Pic: Mayo News

Those mythic worlds of Tir na nÓg and Hy Brazil are always proximate to the rural Mayo landscape. They teeter on the edge of its many alluring horizons. The cry of the tragic Children of Lir still echoes on Inishglóra, while the regal Celtic call of Danú and command of  Dagda are reincarnated in the rolling sun on ancient holy mountain, Crúachán Aigle – the pyramidal Croagh Patrick. The Mayo News reports on the 13th annual Bard Summer School.

Bard school co-founder, Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop and American, Robert Hamold, evoke the spirit of the late author and mystic, John Moriarty – who was a regular bard since the school’s inception in 1995. Reading from the introduction to his work, Invoking Ireland, they play out a conversation – based on the Battle of Moytura which was between the Formorians and the Tuatha de Danann – in which a contemporary battle for the soul of Ireland is fought.
This spiritual battle, explained Moriarty in his introduction, is a safari where one side seeks to turn the country into ‘a human convenience’ and the other finds ‘fulfilment in being of one  mind with the wind and the rain’.

The 13th Bard Summer School, Clare Island, was held from Wednesday, July 2 -Sunday, July 6 last. It explored the ‘Myths of Treasure – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ based on the Irish myths of the magical Battle of Moytura. Each year, the Bard Summer School takes one of the great Irish myths and goes on a unique journey of discovery. Some of these stories have lasted thousands of years, and have been handed down through Ireland’s oral tradition. The stories are part of the landscape.

For further information write to bardsummerschool@iol.ie or visit www.bard.ie.

Source

Tweet This

Trackback URI | Comments RSS