A re-release of the second ever episode of Unreal, while I recover from illness. A new episode will come soon once my voice is back at full strength!

Giants sculpted our landscape. They are strong, and fierce, and can be terrifying if you’re unprepared. But anyone can defeat a giant – if you are clever enough to trick them…

The Story of Fionn and the Giant

• The Giant’s Causeway, Dublin Penny Journal
• A Legend of Knockmany, by William Carleton (and the original article)
• Joe Moore’s Story of Finn Macooilly and the Buggane, Manx Fairytales by Sophia Morrison
• Versions from the School’s Folklore Collection at Duchas.ie: 1, 2, 3, 4

The very rude Scottish poem featuring the giant-sized descendants of Fionn

Other Tales Mentioned

• The fall of the Viking chieftain Turgesius
• Maoil a Chliobain
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• Jack the Giant-killer
• Stingy Jack

All by Slainte from The Free Music Archive

• Theme Song – “The Butterfly”
• The Lark in the Morning / The Atholl Highlanders
• The Banshee / The Gravel Walks / The Old Copperplate

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The Banshee is one of Ireland’s most famous folkloric figures. A supernatural woman with a cry that foretells of death and devastation to those who hear it, stories about banshees have been terrifying listeners for hundreds of years. But has she always been this way?

Read the Podcast Script

Sources and Further Reading

• A Folklore Survey of County Clare by Thomas Johnson Westropp
• The Triumphs of Turlough translated by Standish Hayes O'Grady
• The Hostel of Da Choca translated by Whitley Stokes
• Annals of Loch Cé
• The Memoirs of Lady Ann Fanshawe
• Personal Sketches of His Own Times by Sir Jonah Barrington
• Keening Tradition
• "The Irish Funeral Cry" in The Dublin Penny Journal 
• O'Brien's Irish-English Dictionary

Music

• The Butterfly – Sláinte
• Return Home - Moorland Songs
• The White Birch - Moorland Songs
• Mountain Solitude - Moorland Songs

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What happens when a king goes mad? When he leaves his home, his wife and lands, and goes wandering in the woods and the wild? Such a strange frenzy came on Sweeney, an Irish king long ago. The life he came to live was a harsh and a wild one – but, as the story shows, still one where breathtaking beauty could be found . . . 

• Buile Suibhne. (The frenzy of Suibhne) by O'Keeffe, J. G
• The King's Mirror
• Myrddin Wylt
• Wild Man

• The Butterfly – Sláinte
• The Elfin Knight - Traditional
• I'm Missing Ennis - Philip Ayers
• Everything We Built - Christian Andersen
• It All Went Away So Quickly - Christian Andersen

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There once was born a cursed girl. She was beautiful, and strong-willed, and would do anything for the man she loved. But in her name, evil came to Ireland, bringing war and fighting that left hundreds dead in its wake. Her name was Deirdre, and stories told about her live on, as one of Ireland’s most sorrowful legends.

Read the Podcast Script

• Sonder Magazine
• Let's Talk About the Arts episode (my story is at about 28:30)

Sources and further Reading

Story Sources

• The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu by Vernam Hull
• Deirdre, or, The Exile of the Sons of Usnech
• Deirdre, in The Three Sorrows of Storytelling by Douglas Hyde
• The Trí Truaighe na Scéalaigheachta by Eugene O'Curry

Background reading

• Kingship Made Real? Power and the Public World in Longes Mac nUislenn by Elva Johnston
• Satire in Medieval Ireland
• Leabharcham
• Milesians
• How Ronan Slew His Son
• Cano meic Gartnáin
• Diarmuid & Gráinne

Music

• The Butterfly  by Sláinte
• Our Green Lands by Bonn Fields
• Calling on the Hill by Moorland Songs
• Red as a Rose by Rune Dale
• Turnpikes by Rune Dale
• Farewell to Ennerdale Water by Moorland Songs

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For every death, a price must be paid. Life is precious, and blood is costly, and when you take the life of a man, you do not know how high the penalty will be. This is a story about three brothers, and a life they took, the price they paid, and the devastation that followed them to their deaths.

Story Sources

• The Fate of the Children of Tuireann from The Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language
• "The Quest of the Sons of Turenn" by T. W. Rolleston
• "The Fate of the Children of Tuireann" from The Three Sorrows of Storytelling by Douglas Hyde

Background reading

• "The Grail and the English Sir Perceval" (V) by Arthur C. L. Brown
• "Fines under Brehon Law" by Laurence Ginnell
• Éraic / eric

• The Butterfly - Sláinte
• Lúnassa - Aislinn
• The Road to Lisdoonvarna & Scollay's - Pinnipied
• The Burning of the Piper's Hut - Pinnipied
• Shady Grove - Shake That Little Foot

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As strange as it is imagine, there are infinite worlds out there in the universe, far beyond our sight. But, if the stories are to be believed, a group of early Irish people came closer than most to contact with the world above our world, and the strange people who inhabited it.

