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Listen to the Land Speak: A Journey into the wisdom of what lies beneath us by Manchán Magan
"Hugely informative and entertaining... [His] focus [is] on the wealth of beauty within the Irish language and how it connects us to place, spirituality, nature and each other"
– The Irish Times
"A rallying cry for a new way of being for the people on this island"
– Irish Examiner
About the Book
Our ancestors developed a uniquely nature-focused society, centred on esteemed poets, seers, monks, healers and wise women who were deeply connected to the land. They used this connection to the cycles of the natural world – from which we are increasingly dissociated – as an animating force in their lives.
In this illuminating new book, Manchán Magan sets out on a journey, through bogs, across rivers and over mountains, to trace these ancestor’s footsteps. He uncovers the ancient myths that have shaped our national identity and are embedded in the strata of land that have endured through millennia – from ice ages through to famines and floods.
Here, the River Shannon is a goddess, and trees and their life-sustaining root systems are hallowed. See the world in a new light in this magical exploration into the life-sustaining wisdom of what lies beneath us.
About the Author
Manchán Magan was a figure whose work embraced the local and the global and the past and the present. Over the years he created dozens of documentaries for TG4, RTÉ, and the Travel Channel, always linking language to place and identity. One of his boldest projects was No Béarla, where he travelled around Ireland speaking only Irish, testing how the language lives in our everyday lives and what happens when we are forced to meet it head-on.
But perhaps his most lasting legacy lies in his books. Thirty-Two Words for Field was a revelation, showing how Irish contains not just words, but whole ways of seeing and living in the world. He followed it with works like Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun), Wolf-men and Water Hounds, Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and Other Irish Words for Nature, and Listen to the Land Speak.
All events are listed in Eastern Time and Irish Standard Time.
