Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to be part of a lovely event organised by The Northern Ireland Place Name Project for the NI Science Festival. The event was called 'Bogland and Blackberries' and I spoke on Irish words in the poetry of Seamus Heaney. Extracts from that talk are now a short series on MoLI Radio. Each episode lasts only a few minutes; we would be delighted if you could find the time to listen 🎧

https://moli.ie/radio/series/spreading-the-words/

A new instalment in our series for MoLI Radio! This episode looks at BOG, taking its inspiration from the poetry of Seamus Heaney and inquiring into the difference between Irish BOG and English BOG. Read beautifully by Regina Uí Chollatáin. 🌿

The second of our short videos for Northern Ireland European Heritage Open Days 2020 features the tale of a water-monster, 'leprechauns' and the beautiful but dangerous Dundrum Bay in Co. Down. Enjoy!

#ehod2020 #DundrumHeritage

https://youtu.be/Kbu6dfoX7bM

A 'Companion to eDIL 2019', of 400+ pages, is now available to download from the project page of the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge. Detailing the major additions and corrections made in the course of the 2014-19 project, this is an indispensable guide to the latest version of eDIL! With sincere thanks to the ASNC Department, which funded the production of this Companion, and to the Arts and Humanties Research Council, which funded the underlying project work.
https://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/research/index.htm#Text

To mark the launch of our exhibition at dlr LexIcon, we're holding a virtual evening of talks and chat about Irish words, tales, history and more. If you have a question about the book or about the language, facts and fictions of Ireland, we would love to hear from you and we will do our very best to answer! Alternatively, you can just sit back and enjoy from the comfort of your own home. Live by Zoom on

Thursday, 24th September, at 7.30pm.

Grab a ticket through the link below & bring your own 🍷 on the night!

To mark European Heritage Open Days 2020, we have a couple of short videos looking at the medieval names, stories and histories of places in the North of Ireland. In the first of these, Prof. Máire Ní Mhaonaigh casts an expert eye over Lough Foyle and its associations with Mannanán mac Lir, the Voyage of Bran and Febal, who is said to have given the lough its name:

#EHOD2020

https://youtu.be/f0XWMMaUI6o

We are very fortunate to have able to record some material on Irish words and their appearances in tales and histories for MoLI Radio, the on-demand radio station of the Museum of Literature Ireland. At the moment we have 3 episodes: Smugairle Róin (Jellyfish), Snámh (Swimming) and Maighdean Mhara (Mermaid). Each is around 3 minutes in length and they have been read beautifully by Ruth Hegarty. More to come; hopefully, you will enjoy what we have so far!
https://moli.ie/radio/series/spreading-the-words/

Remember our beautiful exhibition which had to be stored away during lockdown? We're delighted to announce that it will be on display again, from 2 September to 31 October 2020, in the aptly-named LexIcon, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. If a socially-distanced visit is at all feasible, it's certainly worth seeing!

It's the last day of Irish Heritage Week 2020 and it's officially Water Heritage Day. A fine opportunity, then, to watch the final video in our series celebrating the Horrible Histories of Lough Neagh. Hear about eels with human faces, eels with hair and how the eels got into the lough!!

https://youtu.be/GhXHFnDJnAE

The second instalment in our short series of videos for Irish #HeritageWeek2020 investigates the tradition that, in the 7th century, Lough Neagh turned to blood 🩸

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8PtJAA5eTM

A couple of weeks ago, we held an online talk and quiz called 'Horrible Histories of Lough Neagh' as part or heritage Week 2020. You can now watch and listen to the first part, which covers everything from a peeing horse to the presence of Jesus in the north of Ireland!

In March, we held an event called 'Everyday Life in Medieval Ireland' as part of the Cambridge Science Festival. It was delivered with representatives from the Centre for Experimental Archaeology and Material Culture, University College Dublin, and it turned out to be a wonderfully productive coming together of archaeology, texts, history and words. We're converting recordings from that evening into a YouTube series for everyone to enjoy. Part 1 is on 'Raths and Round Houses' with the ever-engaging Prof. Aidan O'Sullivan ...

Delighted to be involved in the networking project ‘Developing a Digital Framework for the Medieval Gaelic World’, which has been awarded joint UK-IRL funding. Led by David Stifter (Maynooth) and Greg Toner (QUB), other collaborators include Maynooth’s ‘Medieval Irish Medicine’ project, UCC's CELT project, DIAS's ISOS project, the British Library, the Royal Irish Academy, the National Library of Scotland and Faclair na Gàidhlig.
http://research.ie/2020/07/27/12-new-uk-ireland-digital-humanities-collaborations-announced/

A reminder that we'll be holding our own #HiddenHeritage event this Friday (31 July). Completely FREE and ONLINE (so open to anyone, anywhere), in a short presentation and interactive quiz, we'll be delving into names, legends and historical records to tell the 'Horrible Histories of Lough Neagh'. Intended to be fun and informative and suitable for older children and adults, so you can play along with the family! You need to register to receive a link to the livestream:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/horrible-histories-of-lough-neagh-tickets-114453575726

To celebrate #HertitageWeek, we're running a FREE ONLINE event, exploring the darker history of #LoughNeagh through names, legends & historical records. Entitled 'Horrible Histories of Lough Neagh', this is a short presentation and interactive quiz in which anyone, anywhere can take part! It's on Friday, 31 July, at 7pm. Suitable for older children as well as adults, so should be fun to play along with family. You'll need to register through the link below to receive further details. Please join us!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/horrible-histories-of-lough-neagh-tickets-114453575726

Demonstrating that 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words' has an entry for every occasion, Greg Toner takes a fascinating look at cleanliness, washing and bathing in the days before Covid-19! 💦

Interested in all things grim, gory, supernatural and weird?

For National Heritage Week, we'll be joining up with the Northern Ireland Place Name Project and Unlocking the Vikings to explore #horriblehistories and #horriblestories. This series of social media posts culminates in an online, interactive quiz on 'The Horrible Histories of Lough Neagh'. Anyone, anywhere, can play along in this family-friendly event and help us investigate names, legends and historical records to catch glimpses of medieval lives lived in and around the lough. More details very soon...

https://www.heritageweek.ie/project-ideas/horrible-histories-of-lough-neagh

We had hoped to be touring our exhibition based on 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words' this year but have had to postpone to a later date. In the meantime, we have made the text and some of the images available online. Not as stunning as the real thing, but a nice taster of what's to come when the world is well again...

Always fantastic Máire Ní Mhaonaigh looks at some more of the illustrations in 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words' and explains why the sheep is half-shorn and why the bees are socially distancing 😀

Telling the stories behind some of the images in 'A History of Ireland in 100 Words' (also struggling with words, trying to look at the camera, 'lockdown hair' ... 😃). If you were wondering about the relationship between the illustrations and the text, though, you might enjoy this!