Call for Essays: Folk-Metal: Critical Essays on Identity, Myth and Culture

Call for Essays: Folk-Metal: Critical Essays on Identity, Myth and Culture

Eye of a Druidess

Art by Robert Cook (Norot)
http://www.norot-art.com/

I am happy to share  this call for essays by  Dr Jenny Butler.   The foucts of this publication relates to Folk-Metal: Critical Essays on Identity, Myth and Culture.

Essays are invited for a forthcoming edited collection, Folk-Metal: Critical Essays on Identity, Myth and Culture. Folk-metal and its sub-genres and related categories such as “Pagan-metal”, “Viking-metal”, “Celtic-metal” and “Medieval-metal”, is a style of music that developed in Europe during the 1990s, fusing traditional or folk music with heavy metal music forms. In this musical style, traditional musical instruments are employed as well as lyrical references to folklore, mythology and traditional culture. Material allusions to these themes are also made in album artwork and performers’ dress styles. This genre has a particular aesthetic and rootedness in the cultures of Europe and is intertwined with these cultures in regard to symbols, religion, history, heritage, ethnicity…

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Tomb of Dracula?

The tomb of Dracula?

The BS Historian

Well, no, it isn’t.

UPDATE – Not long after I posted this, another sceptic weighed in and managed to spot that the tomb in question is indeed well-known – unsurprisingly given the context, it’s one of the Ferrillo family, Matteo Ferrillo, Count of Muro. There’s absolutely no doubt about it, and anyone from the church in question, or any Italian medieval scholar, could have told the ‘researchers’ this. Unbelievable nonsense that once again, the press fail to fact-check in any way.

It’s been a while, but this one’s brought me out of First World War-related work to comment. The Daily Mail (sigh) is reporting that the grave of Vlad III – the historical Dracula – may have been found. There’s little to go on, though a full view of the tomb in question can be seen here. The tomb was noted by a university student, but the connection is being made by…

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Lager, The Gateway Beer into The World of Craft Beer!

Lager, The Gateway Beer into The World of Craft Beer!

Danny Trappist Beers

Lager dominates the Irish beer market, up to 60% of beer sold on a licensed premises is a Lager. Mainly the big three of Heineken, Carlsberg and Budweiser. I have noticed in the past couple of years that the craft brewers of ireland want a piece of this action, And with craft beer in ireland only making up 1% of the overall beer market in ireland you can see why.It makes total sense. I am a craft beer drinker and i love nothing more than beers with flavour and something different about them, but I believe that to move on to the next level Craft Brewers have to try and beat the big brewers at their own game. This doesn’t mean sacrificing your principles and creating a bland, extra cold beer to appeal to the masses, It means creating a lager the way a lager should be created. Some craft brewers…

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St Brendan’s Rag Tree and Holy Well at Clonfert Co Galway

St Brendan’s Rag Tree and Holy Well at Clonfert Co Galway

Pilgrimage In Medieval Ireland

Last Sunday I paid a flying visit to the medieval Cathedral at Clonfert Co Galway.

Medieval church at Clonfert

Clonfert Cathedral was built on the site of an early medieval monastery founded by St Brendan the Navigator circa 557 AD.   The history of Clonfert and its architecture is really interesting  and I will come back to it again but for this post I want to focus on a lesser known feature at the site known as St Brendan’s rag tree.

The tree,  a horse-chestnut,  is located in a grove of trees beside  the medieval church along the nuns walk. This is one of the most impressive rag trees that I have come across.  It is covered in votive offerings.

St Brendan’s rag tree at Clonfert.

The following text was written  by  Christy Cunniffe  for the  South East Archaeological and Historical Society Newsletter for Spring 2012  and provides an excellent discussion…

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Donegal V Kerry All Ireland preview

Donegal V Kerry All Ireland preview

dontfoul

When Kerry have the ball

Kerry attacks

Kerry opponent	Possessions	Shots	Shot Rate	Scores	Success Rate	Weighting
Cork	42	38	90%	24	63%	+4.575
Galway	40	35	88%	21	60%	+2.563
Mayo	40	28	70%	17	61%	+3.252
Mayo replay (70 mins)	38	30	79%	14	47%	-1.774
avg	40.0	32.8	82%	19.0	58%	+2.154
Champ (’12 & ’13 avg 70 mins)	35.8	27.6	77.2%	14.1	51.0%

The most recent memory we have of Kerry’s attack is their semi final replay against Mayo in Limerick which also happens to be their worst outing to date. The surprise is not that they had a bad day against one of the best defences in the country but rather that it was so poor compared to their returns against the same team six days previously.

Taking the season as a whole (the four point win over Clare was not shown) their attacking play…

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O’Donoghue & how Donegal handled opposition sharp shooters

O’Donoghue & how Donegal handled opposition sharp shooters

dontfoul

After the drawn semi final between Kerry and Mayo we looked at where their respective marquee forwards, James O’Donoghue and Cillian O’Connor, managed to get on attacking ball and the outcomes of those interventions. O’Donoghue’s chart is reattached below

James O’Donoghue in drawn game

disk = successful, x = unsuccessful
white = pass, black = shot from play, red = dispossessed, blue = fouled (same for all subsequent charts)

In that piece we noted how O’Connor was on the ball a lot less because he played closer to goal. Below is O’Donoghue’s chart from the subsequent replay – he obviously played closer to goal but such is his form at the moment that his volume of touches hardly dropped.

James O’Donoghue in drawn game

In the original game O’Donoghue seemed to have a free roaming role with his touches effectively forming a horse shoe around what could be deemed the…

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Recombobulating after redundancy

Recombobulating after redundancy

How to Get the Most out of Complaining on Social Media

HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF COMPLAINING ON SOCIAL MEDIA