Extra Y chromosomes Pic: BBC

In July of 2011, the BBC reported that Welshmen from North-east Wales have a rare genetic make-up and a study was being carried out to try and understand why. They said: Experts are asking people from north-east Wales to provide a DNA sample to discover why those from the area carry rare genetic make-up.

So far, 500 people have taken part in the study which shows 30% of men carry an unusual type of Y chromosome, compared to 1% of men elsewhere the UK.

Common in Mediterranean men, it was initially thought to suggest Bronze Age migrants 4,000 years ago.

Sheffield University scientists explain the study at Wrexham Science Festival.

Eastern Mediterranean Links?

A team of scientists, led by Dr Andy Grierson and Dr Robert Johnston, from the University of Sheffield is trying to find out how and why this has come about.

Dr Grierson is leading the talk at Glyndŵr University on Tuesday and wants to speak to people with ancestry in the region to discover what is known about their family history – and to provide them with an opportunity to contribute a DNA sample to the project. He said:

The number of people in north-east Wales with this genetic make-up is quite extraordinary.This type of genetic make-up is usually found in the eastern Mediterranean which made us think that there might have been strong connections between north-east Wales and this part of Europe somewhere in the past.

Dr Grierson leads research investigating the molecular basis of neurological disorders, including motor neuron disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

He said he became interested in north Wales because of the unique genetic make-up, and because it offered an opportunity to investigate the history of the area using genetics.

Read the full story on the BBC website.

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wizzard-Media-Celtic-Myth-Podshow/dp/B004W8QR58 or by using the QR code opposite.
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We found a short film by Mairéid Sullivan about the importance of the Hill of Tara on You Tube. She writes:

Over the past decade there has been considerable controversy regarding construction of the M3 Motorway through the Tara Valley, especially in light of the discoveries at Roestown and more recently Lismullin. While those finds are extremely significant, they pale in comparison to a more recent discovery at Tara.

This short film by the award winning documentary filmmaker and musician, Mairéid Sullivan, shows that the complexity and importance of The Hill of Tara goes well beyond what we’ve known about the site for the past few millennia.

Support the Anam Cara for Tara Arts Action Campaign
[Source]
(Anam Cara means “Soul Friend” in Irish Gaelic) an initiative of the http://GlobalArtsCollective.org

Originally posted 2009-04-12 08:52:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: Wiki.

Woo-hoo! The Simpsons are coming. On St Patrick’s Day Homer and Grampa will come home in an episode being broadcast in Ireland ahead of its transmission in the US for the first time in the 20-year history of the show, reports the Irish Times.com. In The Name of the Grandfather sees Homer make Grampa’s dream of a final beer in a pub in the village of Dunkilderry come true.

Homer is prompted into the out-of-character act of kindness for Abe Simpson after forgetting to join him in the father and son three-legged race at Springfield Retirement Castle’s seniors’ sports day.

After a scolding by Marge, Homer takes Grampa across the water to O’Flanagan’s where he claims to have spent the best night of his life. On arrival, however, the village isn’t quite how he remembers it. Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2009-03-01 09:07:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Pic: BBC Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness

The observant Welsh Ramblings blog has spotted a stupendous goof over at the BBC as they decide that two of the Six Celtic Nations are merely ‘Regions’ of the UK.The story goes on to indicate that Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness are to meet the prime minister in London later to discuss the economy.

Gordon Brown was to put the case for greater efficiencies to the two men. The meeting was also attended by their Scottish and Welsh counterparts.

Mr McGuinness described the discussions as a “work in progress”.

The Treasury is seeking £5bn in cuts across the regions, which Northern Ireland Finance Minister Nigel Dodds has pledged to resist.

[Welsh Ramblings]

[BBC]

Originally posted 2009-03-08 09:07:14. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

West Cloister © Linda Witherill Pic: Glastonbury Abbey Symposium

From 2009 to 2012, the current Glastonbury Abbey Excavation Archive Project is studying and analysing the records of archaeological excavations on the site since 1904 and will provide new information about the Abbey. The project is an exciting collaboration between the Abbey and the Archaeology Department at the University of Reading, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The research is being undertaken by Professor Roberta Gilchrist and Dr Cheryl Allum (Reading University) working closely with Janet Bell (Curator, Glastonbury Abbey) and John Allan (Consultant Archaeologist to Glastonbury Abbey).

Excavations at Glastonbury Abbey began soon after the site was purchased for the Church of England in 1907, although a series of trenches had been dug by St John Hope three years earlier.

Since then, the 34 seasons of excavations up to 1979 exposed most of the plan of the medieval church and evidence of earlier phases of the monastery.

The results of the project will be published by the Society of Antiquaries with a generous donation from Linda Witherill, who took part in Radford’s excavations at the Abbey. The database will be archived with the Archaeology Data Service as an interactive online resource.

Read the full article and find out the background to the project on the Glastonbury Abbey Symposium website.

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wizzard-Media-Celtic-Myth-Podshow/dp/B004W8QR58 or by using the QR code opposite.
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.