Read the Podcast Script

Sources and Further Reading

• “Aerial Ships and Underwater Monasteries: The Evolution of a Monastic Marvel” - John Carey
• “Voyagers in the Vault of Heaven: The Phenomenon of Ships in the Sky in Medieval Ireland and Beyond” - Michael McCaughan
• “Lightnings VIII” – Seamus Heaney
• Curiosities of Indo-European tradition and folk-lore – Walter Keating Kelly
• On Hail and Thunder - Agobard of Lyons
• “From flying boats to secret Soviet weapons to alien visitors – a brief cultural history of UFOs” – theconversation.com
• “Sometimes a flying boat is just a flying boat: Not everything has to be a UFO” – esoterx.com
• Tailtenn Games
• “On the Identification of the Ancient Cemetery at Loughcrew, Co. Meath” - Eugene Alfred Conwell
• The Aonac Tailteann and the Tailteann Games – T. H. Nally

Music

• The Butterfly - Sláinte
• Periwinkle Waters – Christian Andersen
• Free Form – Amaranth Cove
• Sea of Space – Yi Nantiro

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There is something magical about snow, but it’s also deceptive, and deadly – the perfect ingredient for dark tales on a cold winter’s night . . .

Weather Lore

• Customs, Beliefs and Superstitions of the Different Festivals – Dúchas.ie
• Weather-Lore – Dúchas.ie
• Plucking Geese in Heaven – Dúchas.ie
• Signs of Snow – Dúchas.ie

Derbforgaill

• The Deaths of Lugaid and Derbforgaill – Carl Marstrander
• Cuchulainn’s Ríastrad: The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature – Eleanor Hull

Saints

• St Molasius (Silva Gaedelica, S. H. O’Grady)
• St Comghan (Mac Dá Cherda and Cummaine Foda - J. G. O'Keeffe)
• St Patrick (The Tripartite Life of St Patrick – Whitley Stokes)

Deirdre

• The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu – Vernam Hull

Sín and Muirchertach

• The Death of Muirchertach Mac Erca – Whitley Stokes

International Stories of the Snow

• Snow Drop – The Brothers Grimm
• The Snow Queen – Hans Christian Andersen
• Snegurochka

• Dreams of the Brave – Trabant 33
• Sea of Clouds – Kai Engel
• Arctica – Kai Engel
• Kesh Jig, Leitrim Fancy – Sláinte
• Somewhere Else – Kai Engel
• Gander in the Pratie Hole, Morrison's Jig, Drowsy Maggie – Sláinte
• As Rainbows Fall – Deskant
• Surreal Forest – Meydän
• In the Bleak Midwinter – Maya Solovey

Stay up to date:

• https://unrealpodcast.com/
• https://twitter.com/unrealpod
• https://www.facebook.com/UnrealPod

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Granuaile, Ireland’s Pirate Queen , was ahead of her time but remains with us in legend. Escaping the constraints of femininity, Gráinne risked everything she had to live life she wanted, and rule the seas.

• Granuaile: Ireland's Pirate Queen by Anne Chambers
• "Eighteen articles of interrogatory to be answered by Grany ne Malley" (Granuaile in her own words!)
• Anthologica Hibernica: 1, 2
• Folktales from Dúchas.ie
• Granuaile folk songs from Dúchas.ie

• The Butterfly - Sláinte
• Shady Grove - Shake That Little Foot
• The Banshee, Gravel Walks, The Old Copperplate - Sláinte
• Celtic Blessing - Bonnie Grace
• Pretty Little Dog - Shake That Little Foot
• Jig of Slurs, Dublin, Reel, The Merry Blacksmith, The Mountain Road - Sláinte

Stay up to date:

My guest episode on the Candlelit Tales podcast

• https://unrealpodcast.com/
• https://twitter.com/unrealpod
• https://www.facebook.com/UnrealPod

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The story of Oisín’s journey to Tír na nÓg with Niamh of the Golden Hair has become one of Ireland’s best-loved legends. But the history of how it came to be told may still surprise you . . .

