The sea was blue before I saw you, before I heard your mother cry, “Everything is worse without you: the earth, the sea, the sky.” The sea was blue before I thought a crow or seagull must have fought for your changeling eyes. It’s in the myth, not many know, you came to …
Continue reading "Eulogy for a Seal, a poem by Karina Tynan"
…when sheltering was a game: that hollow tree by the meadow - our house. When a sun shower was the name for a break in the journey to the weir for a swim. And nobody drowned and no one got lost in the woods and there were no woodcutters to flatten the grass only ever …
Introduction : Emer, the wife of the great warrior Cú Chulainn (The Hound of Ulster) tells the story of their marriage. My world is broken. Grey skies hang over my agony. The grey lake is a mirror. I do not want that small light prying through. I do not want to hear birds brazening out their …
Continue reading "Don’t go asleep A Retelling by Karina Tynan"
Before he had sons, or she had brothers he took her, as if she were a son. He got her up at five, to set illegal lines for eel. Crisp and early, behind the veil of morning she remembered her delight, teeming out, her voice, a hoarse screech, her step catching up through deep dew grass. Then by the river, his …
For Andy Upstairs was home. Sometimes we could see smoke seeping through the floorboards, feel the thump of the jukebox, the thrum of drunken voices. We were used to the noise, always there, the backdrop to every moment of our lives, a constant other world muffled by floorboards and linoleum. Good Friday was the only …
“What’s happening?” “Is the train shaking?” “Oh dear God we’re going into the sea!” “No we’re not.” “Well what was that jolt then.” “We’re stopped, that’s all.” Well we’re nowhere near the platform but the view is fabulous. We’re looking down at the sea and we’re higher than the seagulls and it’s a kind enough …
Introduction Macha was an Irish Goddess associated with horses and war. The story below tells of how she came in the form of a woman to the house of a widower called Crunchu. She made him promise that he would tell no one about her. But Crunchu didn’t keep the promise and spoke at the …
Continue reading "The Curse of Macha, a retelling by Karina Tynan"
Introdudion She is Brigid of the *Tuatha Dé Danann, poet and daughter of the *Daghdha, goddess and protector of domestic animals whose feast day is Imbolg, the first day of spring. She is Saint Brigid of Kildare, founder of the church of the oak tree whose feast day is the first day of spring …
Continue reading "Stories of Brigid, Goddess and Saint by Karina Tynan"
Introduction : The Lady Ceasair was the leader of the first people to come to Ireland. It is said she was the granddaughter of Noah who refused her passage on his Ark because she was not part of a pair. And so, Ceasair made her own journey across many oceans with forty nine women and …
