Stone, Sky, Syllable

A series of talks/interviews centred on the Sligo megalithic landscape; a world both strange and familiar, a scene of exploration, naming, renaming, transformation and translation

Isolde Carmody

Isolde is known for her work in many fields: as a writer, a performer, and an activist. She has also worked in community theatre and her most recent project was a dance project. I know her mainly as a linguist, and as a contributor to the Story Archaeology website. On that forum, they have taken quite a fresh approach to the archaeology of the area and the lore and, in particular, the Gaelic texts. For example, Cath Mag Tuired, the Battle of Moytirra.  A great degree of obscurity rests around the roscs or rhapsodies that occur in the text every so often. When these were translated in 1982 by a Harvard Scholar called Elizabeth Gray, the translator often left a gap at these points, saying ‘meaning of text unclear’ because these sing-song chants challenge meaning, in the way nursery rhymes or deliberate archaic and obscure language do. Isolde has put a lot of effort, energy, and creativity into decoding some of these. She has a fascinating body of stories to tell.

Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich

Have you ever wondered about the meaning of the anglicised name of the townland you live in? The northwest of Ireland has many curious placenames. You might wonder what ‘Curry’ is about? Or what ‘Magheraboy’ derives from in Irish. There is a department in the Irish government whose job it is to figure these things out and to help with the correct spelling and pronunciation of place names.

It has a very useful and popular website called loganim.ie. And one of the chief figures behind that was Conchubhar Ó Crualaoich, a Wexford man. He has taken a particular interest in Sligo history and published a number of papers about place names such as Knocknarea and Carn Eothaile beside Tanrego in the Sligo Field Club Journal. I was interested to hear that Conchubhar has a doctorate in philosophy, too. There will be an opportunity after his talk to ask questions if you have ideas or things you would like explored or explained.  

Leo Enright

Most people know Leo from radio or TV; he is usually asked to help with explanations anytime matters arise concerning outer space such as the recent solar eclipse, or if space travel is in the news or cosmology generally. He has a tremendous body of experience. He worked in RTE with the famous Kevin O Kelly, in the early days of the American and Soviet space programme. Since then, he has concentrated on an academic career. Leo has lectured about ‘5000 Years of Irish Astronomy’, and that, of course, covers the Neolithic monuments, which seem to take a very active interest in the cosmos.  Markree Castle had a groundbreaking telescope in the 19th century. Many observations and discoveries have been made by Irish astronomers and Ireland has had a role in some recent space missions. Their involvement with ESA, the European Space Agency, and sometimes with NASA has led to scientific experiments from Ireland being carried aboard rockets into space. Neolithic people were interested in the sky. And there are interesting questions of intentionality and trying to figure out what they were aiming at in the heavens. Also, how would the skies have looked then? Such themes will be part of Leo’s presentation, and people will have the chance after his talk to ask questions.

Pádraig Meehan