The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog: The Landscape of Celtic Myth and Spirit

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful--a stunning homage to the land and its Ladies
Review: Beloved women's spirituality author Patricia Monaghan does it yet again with _The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog_, once more demonstrating to me why she's one of my favorite religious authors. Her focus here is Ireland, and its goddesses, whose myths are intimately connected with the landscape. After all, the country itself *is* named after a goddess...

Monaghan traveled to Ireland for the first time in her early adulthood, in search of her Irish roots. She was so moved by the experience that she has returned many times. And in this book, she takes us on a "tour" of what she has experienced in her journeys. We travel vicariously to the rock said to be the Cailleach, the field where Macha ran, Medb's burial mound, and the shrine of Brigid at Kildare, where the sacred fire has recently been lit again.

But lest you think this is just, in the words of Gail Wood, "tra-la-la, we all love the Goddess", Monaghan does not ignore the bad stuff either. Woven together with her beautiful spiritual experiences and warm friendships are the dark threads of the Troubles, the potato famine, and the English invasion, which forever haunt Ireland. And also, there are the personal tragedies. Some of Monaghan's friends have died over the years, ahd she pays them tribute here. The result is a book by turns uplifting, melancholy, and sometimes riotously funny, but always emotionally moving. Read this book if you are interested in Ireland--a land which, like the Cailleach, has survived against the odds.

Rating:
Summary: Step into the visuals
Review: Ms Monaghan is not only an author, but also a poet and utilizes that skill within this book. While I wished to turn page to find what she might describe next; I, also, wished each page unending. Almost as if I felt I might loose the descriptions I'd just read if I moved forward.

Rarely does a book touch me so.

Could be I'm Irish? That helped I'm sure to entice me with stories and details, but the messages within the book were priceless to me.

Her vivid story telling of Ireland, Celtic myths, Catholic practices and a rather mindful blending of the Pagan/Catholic or Protestant viewpoints in Ireland were incredible. How delightful to read about various customs and practices being combined so utterly!

The descriptions of rituals..even small and discreet and of sacred caves, etc would give anyone a valuable viewpoint on Celtic folk lore.Diverse in delivery, Ms Monaghan can describe something as small as a puddle with such essence and clarity that you feel you've stepped in one right along beside her!

She even manages to tackle the subject of fairies in such a way that is imaginative, steeped in lore, fantastic while also being modern, comprehensive and understandable. For the first time - ever - I read about fairies and didn't raise an eyebrow thinking the author must be sipping mugwort tincture.

It's a down-to-earth-style bejeweled with imagery and poetry to enrich the spirit and feed the soul. Her friends and new folks she meets in her travels are witty and fun, enticing and intelligent.

So if Celtic lore in Ireland, a blending of Pagan/Catholic/Protestant ideals and unforgettable mental pictures are to your liking...read
The Red-Haired Girl From The Bog.

Allow yourself the pure luxury of settling deep within the imagery and wisdom of this book. The lessons therein are subtle but exquisite indeed!

Enjoy...

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece!
Review: Some books have a life of their own and cannot be ignored. Long after you finished reading the last page, something about the book will return to you; an image or perhaps a phrase; possibly an entire sequence will be recalled in solitude. Words, like music, have a resonance that lasts long after the initial encounter. Such is book is Patricia Monaghan's The Red Haired Girl from the Bog.
As a travel memoir, it is splendid; as a history book it is marvelous. But on a deeper level it is a magnificent essay, at once lyrical and moving. This book has resonance and because of its quality I know I will return to it again. Celtic myths, fairy woman, mystical places that speak to visitors, fog-shrouded landscapes that are so much more than they appear, sunlit fields and the voices of poets calling from the past. Monaghan's journey is captivating, compelling, and like all good stories, just a shade frightening. Exploring the Celtic myths and legends, interspersed with narratives about her many trips to Ireland, I found myself unable to set the book aside. Her book has that rare quality of taking the reader along for the trip, an accomplishment that only the best writers can manage. This book is subtitled "The Landscape of Celtic Myth and Spirit" and I cannot think of a better, concise description of what you will find in its 295 magical pages. A toast then, to Patricia Monaghan, and may the Muse never leave her side.

Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful and deeply reverent viewpoint
Review: The Red-Haired Girl From The Bog: The Landscape Of Celtic Myth And Spirit by Celtic history expert Patricia Monaghan is a spiritual voyage through the countryside of Ireland, exploring the intermeshing aspects of folklore, goddess worship, Celtic ceremony, and Christian faith. A thoughtful and deeply reverent viewpoint of a land steeped in tradition and lore, The Red-Haired Girl From The Bog is especially recommended for Celtic Mythology and Irish History reference collections and reading lists.

Rating:
Summary: a true gem
Review: This is a book for fans of Ireland, the Goddess, Pagans, Christians, and mythology. I highly recommend it.

A US author of Irish descent, Patricia tells of visits to Ireland over the years. She writes about searching for locations from Irish myth, such as entering faeryland and visiting the source of the Shannon looking for the salmon of wisdom. She also describes visiting different sacred sites at auspicious times, such as: lighting the Beltaine fires at Uisneach, the Mountains of the Cailleach and the Paps of Anu on different Lughnasadhs, Morrigan's cave on Samhain, Newgrange for winter solstice, and County Kildare for Imbolc.