St. Brigit Pic: Kildare Town Heritage Centre

Thanks to the wonderfully informative Kildare Town website, and in particular the section devoted to the Heritage Centre, we have some superb information about Saint Brigit for La Feile Bride or Saint Brigit’s Day on February 1st. The information they provide is also available in more detail in a book that you can get from their shop (although currently out of stock). They say: It is generally accepted that Brigid / Brigit established her abbey and church in Kildare around 480 AD, on the site now occupied by St. Brigid’s Cathedral. Some scholars suggest that her foundation may have evolved from a sanctuary of Druidic priestesses who converted to Christianity. Brigid the saint, inherits much of the folklore associated with the goddess Brigid, a dimension which contributes to her popularity.

It may be an exercise in futility to try separating the historical Christian Brigid/ Brigit from the goddess since, clearly, the two are so interwoven. St Brigid/ Brigit stands at the meeting of the two worlds. Neither the boundaries of Christianity nor the older beliefs can contain her exclusively. [link]

It seems that Brigid / Brigit held a unique position in the early Irish church and society of her day. As Abbess, she presided over the local church of Kildare and was leader of a double monastery for men and women. Tradition suggests that she invited Conleth, a hermit from Old Connell near Newbridge, to assist her in Kildare. Her abbey was acclaimed as a centre of education, culture, worship and hospitality in Ireland, and far beyond, up until the suppression of the abbeys in the sixteenth century.

Nothing remains today of the original Brigidine church and abbey which were probably constructed of timber or of mud and wattle. They were pulled down, rebuilt and enlarged many times as numbers grew in the double monastery for men and women. Cogitosus describes a remarkable building in Kildare in the 7th century.

Saint Brigid’s Early Life

There are many stories and legends relating to Brigid’s/ Brigit’s birth and early years. Brigid/ Brigit, we are told, was born around 453 AD. Although one story suggests Faughart, Co. Louth, as her place of birth, there is a strong local tradition in Kildare that Brigid/ Brigit was born in Umeras, about five miles northwest of Kildare Town. Her father, Dubthach, was a local chieftain whose descendants may now be called Duff or Duffy. Her mother, Broicsech , was a bondmaid in Dubthach’s household and tradition holds that she was a Christian.

Ancient Beliefs

To understand Brigid/ Brigit, the Christian saint, one needs to look briefly at the ancient beliefs that prevailed in Ireland prior to the coming of Christianity.

Male and Female deities, one of which was Brigid/ Brigit, were revered and worshipped in ancient Ireland. A great cult surrounded her. She is associated in Irish Folklore and literature with the gifts of poetry, healing and smithcraft, and is also identified with nurture, fertility and fire. With the coming of Christianity to Ireland, the power of the pre-Christian deities began to wane. Christianity slowly took root, assimilating features of the older beliefs and practices, including, for example, the use of sacred wells, the Celtic celebration of Imbolc and the use of fire. It was at this time of transition that the historical.

It is well worth exploring the Kildare Heritage website, there is a lot more information to discover and photos to see.

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wizzard-Media-Celtic-Myth-Podshow/dp/B004W8QR58 or by using the QR code opposite.
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.

Hospitality Pic: explore-parliament

This is the second part in our new series of animated stories of King Arthur based on artwork found around the Houses of Parliament, courtesy of a wonderful Virtual Tour found at explore-parliament.net. This story, which is based on a piece called “Hospitality“, takes place just before the Quest for the Holy Grail in Malory’s Morte D’Arthur and is about how King Arthur and his court generously offer hospitality to Sir Tristram.

There is a short, descriptive movie you cam watch on the explore-parliament site. The whole story can be read there also.

Sir Tristram, after many adventures, was brought to the court of King Arthur. The scene that followed is used here to represent the chivalric virtue of Hospitality.

‘Then King Arthur took Sir Tristram by the hand and went to the Table Round. Then came Queen Guenever and many ladies with her, and all the ladies said at one voice: ‘Welcome, Sir Tristram.’
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‘Welcome,’ said Arthur, ‘for one of the best knights and the gentlest of the world, the man of most worship, ye are welcome to this court.’
- Malory

This fresco, entitled Hospitality, is the largest of the five which William Dyce planned for this room. It was unfinished at the artist’s death in 1864, and was finished by C W Cope. The chivalrous knight, Sir Tristram, stands on the steps before the King, who raises his sword in welcome.

Behind Sir Tristram, the mounted figures of Sir Launcelot, who had just fought Tristram unknowingly, and Sir Gawaine and Sir Gaheris, whom Launcelot and Tristram had met as they returned to Camelot. The ladies of the court raise their hands and their voices in greeting, and a harper and two small boys make music. Behind King Arthur you can just see the edge of the Round Table, with knights standing to applaud. In a moment the King was to walk around it, looking for a seat to award to Sir Tristram.

Dyce’s original design for this, the largest of the wall compartments in the Queen’s Robing Room was for ‘Piety: The Departure of the Knights of the Round Table on the Quest for the Holy Grail.’ The original watercolour survives. It was not accepted by the Fine Arts Commission.

