Gentle reminder that the whole point of Paddy's Day is celebrating the memory of a refugee slave from outside Ireland who spoke up for Irish people being equal and not being treated as barbarian outsiders by others, and also articulated the earliest recorded collective Irish Identities...

Celebrating today in the authentic historical fashion by attempting to bring about the end of this world by chasing down random pagan Connachta in order to fulfil biblical prophecy at the ends of the earth. What? Too soon?

☘️For full discussion of how traditions and celebrations developed over the centuries see a previous episode with one of the foremost experts on the cult of St Patrick, Dr Elizabeth Dawson, Carlow College. Thanks to @tiagoovsilva.bsky.social for producing. 2/3☘️ open.spotify.com/episode/4TK3...

☘️Did you know that St Patrick's own words are the only surviving Latin narrative texts of his age to have been composed outside of Roman imperial territory? Have a listen to the latest episode of the podcast with brilliant lexicographer Dr Anthony Harvey @ria.ie 1/3☘️ open.spotify.com/episode/3ffC...

The real Patrick is here. On a mission to bring the word of God to the edge of the world. www.confessio.ie/about/hypers... All else is innovation, and its hard to see why we'd stop at any particular point and say "Now, THIS is where we stop".

Post Reformation, the classification of Patrick and the early Irish Christian church was hotly debated, with Patrick being declared Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and even (by John Toland) a rationalist free thinker. www.irishphilosophy.com/2015/03/17/a...

☘️ Read St Patrick in his own words ☘️ A concise booklet 'My name is Patrick. I am a sinner. A simple country person and the least of all believers' presents St Patrick’s Confession in a clear and faithful English translation: https://shop.ria.ie/products/my-name-is-patrick?variant=47002150764890

March 16th.

Well, at least it wasn't a snakebite he was holding...

I see some people in UK are horrified that a certain type of person is profiting from ripping archaeology out of the ground & selling it to the highest bidder but not the actual industry that is built on *checks notes* ripping archaeology out of the ground and selling it to the highest bidder...

I remember sitting on a hill on an uninhabited western island with @jjconeill.bsky.social during an excavation of an actual early medieval irish hermitage and coming up with a mock film script about chancers creating a self help holy theme park on an island for gullibles that actually takes off..

Early Irish Asceticism. They've invented Early Irish Asecticism... except without the good bits. Like hallucinations brought on by near starvation, internecine warfare, blinding close relatives, ever present cattle raids at dawn, and feral sheep and the way they might look at ye...

Happy St Brigid's weekend! To celebrate we bring you a journey through Europe w/Prof. Jean-Michel Picard, UCD. He has unreal stories of hunting down manuscripts (incl. Napoleon & nazis!) & helps us understand the appeal of Brigid in lands far from Kildare! #brigid open.spotify.com/episode/0Bl4...

Ahead of tomorrow's inevitable deluge of social media imboloxology, this, by @elvabjohnston.bsky.social is the most significant piece of relevant scholarship in years. Do yourself a favour... muse.jhu.edu/pub/423/arti...

Apropos of nothing: The greatest trick West Cork ever pulled was convincing the rest of Cork that it was part of Cork. Its got Non Cork character, is far too beautiful, softly rugged and lit by magic hour light. Its South Kerry wearing a false moustache.

Holy shitballs, Dublin...

Just got flipped the finger from a passing druid in a chariot with go faster stripes blaring Enya...

Happy Clare and Frank day to all those who celebrate... www.thejournal.ie/how-to-watch...

The oldest bar in Ireland dates to the early bronze age and can be found in the National Museums Ór Exhibition. In your face, Séan.

The fucking druid cat that I didnt own and who didn't live with me for a few years and who then fecked off to another house but still comes back sometimes has just turned up, eaten half a burger, drank 2 bowls of milk, nuzzled me for a few minutes, before heading upstairs for a kip. Gaslit. By a cat

All of ye banded together and paid for this just to get me twitching. Didn't you. Ye fuckos.

