Lora O'Brien's Blog, page 6

A Question for Irish Catholics

How do you sleep at night?

Your whole lives, you actively support an organisation that has left mass graves scattered through the Irish countryside. Graves of those they were supposed to be caring for. Those they were BEING PAID to support.

A misogynistic, criminal organisation. The Catholic Church.

Think of the Magdalene Laundries. Think of the Endemic Institutional Abuse. Think of the Destroyers of Lives who were set free again and again to continue their terror.

Think of 800 Dead Babies in an Underground Tank. How do you, as an Irish Catholic, support that? You think maybe you don't? 

Have you baptised a child? Have you gone to mass since you heard the first headline? Tossed a few coins in the collection plate? Gone along with Communion and Confirmation ceremonies? 

Answer yes to any of those questions?  Then you, as an Irish Catholic, support that. I'm not questioning for one second your right to Christian or Catholic spiritual beliefs. The teachings of Jesus are pretty awesome. A person's relationship with their God is usually a wonderful, sustaining, positive and enlightening experience in their lives.

I'm talking about your everyday, unquestioning, tacit support of the Catholic organisation.

You, who committed your children to Lifelong Membership of a misogynistic criminal gang.

You, who will tell me that tradition is important in Ireland. That it's just 'the done thing'. That it's too hard to say no, it's 'not fair on the kids' to make them stand out.

You, who will blithely tick the good little Catholic box on every census, every official form that is put in front of you.

It's all bullshit. Weak, self perpetuating bullshit. 

So tell me, Catholics of Ireland. Please tell me, as I am genuinely confused by the good people I know, family and friends, who continue to support this inherent evil in our society.

How do you sleep at night?

The 1st Openly Pagan Politician in Ireland

She's in! Our first openly pagan priestess politician!

... says I, yesterday on my personal Facebook page, in joyous community solidarity and respect.

I didn't tag anybody in it, didn't mention a name, was specifically non specific about who the status referred to. This was because the focus of that status was to express my own satisfaction on passing a milestone for a community I've been a member of for over 20 years now, the Irish Pagan Community. It was taken up, perhaps understandably, as something of a clarion call across the social media networks. A Pagan Politician in Ireland! Happy Days!

And that's grand, but I went around where I could access kind of cleaning up a bit, as Deirdre Wadding was not elected on a Pagan platform, and it should not be the focus of her work, or the celebration of a successful candidacy in the Wexford constituency of the Local Elections 2014. Basically, I felt the need to make it clear that...

Deirdre Wadding is a hard working social activist, who ran with the People Before Profit Alliance, in Wexford. She happens to be Pagan too, which is a happy bonus for our community.

Deirdre has been a tireless campaigner for social justice for as long as I've known her. Her colourful clothing, Bard's resonant tones, and shamanic drum are a very familiar sight at protest rallies and events all across the Irish country.

Her calm, respectful, and reasoned common sense is a familiar sound to those who listen to her debates and speeches. Deirdre Wadding is a credit to the Pagan community, and an inspiration. 

But first and foremost, she is a local and national anti-austerity campaigner, committed to putting Irish people before lining the pockets of the elite.

She, and the many socialists, Independents, and successful 'Left Wing' candidates who rolled over the established parties to take top spot in the recent elections, are our children's hope for the future of Ireland.

I am proud to know her, and call her a sister priestess.

I will watch with interest, and support all I can, this move towards real change in Irish politics. Get in Touch with Deirdre on Facebook & Twitter - share and show your support!

Download Your Book of Irish Folk Stories - and Just Pay What You Want!

Can I tell you what really scares me?

A world of people who long to reach out to Ireland. 

People like you, who feel the land's song calling you here. Who long to set foot on Irish soil. So many people who want to come home, need to connect out to Ireland.

But the only resources you can find are... not Irish.

What is available is published or offered or written by people who may never even have walked the land of Ireland themselves.

And you want something right, something real. Quite Simply: Facilitating Real Connection to Ireland is What My Work is All About. This is not a book of wishy washy sanitised stories. Douglas Hyde learned the native language, grew up speaking Roscommon Irish.

Then he knocked on the doors of small stone cottages. He walked the muddy grass tracks. He sat by the smoky turf fires.

Douglas Hyde drank whiskey and smoked tobacco with the old men and women of Ireland. 

And he talked. And he listened. And he wrote the stories he was told - just as he was told them.

Douglas Hyde collected these Irish Gaelic Folk Stories from beside the fires of my home county Roscommon, in the North West of Ireland. 

