Story Archaeology Chris Thompson and Isolde Carmody

SacrumProfanum by Benjamin Dwyer is an exploration of the Sheela-Na-gig through music. Join Chris as she encounters this profound and poetic experience out walking her local landscape accompanied by Sheela-na- gigs.







Music for this episode: Lamentum from SacrumProfanum by kind permision of Benjamin Dwyer















https://www.farpointrecordings.com/product-page/benjamin-dwyer-sacrumprofanum







https://benjamindwyer.bandcamp.com/album/sacrumprofanum







Listen to the podcast episode 'A Conversation with Professor Ben Dwyer'









SacrumProfanum is the second release from composer Benjamin Dwyer on Farpoint Recordings. SacrumProfanum features music by Benjamin Dwyer based on his personal engagement with Sheela-na-gigs. These richly detailed and adventurous compositions feature Garth Knox (viola), Siobhán Armstrong (late-medieval Irish harp, sean-nós singer, narrator), Emma Coulthard (piccolo, flute, alto flute), Donnacha Dwyer (uillean pipes), Jona Xhepa and Benjamin Dwyer on bowed guitar. Dwyer also contributes a fascinating essay about Sheela-na-gigs and the background development of this project.







released February 22, 2022

Join Chris as she shares a conversation with Professor Benjamin Dwyer. Ben is a prolific Irish performer and composer as well as an educator. He is currently Professor of Music at Middlesex University. SacrumProfanum is Ben's thought provoking musical exploration of the enigmatic Sheela-na-gigs as watchers and witnesses of a thousand years of Irish history.







Opening music for this episode: Lamentum from SacrumProfanum by kind permision of Benjamin Dwyer. Late medieval harp played by Siobhán Armstrong







External Links for this episode







Listen to SacrumProfanum







https://www.farpointrecordings.com/product-page/benjamin-dwyer-sacrumprofanum







https://benjamindwyer.bandcamp.com/album/sacrumprofanum







Ben's paper: Sheela-na-gigs and an ‘Aesthetics of Damage’







Local Links for this episode







Chris' ramble 4: Walking with Sheela-na-gigs

Join Chris on her ramble through the landscape of early Irish story and discover why many of the best stories contain the environmental messages which are still highly relevant today.







Moytura 2000







Links for this ramble.









* Circling the Táin: seven Story Archaeology podcast episodes.







* Cath Maige Tuired: six Story Archaeology podcast episodes.







* Stories in the Landscape Conversations: A conversation with Professor Patrick Nunn.









Moytura 2000

The Isle of Harris. Yes, the sea can be this blue!







Every community has folk tales to share, but do some of these stories encode ancient memories of climate change? This short podcast conversation with Professor Nunn focuses on stories from the North west coast of Ireland and Scotland that may have been told far longer than we might imagine. Listen, and then discover more in Professor Nunn's recent paper 'First a wudd, and syne a sea:' recently published in the Scottish Geographical Journal.















Lough Gill, Sligo / Leitrim







Read Professor Nunn's paper:







First a wudd, and syne a sea: postglacial coastal change of Scotland recalled in ancient stories







Today I was fortunate enough to attend a webinar presented by Professor Nunn and hosted by the University of the Highlands and Islands. Here is the You Tube link to the webinar..







Islands Matter Webinar 2 'First a wudd, and syne a sea: Scottish stories of memorable landscape change in their global context' with Professor Patrick Nunn. Recorded on the 20 October 2022.







Patrick Nunn was a Lead Author of the 5th Assessment Report (Working Group I) of the IPCC and a Lead Author for its 6th Assessment Report (Working Group II). His 2021 book, Worlds in Shadow: Submerged Lands in Science, Memory and Myth, is published by Bloomsbury Sigma.























;

Patrick Nunn is the Professor of Geography at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. He is a leading climate change scientist, author, and a specialist on how stories from oral traditions may have encoded memories of geological and oceanic change from around seven thousand years ago. Join Chris and Patrick as they discuss, remarkable oral story transmission, illustrated by 'climate change' stories from Australia, the Pacific Islands, and, Ireland. And, at last, I get to hear scientific evidence of the, highly probable, antiquity and importance of the dindshenchas story of Sinann. I have been looking forward to this conversation since 2015!Links for this episode







Patrick Nunn is the Author of Edge of Memory and Worlds in Shadow, both books I very highly recommend.







Listen to The Story Of Sinann podcast.

Some reflections on a journey to discover Irish stories.















Join Chris as she explores Irish oral story transmission and wonders if even stories sometimes need careful map makers to prevent them them from being lost.







Links for this episode







If you would like to find out more about the infamous Giraldus Cambrensis







* Find out about his 'map making'.* Find out a bit more about his opinion on Ireland















Or just join in and tell him yourself!







Read Edge of Memory: The Geology of Folk Tales and Climate Change by Patrick Nunn







I will be sharing a Stories in the Landcape conversation with Professor Nunn very soon.







And from the Story Archaeology Archive







* Colmcille and the Youth at Carn Eolairg* Manannán's Prophecy of Mongán* Listen to the podcast: Immrám Brain Mac Febul