Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
The Bitesize Irish podcast is back with a special discussion about St Brigid and her influence on Irish life with Dr Niamh Wycherley of Maynooth University.
Niamh is host of the excellent Medieval Irish History Podcast.
This post is part of our materials relating to St Brigid’s Day and Imbolc. Take the next step in your Irish learning journey with membership of Bitesize Irish, giving you access to self-study lessons, online community and live sessions.
Amanda says: I am trying to get a better understanding of Irish history (6 counties and 26 counties). The best I can say is that it takes a fair bit of adjustment when you are English (Liverpool with Irish strands) but are trying to understand things better from an number of Irish perspectives.
I found this broadcast really interesting as it covers a period of transition from non-Christian to Christian which poses so many questions about an externally imposed faith when one imagines Ireland must have had such a dense cultural and literary heritage before Christianisation.
I keep thinking the resurgence of Gaeilge comes at a time of huge migrations and potentially huge political change too. Hopefully, the resurgence will be strong and will be part of an even wider cultural appreciation and scholarship for all 32 counties.
Glad you enjoyed the conversation, Amanda. Seems like the more we discover about history the more complicated it gets, but I think that’s what I like about it. I would love if we had more written records from pre-Christian Ireland, but literacy only came in with Christianity so an awful lot of knowledge has simply been lost.
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.
I am trying to get a better understanding of Irish history (6 counties and 26 counties). The best I can say is that it takes a fair bit of adjustment when you are English (Liverpool with Irish strands) but are trying to understand things better from an number of Irish perspectives.
I found this broadcast really interesting as it covers a period of transition from non-Christian to Christian which poses so many questions about an externally imposed faith when one imagines Ireland must have had such a dense cultural and literary heritage before Christianisation.
I keep thinking the resurgence of Gaeilge comes at a time of huge migrations and potentially huge political change too. Hopefully, the resurgence will be strong and will be part of an even wider cultural appreciation and scholarship for all 32 counties.
Glad you enjoyed the conversation, Amanda. Seems like the more we discover about history the more complicated it gets, but I think that’s what I like about it. I would love if we had more written records from pre-Christian Ireland, but literacy only came in with Christianity so an awful lot of knowledge has simply been lost.