Pic: Smithsonian.

One of the most respected educational and research institutes in the United States, Smithsonian, has listed the Hill of Tara among the 15 must-see endangered cultural treasures in the world reports the Irish Times. The Co Meath site, which was the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland, has been the subject of controversy with the nearby construction of the M3 road. Campaigners say the road will cut through one of Ireland’s most important historical sites, but the National Roads Authority says the new motorway will be further away from the hill than the existing route.

The motorway is scheduled to be finished in the middle of next year, but may be completed before that. Continue Reading »

Pic: Faerie Cara

Faerie Cara has been a faerie entertainer for over 14 years. Delivering traditional storytelling, songs, stage show entertainment and festival mayhem to Australian and International crowds. This wonderfully driven woman is organising a festival, called Save The Faeries, to help the Environment. Descending from a line of Irish storytellers, Cara journeyed to Ireland where she spent two years walking town to town listening to the sgealaidhthe (traditional Irish storytellers), learning the Irish language and folklore that kept her foremothers captivated for many generations. Having studied in natural medicine, dance, theatre and music to become the community and eco-conscious entertainer she is today. Cara is now based in Perth, where she continues to create headlines with her waves of eco-conscious events and social activities. You can find out more about her at the Faerie Cara website, but let’s find out what’s happening tomorrow in Perth…

Save the Faeries

Calling all faeries, mermaid, pixies, humanfolk and dragons! Continue Reading »

The Spring Equinox 2009 Holiday Special is now on the feed and available for download. Celebrating the Spring, we bring you a very moving story by Willie Meikle, a wonderful piece from Horns of Power and four great pieces of music. In addition there is a very powerful Irish poem and we take another visit to The Dragon’s Head deep in the Highlands to visit Duncan, the old Scottish Shannachie. We bring you news that we have sorted out Bit Torrent details for the Show Archives (see the Shownotes). Gary apologises for losing emails – again! Come on Gary – stop fiddling with your computer and it might last five minutes

We also announce the beginning of the Fansite section of the website for all those of you who may have been inspired by the stories. You might have written a story, a poem or maybe drawn/painted a picture or made some music. We welcome your submissions so that other in the Podshow clan can see your work.

Please remember that all submissions would be subject to Creative Commons 3.0, Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. If you require a different licence, please let us know and we will make it clear on your page.

We also wish everyone a very happy St. Patrick’s Day for the 17th March.

The Episode is available for subscribers on the feed, or you can download it or listen to it from our Episodes page. You can find the Shownotes for this episode in the Shownotes section.

If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

Pic: TaraWatch.

TaraWatch reports that the Hill of Tara is among a number of sites which have been nominated for inclusion on the country’s list of possible United Nation world heritage sites. Campaigners against the route of the M3 motorway in Co Meath have joined with heritage groups in submitting proposals to an advisory group set up by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government John Gormley, to review the list of Irish sites.  The existing tentative nomination list for world heritage sites dates back to 1992 and includes Killarney National Park, the Burren and Clonmacnoise.

Vincent Salafia of TaraWatch said: 

We have nominated Tara to be a World Heritage Site, but only on condition that the M3 motorway is re-routed first. It would be a breach of the World Heritage Convention for Unesco to approve Tara, with the M3 going through the site.   Continue Reading »

Pic: Jodi Whitby

We would like to thank Jodi Whitby for being kind enough to allow us to publish a gallery of her beautiful faerie and fantasy art. You’ll find superb images of the Green Man and if you follow her work, you’ll know that not only does she work to commission but also makes her designs available on a wide variety of surfaces. You can find her Gallery in our Image Galleries section here on the website.

Jodi Whitby lives with her husband and three young children in her birth town of Midhurst, West Sussex and has been drawing since she was a little girl. Despite now being a full-time mum, she still finds time to draw and paint.

She mainly works freelance as an artist but happily designs anything that is asked of her - company logos, graphics and illustrations.  Most of her creations are born in the small hours of the morning whilst her family peacefully sleeps.  She turns many of her designs into greetings cards or transfers them onto candles, wood, clothing….anything.

