The Road to Hibernia: Ireland, My "Other" Home

There has been renewed interest over the past several years in Celtic knotwork and Celtic art in general.
Here are some sites you might enjoy if you share this interest.
Celtic Knotwork: The Ultimate Tutorial	Draw Your Own Celtic Knots	The Celtic Doodler, a Java applet that lets you "draw" your own knots
Computer Celtic Art and Knotwork Construction... Yep! You can draw knots (even in 3D) with your graphics program!	Free Historical Fonts for Downloading -- Lots of great Celtic and medieval fonts, including wingdings and frames	Art Work from the Book of Kells
Dan Smith's Celtic Border Font: I used this font to create the knotwork header and divider above.	Bigwood Celtic Clipart Site: free color and b&w clipart, suitable for iron-on transfers, etc.	Aon Celtic Art: Cari Buziak is a contemporary Celtic artist working in ancient styles. Her site has oodles of free clipart, cross stitch patterns, and info on knotwork, among other goodies. Our Welsh friend Jo used Cari's Celtic cross pattern for our ring pillow for our wedding!

Irish and Celtic Links:

Celtic Internet Radio

...

Ireland

How much do I love Ireland? How can you feel part of a place you've never been?
I admit I can't explain it.
It's my roots. It's where I come from.
I've always loved it, I think, been fascinated by it. My very first attempt at a novel, back in high school, was about an Irishman, and Padraig has had many spiritual brothers and sisters in my writing since. When I was in college, in the early '70's, I looked into emigration, but the economic situation there was such that I was not encouraged (but politely.)
So I became a sort of professional Irishwoman.
I owe my marriage to Ireland. My husband and I met online chatting about Celtic music. If possible, he is even more of a Celtophile than I. We love her music, her history, her language, her art... her beer. Even our wet Washington weather we often joke is only "a soft Irish day."
And we are concerned about the political situation there. We are both ardent Fenians, hoping and, where we can, working for a united Ireland once again.

The seven signers of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic (the Irish "Declaration of Independence,") martyred by the British government in 1916.

Dublin

Kilkenny Abbey

The Cliffs of Moher

There have been many movies about Ireland and the Irish. Some of my favorites include:

The Quiet Man    Waking Ned Devine    Michael Collins    The Boxer
Da    Dancing at Lughnassa    The Devil's Own    The Secret of Roan Inish
In the Name of the Father    The Field    My Left Foot    Durango

General Information

Culture and Media

Politics and Republicanism

Galway Bay

Fenian Math: 26 Counties in the Republic + 6 Counties in Northern Ireland = 1 Ireland!

The MIDI that plays on this page is an old Fenian song called "A Nation Once Again," which sums up the hopes of many Irish. To read the lyrics of the song, click
HERE.

The Circle	The Crypt	The Scriptorium	The Menagerie	The Portrait Gallery
The Aerie	The Guest Chambers	The Portal	The Minstrels' Gallery	The Art Gallery

Click here to piece together a jigsaw puzzle of an Irish scene.

Online texts of Irish fairy tales and mythology:

Donegal Fairy Stories by Seumas MacManus
Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs
The Celtic Twilight by William Butler Yeats (Yeats's essays on Irish folklore)
The King of Ireland's Son by Padraic Colum
The Cattle-Raid of Cooley (T�in B� C�alnge) English translation by Joseph Dunn
Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and of the Fianna of Ireland by Lady Augusta Gregory