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“Towards a Wild Ecology of Being”
by Clare Mulvany Located primarily in the northwest of County Clare, the Burren, is one of the world’s most unique landscapes. It means “great rock” in Irish (Boireann), and is dominated by thick successions of sedimentary rocks, often compared to a lunar landscape. In the following essay and series of photographs, Clare Mulvany take readers to this otherworldly place, to a land that, as she puts it, “reads like a sacred text.” “TOWARDS A WILD ECOLOGY OF BEING,” by Clare Mulvany Each step is a careful one, and a miraculous one. At foot level, wild orchids, the Spring gentians in pink and lighter pink, like dreams rising from a dreaming land, are dotted…
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“Rattus, Rattus”
by Joe McGowan Joe McGowan, a native of Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo, is a noted historian, novelist, folklorist, and an acclaimed storyteller. Readers of Trasna will be familiar with his talent as Joe launched our first issue of Trasna with his piece entitled, “May: Mary’s Month or Baal’s?” Joe’s essay thoughtfully explored the “green world’s” connections between the ancient festival called Bealtine, which acknowledged the pagan god Baal, and the celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary with May altars bedecked with flowers and greenery. The feasts paid homage to the season and welcomed the world to summer. Now, Joe McGowan is back to remind us that autumn is just around the…
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“On the western shore of Lake Turkana” and other poems
by Monica Corish Before a neck injury in 2005 Irish poet Monica Corish spent many years travelling, living and working in Africa. Based now in Co. Leitrim, in her poems here Corish brings the reader from the sublime beauty of a night spent on a mountaintop near Lokichokio in northern Kenya in her poem, “On the western shore of Lake Turkana”, to a meditation on life stages in her poem, “Once I Saw a Lioness”. In the latter poem the narrator leaves behind exotic adventures and appreciates the grace of love, and the beauty of the quotidian, in mid-life. And finally her poem, “Maeve’s Version”, with accompanying video, grows out of Corish’s fascination with Irish…
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“Large Bottles and Sweet Butter Pastry”
by Julie Ward Guinness Storehouse at St. James Gate in Dublin is often listed as Ireland’s number-one tourist attraction; but here on Trasna there’s no admission fee to learn the history of bottling the world’s most famous pint. “Glass on wood is likely among the first sounds I heard,” writes Julie Ward in this rich remembrance of her father, Bob Phelan, the man who, it was said, poured one of the best pints of Guinness in Waterford. The pub was known as Mikey Norris’s, it went back to Ward’s great-grandfather, and is known to this day as Norris’s Corner. As a child Julie also treasured visits to local confectioner Suzie Phelan, a…
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DOBHAR CHÚ
by Tom Sigafoos In Joseph Conrad’s novella, Heart of Darkness, the unnamed narrator introduces a second speaker, Marlow, who actually tells the intricate story of Mr. Kurtz. Marlow himself claimed that “the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze . . . .” It appears that Tom Sigafoos subscribes to this philosophy of story-telling in his compelling piece, Dobhar Chú. Sigafoos, a novelist and writer of “personal pieces” as well as being a sought-after Writing Coach, approaches the tale of Dobhar Chú through an engaging set of narrators, circumstances, and…
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“Galápagos Islands” and Other Haikai and Poetry from “ELSEWHERE”
by Maeve O’Sullivan If 2020 is the year for armchair travel, Maeve O’Sullivan’s Elsewhere provides readers with an epic trip. Now in its fourth edition, it features haiku, haibun (a mix of prose and haiku), and long-form poetry. The writing captures a solo, around-the-world journey that took place in the fall of 2016 through the summer of 2017. The collection of poetry begins when she is 11, alone on the Dalkey platform peeling an orange. The poems that follow, like this hybrid fruit, are the product of far-off places. Throughout her travels, whether she’s contemplating the similarity of Ben Bulben to Cerro Baúl; or her mother’s handwriting to her grandfather’s; there is a…
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“Beginning Again”
Catherine Drea In this photo essay, Beginning Again, contemplative photographer, writer and award-winning blogger, Catherine Drea reflects on the experience of being in lockdown during COVID-19. Her place is rural County Waterford in south-east Ireland and her reflections and stunning photographs show us the art of paying attention, always with an eye for beauty but alert too for changes that are a cause of concern. Travel as we understood it might have changed, but we learn how the “simplicity of wandering on foot can also delight the soul.” More of Catherine Drea’s work can be seen on her blog, Foxglove Lane, and on her Instagram gallery. Foxgloves In the dreamtime of last winter, I…
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“Rupture” and other poems
Jean O’Brien This week Trasna is pleased to feature a new poem by Jean O’Brien, “Rupture,” and present two other readings. Jean is an award-winning poet residing in Dublin. She was a founding member of the celebrated Dublin Writers’ Workshop, and has taught in numerous other creative writing programs. She is the author of five books of poetry: The Shadow Keeper (1997); Dangerous Dresser (2005); Lovely Legs (2009); Merman (2012), and her most recent collection, Fish On A Bicycle, New & Selected Poems. Her work explores the personal, historical, and contemporary. Collectively, these poems are a reminder that objects can speak to us in ways deeper than language; that history, no matter how ancient, lives with us still; and that poetry, that most beautiful language, can reveal…
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“The Sheep Shearers” and other poems
Joe Whelan In today’s Trasna we have three poems by Clonmel writer, storyteller and farmer, Joe Whelan. In the poems below Joe brings the reader full circle, from his Uncle Davie in “My Uncle’s Coat”, and the farm at Harney’s Cross where he spent happy childhood summers, on to the experience of the young, naïve man in “Nally’s Men”, who came to work in construction in New York City in the 1980s. Finally, in “The Sheep Shearers”, we are returned to Harney’s Cross, to the farm now inherited by Joe near the Comeragh Mountains in County Waterford and the essential summer task of shearing sheep, one that demands many helping hands and knowledge…
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THE WOOD OF O sings “Meadow Song” and Other Tracks
For the month of July, Trasna has been highlighting some of the literary and artistic events cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This week, in the spirit of the Lowell Folk Festival, we present The Wood of O, singer-songwriters Breege Phelan and Will McLellan. Based in South Tipperary, for the last two years, The Wood of O has been playing to sold-out shows in the South East region of Ireland. In January, 2020, they were nominated as a highlight of the Shannonside Winter Music Festival in Co. Clare, their last series of live gigs before the pandemic hit the world. While America’s largest free folk festival won’t fill the streets of downtown Lowell this week, The Wood of O keeps the tradition of new and…
