Birds have been part of our culture and folklore from very early times but there is more to them than the ‘wran’ boys and the Children of Lir. In Irish mythology, birds were sometimes seen as omens, and there were countless beliefs, proverbs and curses associated with them: we believed cuckoos turned into hawks, woodcock holidayed on the moon and some birds grew on trees. Birds inspired poets such as Gerard Manley Hopkins, W. B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney and they influenced place names like the Curlew Mountains in Roscommon and Hawk’s Nest, County Antrim. Even their own names are rich and full of meaning the Irish for starling is druid, the dotteral is known as Amadán Móinteach which means ‘bog idiot’ and the dunnock was called Máthair Chéile which translates as ‘mother-in-law’.

Soft Cover
ISBN: 9781848893139