Sadly Magan, much moreso than in the previous book, far too often turns his attention away from deepening our understanding of Ireland's past and its traditions and towards making barbed polemical remarks. Over and over again he repeats strange laments for the loss of Pagan rituals in favour of Christianity (despite admitting, albeit hesitantly and begrudgingly, how plainly violent, unpleasant and superstitious many of them were). It's one thing to be saddened by the widespread ignorance of Ireland's pre-Christian history and folklore, and another thing to raise them up as the only valid element of Irish culture, and everything else as a foreign-born 'oppression' of some kind or another. Magan runs through the usual recycled finger-pointing at the British for everything wrong with Ireland and the Irish psyche today, and makes the usual errors of referring to pre-20th Century Ireland as 'colonised' and 'occupied,' neither of which is accurate no matter how badly brutalised the population was, nor how many of their old traditions lost. Having done this, he can then lazily borrow the tropes of 'postcolonial' literature and apply them clumsily to modern Ireland, no matter how much of a stretch this becomes. Every criticism rightly directed against successive Irish governments concerning the preservation of the nation's heritage is instead chalked up to the 'legacy of oppression,' whether religious, political, or cultural, and the inevitable effect that has on the blameless autonoma who are left behind once the evil colonial masters have left. This analysis is selectively applied, completely ignoring how Catholicism, supposedly the original 'oppressor,' was itself suppressed by the English for centuries. Magan fails to say anything original in this regard beyond slapping postmodernist and feminist ideas on the ancient past, as if our distant ancestors were just modern people with simpler technology and strange clothes.

land around us - RTÉ Manchán on the legacy of the land around us - RTÉ

Here, the River Shannon is a goddess, and trees and their life-sustaining root systems are hallowed. See the world in a new light in this magical exploration into the life-sustaining wisdom of what lies beneath us. PDF / EPUB File Name: Listen_to_the_Land_Speak_-_Manchan_Magan.pdf, Listen_to_the_Land_Speak_-_Manchan_Magan.epub In Listen to the Land Speak, he offers a fractal version of Ireland, where myth overlaps with history, the fantastical with the practical, the superstitious with the scientific. “Just as a fractal can be limited to a finite area and yet is infinitely magnifiable,” he writes, “so too is Ireland host to an infinity of wisdom and wonder.” Magan is a magician with words and has a way of presenting even the most seemingly mundane information in a captivating way. I found his chapters on Ireland’s bogs, trees and roads particularly fascinating and frequently had to pause reading to do a deep dive online into some of the landmarks and stories he mentions, which is exactly the kind of curiosity that Magan set out to evoke in his readers. I thoroughly enjoyed Thirty-Two Words for Field, which is a fascinating glimpse into the ancient knowledge and forgotten connotations of a language intimately tied up with folklore, mythology, and pre-history. My biggest complaint about that book is that it is woefully short and touched only fleetingly on so many facts and topics that I hoped would be explored in more detail in Listen to the Land Speak. In this book, Magan appears to set out on a related exercise, which is to tie elements of the Irish landscape, rather than the Irish language, to ancient mythology, religion, custom, and life. This had the potential to be just as if not even more interesting than his first book, but unfortunately it falls flat.Manchán[’s] … got some theories about the roots of the Irish language that are going to blow your head off … an incredible storyteller.' Blindboy Boatclub Irish Myths and Legends by Lady Augusta Gregory was first published in 1904 (then titled Gods and Fighting Men). It’s been re-released this year by New Island in a stunning new edition, truly a book which should be owned by every Irish household. Gregory was a founder of the Irish Literary Revival, as she turned from her Anglo-Irish roots towards Irish language and culture, and nationalism. This volume of Irish myths and legends – from the Fir Bolg to the Tuatha de Danann to Fionn and Diarmuid and Oisín – is an essential, energetic retelling of our foundation myths.

Listen to the Land Speak Gill Books - Irish Gift - Listen to the Land Speak

Manchán Magan has become a credit to the documentation of Irish life, history and literature over the years. Taking on the mantle of author, travel writer and documentary producer, he has left his mark as an Irishman in the wide world. Returning to issues of home, his works explore the complexity of Irish to English etymology in Thirty-Two Words for Field while his most recent success, Listen to the Land Speak: A Journey into the Wisdom of What Lies Lies Beneath Us opens up the chasm of largely forgotten Irish mythology and history to the masses. His work in this field has garnered him acclaim for feeding the inferno that burns behind the Irish person’s want for connection to their past. As one of the most highly anticipated titles from Gill Publishers in 2022, Listen to the Land Speak was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2022 for Non-Fiction and won the Waterstones Irish Book of the Year 2022, garnering much acclaim across the board.Our ancestors developed a uniquely nature-focused society, centred on esteemed poets, seers, monks, healers and wise women who were deeply connected to the land. They used this connection to the cycles of the natural world – from which we are increasingly dissociated – as an animating force in their lives. Having been brought up in Dublin, with long periods spent in the West Kerry Gaeltacht of Corca Dhuibhne, Manchán now lives near Lough Lene, Co. Westmeath, surrounded by oak trees. I’ve always been interested in old stories, in myths and legends, in folktales and fairytales. In stories of the Tuatha de Danann and Amergin and the exploits of Fionn, in tales of fairy forts, hawthorn trees, and banshees.