• Lay of Oisín on the Land of Youth by Michael Comyn
• Sgéalta ó Ṫír Ċonaill by Énrí Ó Muirgheasa (translation at end)
• Sgéal ar Oisín agus na Fiantaibh (translation at end)
• The Colloquy with the Ancients translated by Standish H O'Grady
• Leabhar na Feinne, by J. F. Campbell
• Celtic Mythology by J. A. MacCulloch
• Urashima Tarō
• King Herla

• The Butterfly by Sláinte
• Back to the Shires - Christian Andersen
• Lovely Maria - Aislinn
• For a Lifetime - Yi Nantiro
• The Road Map - Jo Wandrini
• The Burning of the Piper's Hut - Pinniped

Stay up to date:

• https://unrealpodcast.com/
• https://twitter.com/unrealpod
• https://www.facebook.com/UnrealPod

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Witch trials came to an end after 1711. But in the decades that followed, hushed into small, catholic communities in the Irish countryside, fear of the supernatural was growing. And 1895 brought the most infamous execution of a suspected fairy ever to take place – the burning of Bridget Cleary in County Tipperary . . .

Main Sources

• The “Witch-Burning” at Clonmel – Folklore, Vol. 6, No. 4 Dec., 1895
• Belief in Fairies and Witches, in Five Years in Ireland, Michael J. F. McCarthy

Newspaper Accounts

• New York Times (1, 2, 3)
• The Pall Mall Gazette
• Bismark Daily Tribune

Other cases mentioned

• Witchcraft in Tipperary (1, 2), The Times, Sep 18, 1850
• Revelation from a Hamlet near Athlone, New York Times, March 22, 1896
• The Times, Tuesday March 10, 1896

• The Butterfly – Sláinte
• Capclear – Aislinn
• Evening Bells – Arnaud Coutancier
• Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral (Irish Lullaby) – Chauncey Olcott
• Lunassa – Aislinn
• Dark Alleys – Kai Engel
• Interception – Kai Engel
• Fragile Ice – Sergey Cheremisinov
• She Moved Through the Fair – Sláinte

Stay up to date:

• https://unrealpodcast.com/
• https://twitter.com/unrealpod
• https://www.facebook.com/UnrealPod

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The story of the last and largest witch trial ever to take place in Ireland.

Read the Podcast Script

Sources and Further Reading

• Possessed by the Devil: The Real History of the Islandmagee Witch Trial, by Andrew Sneddon
• Witchcraft and Magic in Ireland, by Andrew Sneddon
• Account of the Trial of Eight Reputed Witches by William Tisdall
• Satan’s Invisible World Discovered, by George Sinclair
• Irish Witchcraft and Demonology, by St. John D. Seymour

Music

• The Butterfly – Sláinte
• By the Winds - Sergey Cheremisinov
• Paranoia – Kai Engel
• Dance with Me – Sergey Cheremisinov
• All of This – Ayla Nereo

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In 1661, rumours swept the town of Youghal about the deadly kiss of a woman named Florence Newton, a kiss that could bring terrible pain, claim lives, and that marked her out for what she truly was – a witch.

Read the Podcast Script

Sources and Further Reading

Irish Witchcraft and Demonology, by St. John D. Seymour

‘Florence Newton’s trial for witchcraft, Cork, 1661: Sir William Aston’s transcript’, Edited by Dr Andrew Sneddon

‘Witchcraft belief and trials in early modern Ireland,’ Dr Andrew Sneddon

Witchfinders, by Malcolm Gaskill

Music

• The Butterflyby Sláinte
• Curtains are Always Drawn – Kai Engel
• Fog – Sergey Cheremisinov
• Run – Kai Engel
• Sea & Night - Sergey Cheremisinov
• Mindship - Sergey Cheremisinov
• Ivory Tongue - Ayla Nereo

Stay up to date:

• https://unrealpodcast.com/
• https://twitter.com/unrealpod
• https://www.facebook.com/UnrealPod

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(Re-released episode from Season 1)

In 1324, Dame Alice Kyteler of Kilkenny became the first woman tried for witchcraft in Ireland. But things did not go according to plan…

The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler: A Contemporary Account, translated and edited by L. S. Davidson and John O. Ward

The History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory by Rev. William Carrigan

Irish Witchcraft and Demonology by St. John D. Seymour

Witchcraft: A Very Short Introduction  by Malcolm Gaskill

The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler by Bernadette Williams

• "Beacon" by Ayla Nereo
• “The Butterfly” by Sláinte
• Churchbells, St. Nicholas Cossack Cathedral in Omsk, recorded by Zabuhailo
• “Global Warming” by Kai Engel
• “daemones” by Kai Engel
• “periculum” by Kai Engel
• "Wheel of Time" by Ayla Nereo

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Welcome to season 3 of Unreal a podcast about Irish history, stories and tradition. I’m doing something a little different this time around. For the month of October, I will be bringing you weekly true stories of Irish witches: their lives, their trials, their fates. Alice Kyteler. Florence Newton. The women of Islandmagee. Bridget Cleary. These women were part of our history. Their lives and what they went through are all unique, and their stories are a mark of who we were and how far we have come. But all of them deserve to be remembered.