Our natural surroundings are of great inspiration to Jodi along with her keen interest in ancient folklore and of the pagan wheel of life.  One of her loves is to go on walks with her family through the local woods and experience the many faces of the forest as the seasons change.

Jodi is a big lover of Mother Nature, and as you might expect she not only has fairies living at the bottom of her garden but throughout the house as well!

To find out more about Jodi and her beautiful artwork please visit her Contributor page Here

To visit Jodi’s Gallery click Here

To Visit Jodi’s Website  click Here

Written Irish was based at first on Latin orthography and British pronunciation, which makes ancient texts difficult to decipher. Viking invasions in 8^th century Ireland left their mark on Irish vocabulary by introducing Scandinavian words that refer to navigation and urban life.

Up until the 17^th century, the Irish language was spoken by the entire population of Ireland. It was predicted that Irish would become extinct in the 19^th century due to the influence of English. However, the language experienced a resurgence after the formation of the Irish Free State in 1921. A standard written form of the Irish language was implemented in 1945.

Today, about 500,000 people speak Irish, which adds up to about one-seventh of the population of the Republic of Ireland. Irish Gaelic is the official language of Ireland, but it has been overtaken by English as the primary spoken language. Because of this, the government has instigated revival programs. The Irish language is now taught in all of the schools in Ireland. Dialects of Irish are prominent in the following areas: Munster, Connacht, Donegal, Leinster, and Ulster.

The Irish Alphabet and Irish Vocabulary

The Irish alphabet has only 18 letters, as compared to the 26 in English. The remaining letters, such as “j” and “z,” may be used in loanwords from other languages, but are not used in native Irish vocabulary words.

English words of Gaelic origin include bard, glen, bog, whiskey, shamrock, and galore.

When you’re learning Irish vocabulary, watch out for false cognates. These are vocabulary words that resemble English words but have a very different meaning. If you are learning to speak Irish and you ask someone for a bean, you may be surprised to find out you requested a woman! The phrase “Have no fear!” might get you in trouble, fear means man! If you tell someone they are bád, you’re calling them a boat!

Irish Grammar and Irish Pronunciation

Unlike English, Irish nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles have a gender assigned to them. To complicate matters, the gender of Irish nouns does not always seem logical. For example, cailín (girl) is a masculine noun, whereas bean (woman) is a feminine noun.

Learning Irish pronunciation can be tricky for English speakers because the words are not pronounced phonetically. Some words are particularly baffling. Teamhair (hill) is pronounced “t’yower”; niamh (brilliance) is pronounced “nee-av”; and suidhe (sit) is pronounced “see.”

Regular practice is necessary to learn to speak Irish well. That’s one reason why good Irish software programs can be so useful for Irish language learning. It’s easier than ever to learn Irish and to begin to speak Irish with the language resources and Irish language software from Transparent Language. With IrishNow!, Before You Know It, and our other language learning products, you will speak Irish, learn Irish vocabulary, conjugate Irish verbs, understand Irish grammar, and master Irish pronunciation quickly. Best of luck with your Irish language learning!

We’ve been talking with the famous language learning company BYKI (Before You Know It) and are really pleased to be able to let you know that tomorrow, on St Patrick’s Day, you can get BYKI Irish for your iPhone FREE from the App Store. Normally, this app would cost you $7.99 (£4.99 in the UK) but just for St Patrick’s Day they are giving it away! Now, that’s what I call great news!

Byki will teach you over 1000 critical words and phrases with an easy, addictive, and lightning-fast 3-step process. Perfect your accent with native speaker sound, quiz yourself, and use the search feature to look up words like a phrase book. It takes just one simple download of the software application.

Experts agree that the most important part of learning a language is rapidly building a foundation of word and phrase knowledge. Byki is the fastest, most direct path to that goal – it “hacks” into your memory and fills it with foreign words and phrases. Whereas traditional learning methods spread their learning out across a multitude of lessons and activities, Byki gets right down to business with a proven three step process:

1. Byki guides you through a review of the language material you will learn.
2. It teaches you to recognize the written and spoken forms of each foreign word.
3. Finally, Byki teaches you to produce the foreign word when prompted with the English.