I want to share them with you. Translated into the new language, the digital age, in function - but not in form. In form and structure and metre they remain as they ever were. 

Irish stories told true. 

Do you want to share them now, and connect to Hyde's Ireland of long ago? Fostering an Honour System

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Click Here for Kindle Download It's usually on sale for €2.99, but this is a PwYw honour system; used here to encourage fairness, barter and balance, as well as Lora O'Brien's primary goal - fostering genuine connection to Ireland. If you don't have any money, please enjoy the Irish Stories anyway :-) For More on My Views About Payment, 
Check Out - It's Not About the Money!

Irish Elections 2014

I left it too late really. I should have asked earlier, but today is voting day and still no replies.

This has been on my mind for a while now like, but I kept hoping I'd bump into the candidates around town, and I could ask them in person. But that only happened with one. My European candidate is sorted. Well, the number 1 spot at least - I've supported Luke Ming Flanagan from the first day he knocked on my door in Castlerea.

A scruffy, bearded, down-to-earth guy who's never let me down, never let Roscommon people down. Thankfully, when the big 2 questions started rolling around my brain in the run up to these elections, Ming continued to tick the right boxes on the questions I want answered.
What is your position on Abortion in Ireland?
What is your position on Gay Marriage?
The questions are phrased that way deliberately, by the way, in order not to tip my hand to the questionee. As far as possible, I want honest answers; and on record too, if I can manage it.

Reproductive Rights and Marriage Equality are two issues that have been burning a hole in the Irish consciousness over the last year or two. From the 'Free, Safe, Legal' and Abortion Rights Campaigns, to Panti's now infamous Noble Call Equality Speech - it would seem that most sensible ordinary Irish folk are swaying toward what used to be a distinctly 'Left' position.
I'd love to say that most Irish people are so disillusioned with the screwing we've taken because of the 'Big 2' in Irish politics - Fine Fáil and Fine Gael, in case you don't know, with the Labour lapdogs bringing up the rear, and the Greens effectively gone into hiding after their abysmal failure - that we could say for sure they wouldn't be winning any seats this time round. Unfortunately, the Irish people have let themselves down on this before.

We still have the Parish Pump Politics to contend with. The stalwarts who get their arses out of armchairs every single election to go and vote for FFFG (really, they are interchangeable, why waste even a grammatical spacing on them?). 

These people vote for their man - or occasionally, a woman - based on the fact that Daddy was an FFFGer his whole life, and sure, didn't they always do right by our family? Or they'll blithely mark their box for FFFG on voting day, because that nice man fixed up the potholes on Rosie's road last year.

For me, and many like me, FFFG or associated cronies are automatically disqualified. 

No contest, no question. No matter how good the guy is for the local community. So, what's left? (See what I did there?!)

Sinn Féin are coming in strong, despite their dubious history. They've a good platform for the people, a lot of their candidates make a lot of sense. I'm not sure we'll really see them come into their own as a party though until they shed the Old Guard who were personally involved in terrorist/freedom fighting activities. 

The party line though is Anti-Choice - No Abortion in Ireland. It's all well and good to state that you're for the basic human rights (as I'd see them) - "Everyone has the right to bodily and psychological integrity", they say; to make decisions about reproduction, to have control over their body, and not to have medical intervention without informed consent. As I said, basic human rights, that the anti-abortion position in Ireland has been denying to women for years, even unto death. 

I've been told it's a regularly debated issue, but until the policy is in place to ensure safe and legal bodily autonomy for women, I won't be giving Sinn Féin a first preference vote.

People Before Profit are coming in strong this time round, but we don't have a local candidate. The people of Wexford are lucky to have someone like Deirdre Wadding to vote for.

Fis Nua are making some moves, and their EU candidate Cordelia Nic Fhearraigh has stated as Pro-Choice, so I'm happy enough that she's running in my area.

Edit: My good friend George Harmon just highlighted that I'd left someone out. Oops!

The Socialist Party haven't run a candidate in my area, so I kinda forgot them. Sorry guys. As George said though: "(they) are unambiguous on both reproductive rights and gay rights including gay marriage", and have been providing abortion information since before it was legal to do so in Ireland. I particularly admire and respect Clare Daly, who I've interviewed in the past, and know from the start of her political career during my days around North Co. Dublin.

The Independents are a mixed bunch though, as you'd expect. It's FANTASTIC to see so many non-party candidates running all over the country. The United Left Alliance generally is a very good thing, and sorely needed for a very long time. Divided we fall and all that.