"The Northumbrian monks are known to have mentored the Picts". If only we knew who mentored the Northumbrians...

Gentle reminder that in and around 500AD, the Britons were the Welsh, the Welsh were British, the Irish were the Scots, and the Scots were the Irish. The Picts were the Picts, but they weren't that picky.

Dál Riada is more Donegal. I blame Colmcille.

Ah jaysis, tis yourself....

Of course, it's not widely known that flying ant day was originally a pagan colony...

The much anticipated, incredible, 'Words on the Wave' exhibition opens in @nmireland.bsky.social today! FREE TO ALL. Can't make it? Listen to Matt Seaver & Dr Diarmuid Ó Riain on what makes it so special & about Irish connections w/Switzerland going back 1,400 years. open.spotify.com/episode/3o3x...

Very sorry to hear this. Never met him, but he single handedly invented modern day geo/ textual criticism identification of Tírechán sites by correctly identifying Tobar Finnmhuighe. In 1967. It was the 1990s before anyone else did.

Armageddon. There’s probably a line about this in an apocryphal Revelation that no one reads anymore as a woman wrote it. “And the magpies will rattle the earth”

3rd c No Celts 4th c No Celts 5th c No Celts 6th c No Celts 7th c No Celts 8th c No Celts 9th c No Celts 10th c No Celts 11th c No Celts 12th c No Celts 13th c No Celts 14th c No Celts 15th c No Celts 16th c No Celts 17th c No Celts 18th c Celts invented 19th c. Celtic revival 20th c. Enya

Paul Durcan RIP. No longer are you to be named Forsaken, nor your land Abandoned, but you shall be called My Delight and your land The Wedded.

Discount Codes for Island Endurance - get 30% off For US shipping: Order from Indiana University Press with code ULASH25 iupress.org/978025307248... For Ireland, UK, and Europe: Order from Combined Academic Publishers with code IUP30 combinedacademic.co.uk/978025307247...

Cork Luas? More like South Mall.

This week on the podcast we thank Dr Janel Fontaine for sharing her research on slavery in the Middle Ages. From the accounts of Patrick in the 5th century to Gerald of Wales in the 12th she explains how slavery was built into the fabric of medieval Irish society. open.spotify.com/episode/048Y...

Some thoughts on St Patrick & his writings for the day that’s in it - products of pragmatism & trauma www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

So pleased that my article on Irish saints & their places has appeared in Peritia: I don't have a free-to-read link but am happy to share my pdf via email; this is the result of an accidental project that began with tweeting Irish saints on their feastdays, back in the days when Twitter was fun

This is absolutely fantastic.

No.

Wooly Mammoths, is it now? I'll tell ye one thing, ye wouldn't see Irish Archaeos trying to reconstruct Ancient Irish Elk, Justinian Plague, Hiberno Norse Warriors, the Ancient Irish Speckled Cursing Stones of Knocknaree used by Maeve herself to shrivel her enemies ball sacks on a Tuesday...

Very sad to see the poet and general sharp observer of life Pat Ingoldsby has died. So, as he prepared for this event, here's to Pat. 🥃

Lecture in TCD 6th Feb at 7:30 on Brigit’s early female followers and how they may have reconciled their Christian ideals with the prevailing norms of Irish society (and what that says about adoption and adaption of wider European ideas).

To mark the feast of St Brigit of Kildare here is a link to a recent open access article by me about her early cult. In it, I argue that the historical figure - the only one of Ireland's three patron saints who is a woman - was celebrated as a champion of the powerless www.ria.ie/2024/02/01/m...

Happy St Brigid's Day, the day people traditionally spout more ahistorical nonsense about Irish "goddesses" and "pre-Christian customs" than on any other day of the year. Resist the BS! Here's a really good piece by Tiago Veloso Silva as a little antidote: www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Interviewer: Can you explain this gap in your resume? Archaeologist: It's ritual.

We used to call your Da ‘Newgrange’ because he was always full of Druids