Irish Origins of Halloween

Summary

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal – Episode Summary: "Irish Origins of Halloween"

In this captivating episode of After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal, hosts Anthony Delaney and Maddie Pelling delve deep into the rich Irish origins of Halloween, tracing its evolution from ancient Celtic traditions to the globally celebrated festivities we know today. Released on October 24, 2024, this episode offers listeners an engaging exploration of folklore, cultural practices, and the enduring legacy of Samhain in shaping modern Halloween customs.

---

1. Introduction to Samhain: The Original Halloween

The episode opens with Anthony Delaney painting a vivid picture of ancient Ireland during Samhain, the Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. He describes the mystical atmosphere where "the division between this world and the other world is at its thinnest" (00:09), allowing spirits and fairies to traverse freely. This sets the stage for understanding Halloween's deep-rooted connections to folklore and the supernatural.

2. A Special Guest: Dan Snow and Kelly Fitzgerald

Anthony and Maddie introduce their special guest, Dan Snow, referred to humorously as "the boss man himself" (02:23). The trio engages in light-hearted banter before transitioning into the heart of the discussion. They are also joined by Kelly Fitzgerald, an expert in folklore and oral histories from University College Dublin, who provides scholarly insights into Samhain's pagan origins and its influence on Halloween worldwide (07:03).

3. The Three Worlds of Irish Tradition

Kelly Fitzgerald elaborates on the intricate interplay between three distinct realms during Samhain: the living world, the Otherworld inhabited by fairies and mystical beings, and the world of the dead. She explains, "Halloween is a really wonderful, interesting time here in Ireland... we're seeing these three worlds come together and have a bit of fun" (06:32). This nuanced perspective highlights the festival's complexity beyond the commonly perceived binary of the living and the dead.

4. Traditions and Practices: From Turnips to Pumpkins

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the traditional practices associated with Samhain. Anthony shares nostalgic memories of carving turnips to ward off evil spirits, noting that "the OG Pumpkin carving is actually turnip carving in Ireland" (04:39). Dan adds humorously, "The turn of the less authentic," contrasting the original turnip carvings with the more contemporary pumpkin traditions adopted in America (04:50).

The hosts demonstrate turnip carving, showcasing their efforts to preserve authentic Irish customs. Maddie questions the size of the turnips, to which Anthony responds, "We have much better turnips in Ireland" (03:59), emphasizing the authenticity versus practicality of their current tools.

5. Food and Divination: Barmbrack and Kulcannon

Regina Sexton, a culinary historian brought into the conversation by Dan Snow, discusses traditional Samhain foods like barmbrack and kulcannon. Anthony explains, "Barmbrack is a cakey, bready thing. And it is delicious" (05:57), while Regina delves into their significance in divination practices. Hidden charms within these foods, such as rings, thimbles, and beans, were believed to foretell one's future in areas like marriage, poverty, and longevity (06:04).

For instance, finding a ring in your barmbrack suggested impending marriage, whereas a thimble could indicate either becoming a tailor or a spinster (28:00). These traditions reflect the societal values and anxieties of historical Irish communities.

6. Trick or Treating: Ancient Mischief and Modern Practices

The episode uncovers the origins of trick or treating, revealing its roots in ancient Samhain practices where children and teenagers engaged in mischief and door-to-door rituals to appease or ward off spirits. Kelly Fitzgerald notes, "Trick or treating was originally about collecting donations for a party that happened at the end of the night" (34:51). This contrasts with the modern, commercialized version but underscores the enduring nature of communal exchange and playful mischief.

7. Folklore Creatures: Banshees and Puca

A fascinating segment explores the legends of banshees and puca—supernatural beings integral to Irish Halloween lore. Anthony shares personal anecdotes about encountering tales of banshees, gendered as fairy women who ominously wail to signal impending death (40:34). Siobhan McSweeney adds depth by distinguishing between different types of spirits, emphasizing that banshees are specifically linked to death and familial lines (41:10).

Kelly further explains the distinction between the Otherworld's puca and the world of the dead, highlighting their unique roles and interactions with humans during Samhain (42:15).

8. Modern Revivals and Cultural Identity

The conversation shifts to contemporary efforts to revive and preserve authentic Irish Halloween traditions amidst global commercialization. Anthony mentions the "second Gaelic Revival," where there's a resurgence in using the Irish language and celebrating traditional customs like the puca festivals and authentic parades (39:07). This revival aims to reconnect modern Irish identity with its pagan and folkloric roots, countering the predominantly Americanized celebrations.

9. Personal Stories and Traditions of the Hosts

Throughout the episode, Anthony, Maddie, and Dan share their own Halloween memories and traditions, providing a personal touch to the historical and cultural discussions. From Anthony’s dramatic tales of his great grandmother and encounters with banshees (43:18) to Dan’s experiences of trick or treating in London and Toronto (46:55), the hosts illustrate how these ancient traditions have permeated their lives.