Looking at my Local Election choices here, the pickings are slim, and none of the Independents I've queried have got back to me with regard to my two questions - except for the candidate backed by Ming., who I questioned face to face. Sadly, he's Anti-Choice - he would have been a shoe in for me otherwise. So, I don't know who to vote for.

Given the way the Irish voting system works, every single vote matters. Every number you put on that page makes a difference, and so do the boxes you leave blank. As my lovely Aunty Eileen put it: "Just don't give a number at all to someone you definitely don't want to see elected".

For me, this means that everyone who's not a member of the FFFG brigade will be getting a number beside their name, with the exception of one or two raving loonies.

I'm giving them the rest of today though, to respond to my questions, so I can at least make the best choice with regard to the order of preference. I look forward to seeing the Independents trend continue in coming years, and genuine growth and change for Irish politics. What do you think? Leave a Comment!

It's Not About the Money!

I got a lovely message from one of our Pobal Community Members today, and I'd like to share a few thoughts it stirred up. She said:

I want you to know I am interested in all you talk about. At present, I have no funds to purchase anything but I enjoy getting your messages and what info I can recieve. Thank you so much.

I have stuff for sale on my website, and I'll send a message through to the Pobal Community every so often with a special offer, or news on books, courses, or events they can spend money on, if they want to.

I am a business person, in essence. 

I've spent many years managing and running SMEs, from tourism and heritage to Copywriting Ireland. Dealing with marketing, commercial entities and business concerns is as natural to me as breathing. And I love it!

You know what else I love though?  More than business and marketing? I love Ireland.

Yeah it sounds cheesy, but it's the simple truth. I'm connected to this land and our Irish heritage like nothing else, and it comes MORE naturally to me than breathing. And I want to share!

My response to the Community Member's concern was as follows:

That's no problem. It's nice of course to be paid for the work and energy I give, but foremost it's my life's work to make sure there's a genuine authentic and accessible connection to Ireland available for those who want, or even need it.

Enjoy the community for as long as it's right for you, and please don't feel any obligation to compensate me with money unless you are in a position to do so. Pay me in reviews, word of mouth recommendations, or just light me a candle every so often - send me a smile and good thoughts :-)

Let's be clear. I have no problem or ethical qualms about being paid for work I do, even spiritual work. Most of my work IS spiritual work, and I'd starve pretty quickly if I didn't get paid. 

I've studied and practiced for 20 years now, I have put in my apprenticeship hours.

I've paid in time and tuition money for Psychology, for Leadership Skills, for Learning to Teach, and a myriad of other skills and crafts I've picked up through the years that make me the writer, presenter, therapist and teacher I am today. 

You can read some of my views on compensation for 'Priestess Business' here on my website.

There's a notice in my 'Practical Guide' book for anyone who's downloaded it 'illegally' - basically saying that I put time and effort into learning it and writing it, so cough up if you can afford it, or at least donate the cover price to charity - but if you genuinely can't afford it, I'd prefer you have the book than not, for the sake of money.

Upshot of all this is... yes, I actively expect to make money from all of this writing, teaching, and presenting work I do - if you have it to give, and feel what I have to offer is worth supporting me with cold hard cash, then be fair.

But if you don't have it, don't sweat it. Join the Community Mailing List, get the free stuff, and enjoy. Write back to me! Tell your friends! Review my books! 

Community and Connection are what really matter. It's not about the money  :-)

The Secret to the Heart of Connacht

In his presentation at the 2013 Rathcroghan Conference, Dr. Niall Brady outlined a topographical overview of Tulsk, Co. Roscommon, as a pre-historic gateway to Rathcroghan.  

He was echoing the earlier work of Henry Morris, when he defined the wider county of Roscommon:

It is an inland island. The Shannon and Lough Ree guard its eastern frontier of seventy miles. The Bradlieve and Curlew mountains, Lough Arrow and Lough Ce protect it on the north; while its western frontier is enclosed within Lough Gara, the river Lung, and the river Suck, leaving only a gap of less than ten miles without water protection, and a succession of small hills serves to fill this gap. [1]

Dr. Brady went on to refer to Rathcroghan as the “cultural heartland of the province” (of Connacht).  It is within this landscape, a complex area of multi layered occupation [2], from earliest human settlement right through the history of Gaelic Ireland, that the mythologies of two major mythological female figures were created, and stayed with us right to modern times.

These being, of Course, Queen Medb of Connacht, instigator of the Táin Bó Cuailgne, and the Morrigan, Goddess of Battle and Prophecy... among other things.