Byki provides a personalized path to success based on your own strengths and weaknesses. It recognizes the material you learn quickly and takes note of those items that give you more trouble. Byki then maximizes the time you dedicate to language learning by focusing your efforts on the items that you find more challenging, without wasting your time on those you learn with ease.

Click tomorrow to get BYKI Irish free or now to buy it for $7.99.

We’ve got more news tomorrow about some of the other great services they provide.

Click here to visit the BYKI website.

You may remember the interview we posted here with Rhonda Carpenter and Arlene Radasky.I have just finished reading Mark Of A Druid by Rhonda, and Wow! What a great read. If you are interested in Druids, the ancient Celts, reincarnation, or just enjoy a gripping and entertaining story this book is for you.

The ingenious interweaving of plot and characters pulled me into the story and kept me awake and reading until the very end. The Druid rituals are mysterious and believable, giving me the feeling that I have been honoured to share in the lives and mystical ways of these ancient Celtic people.

When Eve McCormick clinical hypnotherapist and researcher starts suffering nightmares and visions, the images and feelings stay with her leaking into her everyday life.  Along with her friend and mentor Dr. Andrea McMurray, they begin to explore their shared dreams looking for the reason behind them. While Eve’s life is overwhelmed by these events, her research project into re-incarnation becomes threatened by a colleague who is wreaking revenge in the present for slights in the ancient past.

I enjoyed the suspense Rhonda cleverly builds into the novel, and the unexpected romance and family bonds that grow within the story. I also fell in love with both Cosmo the Cat and Odin the Crow who both play an important part in the lives of Eve and Aileann.

Rhonda Carpenter rivals the ancient Seanachai in her ability to take the reader to another world which interlinks with the present at every unexpected turn.

A highly recommended and thoroughly enjoyable read.

Rhonda is also running some super competitions. To enter  and win great prizes relating to Mark of A Druid visit Rhonda’s website at http://www.themarkofadruid.com/mod/

You can listen to Mark Of A Druid free at http://www.podiobooks.com/title/the-mark-of-a-druid and also hear the prologue for Rhonda’s next book When Ether’s Descend

Or buy Mark of A Druid from here (UK) or here (USA)

Pic: Justin Russell

We’re really grateful to be able to bring you more wonderful art by the Epic Artist, Jussell Russell. Justin works within mythological themes and does a lot of imagery work for Roleplaying Games. As a regular listener to our show, it just makes me really pleased that Celtic imagery enters into his work. The latest pieces, which I have placed at the front of the gallery, show just this influence. Great work, Justin – keep it up!

I am a freelance illustrator working out of Cincinnati. I use pastels and most traditional media. My concerns as an artist are the dichotomy between light and dark, evil and good and the grey inbetween. I explore these concepts through colour and value. Archetypes and the twisting of them is an ever increasing fascination within my own explorations. Scandinavian mythology and traditions as well as decor and symbolism appear frequently. Celtic motifs also prevail throughout my work. I see fantasy not as fantasy but as a study in the archetypal subconscious and what that means to us as a culture(s).

Come and see his Gallery or find our more about Justin on his Contributor page.

Pic: BBC

A rare Iron Age Celtic mirror and two brooches have been made the subject of a temporary export ban in a bid to keep the items in the UK, reports the BBC.

The 19cm high copper-alloy mirror, which is engraved and has a looped handle, dates back to about 75BC.

It was discovered in a shallow cremation grave at Chilham Castle, Kent, in 1993, along with two brooches.

Culture Minister Barbara Follett has placed a ban on the items leaving the UK. The ban will be reviewed in May.

Dr Catherine Johns, of the reviewing committee, said:

The mirror is an important example of a rare and quintessentially British type of export.

The mirror is the earliest example of only 17 complete decorated Iron Age mirrors found in Britain.

The period of the ban could be extended until 1 August if a serious intention to raise the £35,000 recommended price is made.

[Source]