The Horned Women (Reimagined)

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  The Horned Women (Reimagined) The wind howled like a wolf at the door, clawing at the stones of the cottage and rattling the oaken shutters. Within, the woman of the house stirred her pot, a hearty stew bubbling and spitting over the fire's crackling heat. Her hair, streaked with the silver of a dozen harsh winters, was braided back tightly, revealing the sharp contours of a face lined with strength, labour, and loss. It was past midnight, that hour when the veil between realms was thinnest. She felt it, deep in her bones, a foreboding cold that no fire could chase away. It was then, as she stoked the flames with a practiced hand, that the knock came. A hollow, grim rapping at the door. The kind of knock that brooked no refusal. She hesitated but a breath, then set down her iron poker. Her hands, strong from work but trembling now, gripped the latch. With a creak that seemed to echo into the night, she opened the door. There stood a woman, cloaked and cowled, with eyes as pale as...
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Welcome to Echoes of Ireland

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This blog is the companion to the YouTube Channel, Echoes of Ireland. I'm using the channel to learn about audio recording and video production. Hopefully you'll get something from it too and it's not just sending out content into the ether for no reason!

I'm starting off by recording readings from public domain works from Project Gutenberg. I'd like at some point to contribute to the LibriVox project, however, with the first book I'm working through - The Irish Fairy Book - there are a lot of poems which I'm not entirely comfortable with reading. Trust me, reading the slightly outdated English in the stories is bad enough! So ultimately that won't make the cut for LibriVox.

I'll be posting meta content about the channel here and possibly some tips and tricks that I figure out about various different software as I make my way through the journey.

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200+ Irish Proverbs (Seanfhocail)

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Seanfhocail or "old words" were a favourite of my Grandfather's. He was a Gaeilgeoir and an Irish teacher in his lifetime. He used to do Irish lessons with me when I was very small. He is the inspiration behind this blog and the associated YouTube channel. At some point he lost his voice permanently and could only whisper, unless he got really mad which wasn't very often. In that case he'd shout "Jakers Christ!" which was the loudest thing that came from his mouth apart from a good old sneeze, both of which would frighten me silly. I still remember his whispering voice telling old folk tales as bedtime stories. The Legend of Knockgrafton , a tale of Irish folklore, and the Babes in the Wood (an English fairy tale) were two he would tell often.  I'm not sure he ever told me the name of the Legend of Knockgrafton, it was only recently I found out that was the name of the story.  Another story he told, which may have been rooted half in reality, half in...
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