This is the landscape I call home, here in the West of Ireland, and these are the sovereign Goddesses of this land - above and below. This is the secret heart of Connacht.

[1] Henry Morris (1932), Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 21, No. 81, pp. 7-19: p. 9.
[2] DP Medieval Rural Settlement Project

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9 Signs That You Might be Plastic Paddy

Image on: TheSocietyPages.org Phoney Mahoney. Fake Irish. Plastic Paddy.

Not terms you'd want to be used about you if you're serious about your Irish heritage.

Well, more serious at least than a green leprechaun hat and getting pissed as a fart on Paddy's Day.

So, how do we avoid such labels?

How do you know if you are making a tit of yourself when you tell people you're Irish? How do you know if you make the grade?

I don't believe it's all about being born here, but ya gotta understand the culture. Walk it as well as talk it like.
You might be a Plastic Paddy if 
you claim to be Irish and... You have ever, as an adult, dressed up like a leprechaun. Or even worn one of those ginger novelty wig and cap things. Yes, even if it was 'just a joke'.
You can't pronounce place-names like Mullingar, Ballaghaderreen, or Graiguenamanagh.
You have no concept of the inherent danger in leaving on the immersion.
You would not know how to correctly address a Siobhán, a Derbhla, or a Caoimhe.
The wooden spoon holds no fear for you.
You have ever argued about Irish culture with a person born/raised in Ireland, as in, told them they must be mistaken because you know better.
Your best friend spends the evening goading and mocking you, and you get really upset.
You have no idea of the magical healing properties of flat 7up.When you say something is 'grand', it's to indicate size, or higher levels of posh. How'd you do? Leave a Comment here, and Share it around to Check your 'Irish' Friends!

Want to Send Your Child to an Irish Speaking School?

Image: An Sionnach Fionn Was delighted to converse on Twitter the other night with Liam from the ever popular "Got Ireland" Blog.

His family will be moving back to Ireland from the States, and although his son has started in an American school, he plans to send him to a Gaelscoil for his Senior Infants' year once they are home.

When my girls were young, we lived 15 miles from our Gaelscoil in Roscommon town, and I drove the 60 mile per day round trip to get them in and out, only stopping when a full time job made it impossible to continue.

I offered to dig up an article I had published in the Irish "Woman's Way" magazine a few years back, which was later picked up by the Canadian "Celtic Life International" magazine. 

Nice to see it doing the rounds again today. The Gaelscoil initiative is growing in support every day, with schools in every Irish county.

The oft-repeated complaint - that pupils educated in primary school through Irish Gaeilge are at a disadvantage in English and Maths when they reach secondary - is fast losing credence. It seems to stem from the older system in Gaeltacht areas, when parents were told over and over that Irish was a backward, barbarian language that needed to die a definitive death so the next generation could succeed and prosper in the new, modern (English) era.

We can see that now for the bollox it always was, and thankfully there are facilities available and excellent results emerging as testimonial to the benefits of early dual language education. You Can Read the Full Article Here... Please Share and Comment if You Like it!

Don't Read This If You Already Live a Happy, Fulfilled and Connected Life!

I saw a video today. Relatively short, it took less than 5 minutes from my day.

But it blew me away. 

Not because I don't logically KNOW all this stuff. Not because I don't already worry about my kids growing up in a tech bubble. And not because I don't already feel that we are losing touch, generation by generation, with the spirit of Ireland.

I do, I know all of this. I worry, and I feel the lack of connection all around me. Maybe it's the spoken word format that broke through the standard fuzz and noise today.

Maybe it's the weekend that's in it - my beloved sister, nephew and dear mammy are visiting, while my husband is away and busy, and I miss him whenever we're apart (/end smoosh).

Or maybe it's that parts of it reminded me of one of the greatest love stories ever - the film 'Up'.

Whatever it was, I heard it, and felt it, and I'm extra glad that the kids are tumbling together and thumping upstairs, fit to burst through the roof. I'm extra glad that my mam and sister went to see the National Famine Museum in Strokestown Park, and that two of my kids actively volunteered to go with them. 

And I'm extra glad that I can share this with you, Dear Reader - because I understand that community can connect online, as long as it's balanced with real life connection and experience, and genuine affection and human relationships. Look Up, by Gary Turk Where did I find this video in the first place? Why, Facebook of course! 

If you get a little thoughtfulness from it, as I did, please pass it on. Maybe it'll inspire someone to come and give you a hug in real life?!

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