More detailed images and information on Dyce and the frescoes can be found on the original page at explore-parliament.net.

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wizzard-Media-Celtic-Myth-Podshow/dp/B004W8QR58 or by using the QR code opposite.
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: Sacred Texts

During the dark ages the arts of bookmaking, illustration and manuscript illumination were preserved in remote Irish abbeys. A number of unique, exquisite books remain from this period, masterpieces of world art. This includes the ninth century Book of Kells, a manuscript of the Gospel richly illustrated with Celtic motifs and deep symbolism. This book by Edward Sullivan (1920) includes an extended introduction to the Book of Kells, along with its historic and linguistic background. We have included high resolution scans of the illustrations, which include many famous pages from this amazing manuscript. This wonderful Book is now available for us all to read and marvel at on the Sacred Texts website.

So says the introduction to this amazing 1920′s version of the Book of Kells along with the glorious colour plates that tell so much about the development of early Celtic Christianity.

The town of Kells, in County Meath in Ireland, lies some twenty miles west of Drogheda and the Irish Channel. It was known in days as early as St. Patrick’s in the Latinised form of Cenondæ, bearing at a somewhat later date the name of Cenannus and Kenlis. Kennansa was its old Irish appellation. Within its narrow precincts to-day there are still standing three very ancient and well-known Irish stone crosses with characteristic carvings on them; an old church, the rebuilt remains of which date from the year 1578; a round tower—one of the many to be found still in Ireland; and a building which has long been described as the House of St. Columb.

ITS weird and commanding beauty; its subdued and goldless colouring; the baffling intricacy of its fearless designs; the clean, unwavering sweep of rounded spiral; the creeping undulations of serpentine forms, that writhe in artistic profusion throughout the mazes of its decorations; the strong and legible minuscule of its text; the quaintness of its striking portraiture; the unwearied reverence and patient labour that brought it into being; all of which combined go to mate up the Book of Kells have raised this ancient Irish volume to a position of abiding preeminence amongst the illuminated manuscripts of the world. Many attempts have been made to reproduce its unique illuminations; and, so far as form and outline are concerned, the reproductions have been as far as possible successful. But all such efforts have up till now failed to give a living representation of its marvellous pages—for without its colour harmonies no reproduction can be regarded as adequate from the point of view of art. The last important attempt at reproduction in colour was made about forty years ago; but the scientific knowledge of the time was unequal to the strain sought to be put upon it. In the years which have since elapsed the science of light, photography, and colour-reproduction has made rapid advances towards an accuracy which was unknown when the earlier attempts were published; and it is only by the aid of such advancement that the production of the present volume has become possible.

In this respect the work now published differs from all its predecessors; for, though still distant from absolute perfection, the reproductions here given will be found to be infinitely closer to the originals in the important matter of actual colour than any of the so-called facsimiles which up to the present have been included in any published work. For this reason the present volume should not be regarded as in any sense a rival of the uncoloured reproductions which have already appeared of the Book of Kells. Its office is rather to supplement in colour what has already been accomplished by ordinary photography and monochrome; to add a new value to previous efforts with the assistance of the most recent methods and processes of polychromatic photography and colour-printing. Looked at from this standpoint one may fairly claim for the work here produced that it fills with some measure of satisfaction a gap in the pictorial history of Celtic illumination, and affords as it were a nearer view of one of the most interesting and beautiful manuscripts which have yet come from the hands of man.

Any student of Celtic Art and early Christianity amongst the Celtic peoples just has to read this wonderful book on the Sacred Texts website.

Originally posted 2010-02-17 07:27:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The CMP Logo

In this show, we follow the trail of the Wild Hunt as it leads through 5 fantastic pieces of music, through a poem and discussion of the Yule Log, via a wonderful story by our Bard, Chris Joliffe, about Midwinter and on into the origins of the Wild Hunt.You can hear the amazing sounds of Jennifer Cutting, Damh the Bard, Anne Roos, Cernunnos Rising, Kevin Skinner, SJ Tucker and Spiral Dance! How’s that for a fantastic line-up? Wow!

How to Listen

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.

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Hope you enjoy it,

Gary & Ruthie x x x

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wizzard-Media-Celtic-Myth-Podshow/dp/B004W8QR58 or by using the QR code opposite.
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.

CELT is a searchable online corpus of multilingual texts of Irish literature and history. In 2000, it had 2 million words of text. Now it has over 11.5 million words available, and is growing. From February 2006 to July 2008, our corpus has grown by over 3.3 million words in 255 new texts. We have c. 28,000 successful requests for pages per day; that is over 10 million per year, and 990 texts available.

In 2003–2006 the Irish Higher Education Authority (HEA) funded the research project Linking Dictionaries and Texts (LDT) in which CELT collaborated with the University of Ulster at Coleraine. There, an electronic Dictionary of Old and Middle Irish (eDIL) has been digitised. It is based on the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of the Irish Language (DIL). Covering the period 700–1700, it is now available online here. Our collaboration in LDT involves creating computer-readable links from the Dictionary’s citations into CELT’s online texts. This work is being completed currently. Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2008-08-02 21:10:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter