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Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on February 14, 2012 at 2:56pm

Ancient Celtic Blessing

Posted by Shade

May the blessing of light be on you -
light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
so that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.
And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,
like a candle set in the window of a house,
bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.

And may the blessing of the rain be on you,
may it beat upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.

And may the blessing of the earth be on you,
soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,
soft under you as you lie out on it,
tired at the end of day;
and may it rest easy over you when,
at last, you lie out under it.
May it rest so lightly over you
that your soul may be out from under it quickly;
up and off and on its way to God.

Comment by miyoko canter on November 1, 2011 at 4:30pm

i have irish on my mother's and father's side , and my mother's maiden name is murphy.

Comment by PerseH ~Staff Wrangler~ on June 21, 2011 at 12:33am

Welcome MANA!

Comment by PerseH ~Staff Wrangler~ on June 18, 2011 at 7:19pm

Archaeologists discover evidence of prehistoric settlement on remote Scottish island


'Incredibly significant find' on tiny island of Boreray is 'is further evidence of the international importance of the St Kilda archipelago'.

17 June 2011 00:01 GMT


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Archaeologists discover evidence of prehistoric settlement on remote Scottish island

Isolated: The tiny island of Boreray is remote but beautiful. Pic: © Doc Searls

Evidence of a permanent Iron Age settlement on one of Europe's most inhospitable islands has been uncovered by archaeologists.

It had been thought that the St Kildan island of Boreray, 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides in the Atlantic Ocean, had never been populated.

Inhabitants of nearby Hirta island only visit Boreray in the summer to hunt birds and gather wool.

But the new discovery suggests that people may have lived on the steep slopes of the island back in prehistoric times.

The last 36 inhabitants of the St Kilda archipelago left the islands in 1930.

Archaeologists from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland made the discovery on an eight-day research trip to Boreray.

Surveyor Ian Parker said: "This is an incredibly significant find which could change our understanding of the history of St Kilda.

"Until now we thought Boreray was just visited for seasonal hunting and gathering by the people of Hirta. But this new discovery shows that a farming community actually lived on the island, perhaps as long ago as the prehistoric period.

"These agricultural remains and settlement mounds give us a tantalising glimpse into the lives of those who lived for a time on Boreray.

"Farming what is probably one of the most remote and inhospitable islands in the North Atlantic would have been a hard and gruelling existence. And given the island's unfeasibly steep slopes, it's amazing that they even tried living there in the first place."

The team found remnants of an agricultural field system and crop terraces. Three possible settlement mounds were also uncovered. One of these contained the intact remains of a stone building with a "corbelled" roof, sealed by soil over the centuries.

The archaeologists think some of the remains date to the Iron Age.

St Kilda is one of 27 locations in the world with dual World Heritage Status by Unesco in recognition of both its natural and cultural heritage. Cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, it is home to tens of thousands of seabirds, including 45,000 gannets, and a few hundred wild sheep.

Hirta is the largest island in the archipelago.

Jill Harden, who is under contract with the National Trust for Scotland, said: "New discoveries and interpretations are fundamental to people's understanding of ways of life associated with all the islands and stacs that make up the St Kilda archipelago.

"It is refreshing to know that there is still so much to learn about these islands."

The team were on the island last summer and have spent the past year analysing their findings.

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "This extraordinary discovery is further evidence of the international importance of the St Kilda archipelago, reinforcing its value as one of Scotland's five World Heritage Sites."

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on February 23, 2011 at 2:49pm

 

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on February 12, 2011 at 12:01pm

Ogham Classic Ogham inscriptions are written in Primitive or Old Irish, but later inscriptions may be in either Middle Irish or some other language—many of the Scottish Ogham inscriptions are in an undeciphered language that may be Pictish. And even if you know what language the inscription is in, as there is usually no separation between words in an Ogham inscription, the reader has to take the raw string of letters and divide them into lexical units themself in order to comprehend the sense of the inscription.

This task is made harder by the fact that the writers of Ogham inscriptions did not have dictionaries to guide their spelling, and futhermore Ogham orthography can differ subtly from the orthography used to write the same words in the Latin script (gemination of consonants is a common feature of Ogham orthography compared with Latin orthography).

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on February 8, 2011 at 9:50am

According to the Celtic myths, the Celtic deities or the fairy people lived in the domain that was generally called the "Otherworld". These domains were hidden from mortal eyes.

In Irish myths, the Otherworld could be islands, hostel, or dun (hill-fort). Sometimes, the Otherworld was called Sidhe, the fairy hill-fort (dun) or palace.

In the Welsh myths, the Otherworld was often called Annwfn or Annwyn, and the fort or castle was ususally known as Caer.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on February 8, 2011 at 9:50am

In Celtic myths, the Celts tend divided their people by clans and by social classes. Even in history, according to classical Roman writers, the Celts were divided into several distinctions.

High among the social class were the nobles, such as kings and chiefs. They belonged to warrior societies. The warriors were followers of the aristocrats. Other group or classes were the druids and the bards. The druids and bards were men of learning and were held in high regard.

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on February 4, 2011 at 4:06pm

 

Comment by Dept of PMM Artists & things on February 4, 2011 at 4:03pm

Queen Medb (Maeve) J. Leyendecker Illustration, 1916

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