So join me next Sunday, to begin a new Chapter of Unreal: The Season of the Witch.

Song: Beacon by Ayla Nereo

**** A note for my regular listeners - the first episode will be a repeat of Alice Kyteler's story which I previously hosted in Season 1, so you may want to give that one a miss and tune in from the week after. Or feel free to listen again!

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The tale of the Salmon of Knowledge is one of the most famous and well-loved stories of Irish in mythology. It’s a story about becoming – of a hero before he was a hero. Everyone in Ireland knows the story. But you might be surprised by its roots!

Read the Podcast Script

Sources and Further Reading

The Salmon of Knowledge Variants

• Salmon of Knowledge
• The Boyish Exploits of Finn – translated by John O’Donovan
• “Had I but eaten of the salmon of knowledge...” Cath Mhuighe Léana translated by Eugene O’Curry (p97)
• The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances – T. W. Rolleston
• My previous episode featuring Fintan mac Bóchra

Fionn / Enchanted Water Stories

• Fionn and Cúldub – translated by Kuno Meyer
• The Fountain of the Moon – edited by Nicholas Kearney

Sigurd and Taliesen

• Sigurd
• Hanes Taliesen, Taliesen, Ceridwen
• Intervention and Disruption in the Myths of Finn and Sigurd – Joseph Falaky Nagy
• Abstract Narrative in Ireland – R. Mark Scowcroft
• Reviewed Work: The Thumb of Knowledge in Legends of Finn, Sigurd, and Taliesin- Robert D. Scott (Review by: G. M.)

Sinnan and Boand

• Revue Celtique (Sinnan) – translated by Whitley Stokes
• Revue Celtique (Boand) – translated by Whitley Stokes
• On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Celts – Eugene O’Curry
• The Well of Faery – translated by Kuno Meyer
• The Metrichal Dindsenchas – translated by Edward Gwynn

Music

• The Butterfly – Sláinte
• The Crosses of Annagh. The Humors of Tulla. The Cup of Tea – Sláinte
• Jig of Slurs. Dublin Reel - Merry Blacksmith. The Mountain Road – Sláinte
• Things you never known – Lobo Loco
• Relaxing Piano Music – Kevin MacLeod
• By the Wind – Sergey Cheremisinov
• Ladies Choice – Dance Hall – Lobo Loco

Stay up to date:

• https://unrealpodcast.com/
• https://twitter.com/unrealpod
• https://www.facebook.com/UnrealPod

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Tales of mythical islands and enchanted cities have captivated our storytellers for generations. We are always searching, searching on the far horizon and in the depths of our lakes and rivers, for the worlds we have lost, and the promised lands we still have left to find.

Read the Podcast Script

Sources and Further Reading

Introductions

• Ireland’s Mysterious Lands and Sunken Cities by Jon Douglas Singer
• Immram
• Celtic Otherworld

Kilstuiffeen

• Ordnance Survey Letters by John O’Donovan and Eugene O’Curry
• Ireland: its scenery, its character etc. by S. C. Hall
• Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts by Patrick Kennedy
• A Folklore Survey of County Clare by Thomas John Westropp
• The Monks of Kilcrea by A. G. Geoghegan

Caher Linn

• @RostrevorRARE’s post
• Dúchas Stories
  • Carlingford
  • Carlingford Volcano
• Louth Folk Tales by Doreen McBride
• Carlingford Leaflet

Fintan Mac Bochra

• Lebor Gabála Érenn translated by R. S. Macalister
• The Hawk of Achill or the Legends of the Oldest Animals by Eleanor Hull

Liban

• Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland
• The Topography of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis

Mystical Islands

• The Topography of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis
• Speculum Regale translated by Laurence Marcellus Larson

The Voyage of Brendan

• Lives of Saints from the Book of Lismore translated by Whitley Stokes
• Brendan
• Cumann Comnae by Julianne Pigott

Music

• The Butterfly by Sláinte
• Drops of Brandy / The Mountain Kid by Aislinn
• The Burning of the Piper’s Hut by Pinnipied
• Pretty Little Dog by Shake that Little Foot
• Shady Grove by Shake that Little Foot

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Early Irish forests were thick with wolves. Fierce, fast and predatory, it’s no wonder these animals inspired so many myths and stories before their extinction. The legend of the werewolf - men and women who could walk through the world in the shape of wolves - has captured imaginations for centuries.