She explores Irish culture and politics, always coming back the the land and the people. Her description of re-lighting the Sacred Flame of Brigit at Kildare gives me chills every time I read it. Patricia says this book came out of requests from friends for travel recommendations in Ireland. It has certainly made me want to take the trip even more.

Rating:
Summary: The odd bit of keen insight beneath the usual rose-tint
Review: This is the latest in the 'Celtic Sacred Landscape' style of narrative that seems to have started somewhere around the Riverdance epoch. There're loads of books like this one on the market: travelogues which attempt to mix weepy lore with current 'pilgrimages'. For an interesting variant on this, _A Lambing Season in Ireland_ is an interesting novel by a Canadian vet in Kerry, who's too busy dealing with ringworm than to write odes to the Wee Hag of Begorrah. Monaghan has some swift phrases and a genuine want to 'find' something; but to me that quest becomes so burdensom and romanticised (how many times does she have to refer to her bardic ancestors??) that the cliché factor fits in with Lady Gregory's country kitchen. This is a book basically about Earth-spirituality, borrowing Ireland's 'idendity' to satisfy the needs of the author. That's not a crime, but it is a bit dodgy.

Monaghan strikes some interesting poses which seperates her style from much of the 'how green is my archetype' travel writing; but unfortunately a constant need to possess the people and the country for herself leads into a repetitive and romanticised portrait of Ireland that most Irish people are a bit fed up with.

I'll be perfectly clear about something straight from the start of this review: some people will love this book, finding that misty category with which many good-natured people find identification. Travel writing is a wonderful, powerful form of creative awakening, a sort of practising with evocation within the strange distances of a journey. Monaghan's own form of faemancy is this reconstructionist paganism which finds Goddesses in every field. Are they there? Sometimes. But this book is more about what Monaghan wants Ireland to be, as opposed to what Ireland is. Can anyone person define Ireland? Of course not, and nor should they. But the truth of it is that this book goes on the shelf of the rose-tinted speckies. This is the predictable American novel which seeks out Celtic lore, auburn maidens, and dancing at the cross-roads. It's De Valera's fantasy intermingled with the North American identity crisis of origins. I don't think it's unfair to generalise like this: it's a book you'll love or roll your eyes at. People who're fond of fairy-stories and Yeats posters will surely find a kindred spirit here.

If instead of wind-tussled castles and haunted bogs, you want a travel book that wrestles with the more complicated issues of contemporary Ireland, try Mark McCrum's _The Craic_, a Briton who's written an unflinching document about his own clockwise tour of the island.

What's nice about this book is that Monaghan does try to balance her romanticised efforts with the economic and social realities. We get references to her cousin in the IRA (dramatic pause); we're aware of the terrible toll Foot and Mouth Disease took on the west of the country. Etc. So it's not just Maeve on her throne and pixies finding a silver-set cloud. There is no question that Ireland is a complicated place: socially, spiritually, historically. Monaghan writes in an informed way about the rural traditions or 'aulde-ways' with the tourist's eye, but none the less has a real appreciation for what's going on. This is undeniably a part of that morass which is Ireland, but to indulge in such imaginative hijinks over and over, in the name of psychological magic and storytelling.

Monaghan's strong points is she seems to have good Irish: her knowledge, or someone else's knowledge which has influenced her, of the language is apparent in places and makes for interesting reflections. There's some nice anecdotes about the disappearing rituals which typify the Irish calendar and are now; but, you know, it's always more interesting to hear what Irish people have to say about that as opposed to tourists.

It's unfortunately a serious issue all writers have to face when writing about some other country, which is not their own. Fair play to you if you want to do it, but the possiblility of glamourised, self-serving ideals is very real, and they make a novel something more of fantasy than of experience. This a tricky thing: I think it's what seperates the John B. Keane-s and Emma Donoghue-s of this world from the romantic babbling: it's the willingness to and technique to confront one's own vision with the blurring mess of genuine possibilities that is the reality.

If you want pro-goddess writing with a dash of Jung and shamanism, about an Ireland that only half-existed, you'll enjoy this book. Lend it to your friend in Sligo though, and ask her what she thinks of it. And if you've read this far, why not try John B Keane's _The Bodhrán Makers_ or Emma Donoghue's _Stir-Fry_ for a real taste of what became of the old legends in the maw of this current Celtic Tiger.

Rating:
Summary: A Sacred Passage Through Ireland
Review: Voluptuous, sensuous, at times filled with unparalleled humor and wit, Patricia Monaghan's writing saturates the reader with the spirit of wide-eyed discovery, good Celtic mischief, prayer flags at holy wells, and sacred teaching--not just of the ancient past, but just as much from the 'ancient future' of the Irish soul. There are many books on Irish history, and books about the Irish landscape, but none convey the living soulscape of our ancient mother, Eire, like The Red-Haired Girl From the Bog.--Frank MacEowen, author of The Mist-Filled Path