Listen to the Land Speak by Manchán Magan | Waterstones Listen to the Land Speak by Manchán Magan | Waterstones

Speaking about why rivers and important places were often feminine nouns despite surviving in a patriarchal society, Manchán suggests that when he scratched the surface of Irish myths and legends that he found women were often in a place of power.In 2019, once I finished university I seemingly started learning Irish for no reason, or at least the reason for learning it has been lost on me, and from that I started learning more about the history both actively out of my own curiosity having left unionism behind me years ago, and passively as my social circle expanded southbound online and my friends and mutual acquaintances shared tidbits of their cultural identity, and through the anger they have toward the current political climate in Ireland where the government plans to erase, evict and gentrify anything that doesn’t make money. Much of Manchán Magan’s work is concerned with loss and the retention of precious remnants. In his Tamagotchi projects, Magan sought to preserve Irish words slipping from the lexicon. In 32 Words for Field (2020), which began as a cult hit, becoming one of the most talked-about Irish books in recent times, the focus was on the wealth of beauty within the Irish language and how it connects us to place, spirituality, nature and each other. Speaking about the last few years, Manchán said he enjoyed being in one place for a period of time and getting to know his environment in a more intimate way. Tá cónaí ar Mhanchán i gcontae na hIarmhí ar phaiste talún, áit a bhfuil crainn agus plandaí curtha aige le breis agus scór bliain. Manchán Magan is a writer and documentary-maker. He has written books in Irish and English on his travels in Africa, India and South America. His most recent books are Thirty-Two Words for Field, which explores the insights the Irish language offers into the landscape, psyche and heritage of Ireland; and Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and Other Irish Words for Nature, an illustrated book that delves into Irish words for nature. He writes occasionally for the Irish Times and presents The Almanac of Ireland podcast about the heritage and culture of Ireland for RTÉ Radio 1. He has presented scores of television documentaries on history and culture. Get directions and find venue information for the James Stewart Film Theater at 185 Nassau Street. COVID-19 Guidance + Updates

land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD! Jeremiah 22:29 O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!

In this illuminating new book, Manchán Magan sets out on a journey, through bogs, across rivers and over mountains, to trace these ancestor’s footsteps. He uncovers the ancient myths that have shaped our national identity and are embedded in the strata of land that have endured through millennia – from ice ages through to famines and floods. Listen to the Land Speak: A Journey into the Wisdom of What Lies Beneath Us by Manchan Magan – eBook Details Pléann leabhar Mhanchán le aibhneacha, bailte, logainmeacha agus an cheangail atá idir béaloideas agus miotaseolaíocht na tíre seo. Magan interestingly weaves Irish mythology, local stories, personal experience, archaeology, geography and more together in a delightful narrative about our spiritual and cultural history.Great book which will particularly those interested in our Irish heritage, mythology and language, but also one accessible for those with less or no knowledge on these topics. Author and presenter, Manchán Magan spoke to Ryan Tubridy about his new book, Listen to the Land Speak. Bestselling writer and documentary-maker Manchán Magan presents a lecture entitled “ Listen to the Land Speak: Lost Wisdom of the Land and Language of Ireland,” based on his recently published book of the same title. Inspired by language, landscape and mythology, Magan explores the insight and hidden wisdom native Irish culture offers to the people of Ireland and the world. Introduced by Visiting Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor in Irish Letters and Chair of the Fund for Irish Studies Fintan O’Toole. Photo courtesy Manchán Magan The best parts of this book are Magan's brief encounters with the fascinating and understudied fields of geomythology and archaeomythology - the study of myths as possible records of real geological and historical events, such as comet impacts, the end of the Ice Age, or the disappearance of landmasses and even civilisations (perhaps the most famous example of which is Atlantis). For example, he establishes that the archaeological evidence pointing to the date of Lough Neagh's flooding closely matches the date given in the lake's mythological origin story down through the oral tradition. Unfortunately, he makes only cursory references to these ideas and explores none of them in any detail. He explicitly chooses to ignore the discovery of a 33,000-year-old carved reindeer bone in Ireland, which demolishes the accepted theory that the island has only been inhabited for 6,000 years, because he does not know what to make of it. He also makes no reference whatsoever to the extraordinary fact, mentioned in his previous book, that the people who built Newgrange have been found to be genetically discontinuous with the modern Irish population, strongly suggesting that not only is the structure much older than previously thought but that there may have been waves of settlers as yet unaccounted for in the historical record. The potential implications of these and other findings are enormous and there was a much more interesting book which could have (and still should be) written about these things, offering us a new understanding of our past and a new significance to our present.