarkable stupidity of some of the characters. But these aren't just a collection of amusing and entertaining stories. Just 20 years after the Elementary Education Act of 1870 these are the tales that were still being used in those far- flung reaches of the Highlands to teach the young the lessons of life. Also included are Seanachas--those old Highland stories which in their telling resemble no others, whose origins are lost in the mists of the Highlands, if not the midst of time. So take some time out and travel back to a period before television and radio, a time when tales were passed on orally-- at the drying kilns, at the communal well or in homes, where families would gather around a crackling and spitting hearth and granddad or grandma or uncle or auntie would delight and captivate the gathering with stories passed on to them from their parents and grandparents from time immemorial. A proportion of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated towards the education of the underprivileged in Scotland.

Echoes of a Savage Land
Echoes of a Savage Land

Author: Joe McGowan

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Echoes of a Savage Land concerns the rugged life of the ordinary folk of the Irish countryside who carved an existence that has changed utterly in the last half-century. Beginning with rituals observed on the Celtic festival of Samhain Joe McGowan tells with love and humour the story of the customs they practised and the stories they told. Linking the ways of Ireland with ancient Greece and the Aztecs of South America and illustrating his points with quotes from Chaucer and Shakespeare as well as Yeats and Manley Hopkins, Mc Gowan has produced a book that is more than the usual chronicle of country life. Echoes of a Savage Land is a magical doorway into lost worlds, a journey through a way of life unchanged for centuries, but now on the edge of extinction: Witch hares and Rhyming rats - Blood sacrifice and Burnt offerings - Corncrakes and Blackbird pie - Poteen stills and Fear Gortach - Cutting the cailleach and Harvest knots - Mummers and Wrenboys - Quern stones and Stirabout - Haunted houses and Satanic card games.

POPULAR TALES OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS Vol. 2
POPULAR TALES OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS Vol. 2

Author: J. F. Campbell

Publisher: Abela Publishing Ltd

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1907256067

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This second volume of Tales of the West Highlands contains thirty ursgeuln, or tales, fifty riddles plus a few extra stories. As always, these are tales and stories in which something 'Fairy' or magical occurs, something extraordinary --fairies, giants, dwarfs, princes, princesses, kings and queens, speaking animals and the remarkable stupidity of some of the characters. But these aren't just a collection of amusing and entertaining stories. Just 20 years after the Elementary Education Act of 1870 these are the tales that were still being used in those far- flung reaches of the Highlands to teach the young the lessons of life. Also included are Seanachas--those old Highland stories which in their telling resemble no others, whose origins are lost in the mists of the Highlands, if not the midst of time. So take some time out and travel back to a period before television and radio, a time when tales were passed on orally-- at the drying kilns, at the communal well or in homes, where families would gather around a crackling and spitting hearth and granddad or grandma or uncle or auntie would delight and captivate the gathering with stories passed on to them from their parents and grandparents from time immemorial. A proportion of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated towards the education of the underprivileged in Scotland.