Read the Podcast Script

Sources and Further Reading

• Werewolf
• Wolves in Folklore, Religion and Mythology
• Bretha Crólige (Brehon Laws) translated by D. A. Binchy

Ossory Werewolves

• Leabhar Breathnach Annso Sis, translated by James Henthorn Todd
• Topographia Hibernia, by Gerald of Wales
• The Wonders of Ireland by Patrick Weston Joyce
• Werewolves of Ossory

St Ronan

• “Chronique IX” by By H. D’Arbois de Jubainville, in Revue Celtique (translation here)
• Ronan of Locronan
• stronans.co.uk

The Wolf Women of Cruachan Cave

• “The Story of the Three She-Wolves” in Irische Texte by Whitley Stokes
• “The Cave of Cruachan” in Gods and Fighting Men by Lady Augusta Gregory

Lady Jane Wilde’s Wolf Stories – in Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms & Superstitions of Ireland

• Cathal the King
• Connor and the Wolf Men

Fiachna

“Fragmentary Annals” in Silva Gaedelica by Standish H. O’Grady

Cormac Mac Art

• “Birth of Cormac Grandson of Conn” in Silva Gaedelica by Standish H. O’Grady
• “The Birth of Cormac” in The High Deeds of Finn by T. W. Rolleston

Music

• The Butterfly by Sláinte
• Magic Forest by Kevin MacLeod
• Hidden Past by Kevin MacLeod
• Surreal Forest by Meydän
• Smouldering by Kai Engel

Sound Effects

• Forest Day by sonidosreales245
• Dusk Wolf by killyourpepe
• Cooper Creek Solitary Wolf Howl by betchkal
• Wood of Wolves in the Rain by maurolupo

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Down in the hollows, hiding just out of sight, the wee folk are watching our every move. And despite their size, these little beings can bring about an incredible amount of destruction.

But were the wee folk always thought of as so sinister? And do they think of humans as being just as magical as we think of them?

Leprechauns

• Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, by Thomas Crofton Croker
• Irish Wonders, by D. R. McAnally
• Revue Celtique, by Whitley Stokes
• “Another Illusion Shattered: "leprechaun" not native Irish” in Language Log

King Fergus and the Wee Folk

• The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland, by T. W. Rolleston
• Silva Gadelica, by Standish Hayes O’Grady
• The Saga of Fergus Mac Létí, translated by D. A. Binchy

• The Butterfly by Sláinte
•  The King of the Fairies – The Dubliners
• The King of the Fairies – Alan Stivell
• Lunassa by Aislinn
• The Banshee. Gravel Walks. The Old Copperplate – Sláinte
• Gander in the Pratie Hole, Morrison's Jig, Drowsy Maggie - Sláinte

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Far below the ocean waves live the strange and mysterious people of the sea. From ancient times to the modern day we have been fascinated by stories of the sea folk – the way they look, the songs they sing, and the great hold they have on us. But the merfolk are very different to humans, and when human and sea person meet, things rarely go according to plan…

Read the Podcast Script

Sources and Further Reading

Introductions

• Mermaids
• Merrows
• Selkies

Stories

• Lebor Gabála Éirenn, translated by Robert Stewart MacAlister
• Roth Mac Cithaing & Port Láirge, in the Rennes Dindsenchas translated by Whitley Stokes
• The Wonderful Tune / The Lady of Gollerus by Thomas Crofton Croker
• Orkney Folk-lore: Selkie Folk by William Traill Dennison
• The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson
• The Fisherman and His Soul by Oscar Wilde

Essays

• The Testimony of Tradition by David MacRitchie
• The Motif of the Mermaid in English, Irish, and Scottish Fairy- and Folk Tales by Stephanie Kickingereder
• Supernatural Beings in the Far North: Folklore, Folk Belief, and The Selkie by Nancy Cassell MacEntire

Music

• The Butterfly by Sláinte
• Pure Water by Meydn
• Siren Song by Platypus VA
• Capclear by Aislinn
• Cobweb Morning by Kai Engel
• The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry by June Tabor
• Rain by Meydn
• O Come Ye by Ayla Nereo
• October by Kai Engel

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