10. Conclusion and Resources

As the episode wraps up, the hosts encourage listeners to experience authentic Irish Halloween by visiting Ireland, recommending resources like ireland.com for more information (49:15). They humorously demonstrate their turnip carvings, blending tradition with modern creativity, and emphasize the importance of maintaining and celebrating these rich cultural heritages.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Anthony Delaney (00:09): "According to the old Gaelic reckoning, this is the first night of winter, the night the fairies of the otherworld dance with the ghosts."

• Kelly Fitzgerald (06:32): "What makes Halloween so interesting... is that we're seeing these three worlds come together and have a bit of fun."

• Dan Snow (04:50): "The turn of the less authentic."

• Regina Sexton (27:31): "In Irish custom, the two big dishes for Halloween are kulcannon and barmbrack."

• Siobhan McSweeney (41:10): "Banshee, basically, is Gaelic for a fairy woman."

---

This episode of After Dark not only illuminates the deep-seated Irish roots of Halloween but also bridges the gap between ancient traditions and their modern interpretations. By intertwining expert insights with personal anecdotes, Anthony, Maddie, and Dan offer a comprehensive and engaging narrative that enriches listeners' understanding of Halloween's true origins.

Transcript

[Anthony Delaney]

On midsummer eve, when the bonfires are lighted on every hill in honor of St. John, the fairies are at their gayest and sometimes steal away beautiful mortals to be their brides. But on November eve, Samhain, or Halloween, the fairies are at their gloomiest. For according the old Gaelic reckoning, this is the first night of winter, the night the fairies of the otherworld dance with the ghosts. The puca is abroad and witches make their spells. It's a dark night and there's a chill in the air. The breeze moves through the dank woodland in the old west of Ireland. Through the trees there is an opening. Figures gathered around two huge bonfires. They're celebrating the end of harvest time. This was a grueling few weeks of collecting all of the produce they've grown throughout the year. They're marking the end of the lighter months, welcoming with some trepidation the darkness to come and the threats of illness and starvation or even death that comes with it. It's at this time of year, so they believe the division between this world and the other world is at its thinnest. The spirits of the deceased can move back and forth over the divide. Now they are ready to greet and welcome their dead ancestors. Some wear costumes so they can disguise themselves from harmful spirits. This is the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. And this is where Halloween began.

[Maddie Pelling]

Hello, and welcome to After Dark Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal. As ever, I am Anthony Delaney.

[Anthony Delaney]

And I am Maddie Pelling.

[Maddie Pelling]

And today we are joined by none other than the boss man himself. We're on our best behavior. It's Dan Snow.

[Dan Snow]

If this is your best behavior, I don't want to see your worst. There are knives here.

[Maddie Pelling]

I've got a witch's hat on.

[Dan Snow]

I know, it's terrifying.

[Anthony Delaney]

I feel like I should say some Irish here. So for Dan August, Maddie. Which means welcome, Dan and Maddie. This is your own podcast, so you don't need to welcome you, but I'm infusing some Irish in here because in front of us we have turnips and pumpkins and bar brac and all kinds of things. And we're going to be talking about the significance of all of these things. Throughout this episode, Maddie and I will be discussing some of our own Halloween traditions along with Dan, but we'll also be talking to Kelly Fitzgerald, and Kelly Fitzgerald is an expert on folklore, on oral histories, and she is going to be telling us something about the pagan pre Christian origins of Samhain in Ireland and how that has influenced Halloween all across the world. So this is not the American commercialization that we might think it is. It's something far more rooted in ancient history.

[Maddie Pelling]

And it was such a surprise to me that that history actually originates in the island of Ireland.

[Dan Snow]

We'll associate Halloween with trick or treating kids overdoing it when it comes to the sugar. But I talked to Regina Sexton, who's a culinary historian. She tells me all about how the food traditions of Halloween, of Samhain, and how gift giving, mischief making, going door to door, that's all very much part of it.

[Maddie Pelling]

Throughout this episode, we are going to be carving not pumpkins, but turnips. Anthony, are these big enough to carve? Are these what we'd expect if we came to Ireland for Halloween?

[Anthony Delaney]

No, we've got much better turnips in Ireland. That has to be said. I didn't know I was going to be here as a turnip ambassador, but here we are nonetheless. But, yeah, these are kind of puny turnips, but we are going to work with what we have. The reason that we have turnips rather than pumpkins is this is the origin of the pumpkin, right? I don't mean in terms of biological origin. I mean in terms of folklorist origin. We would have these in Ireland, think bigger. They're kind of like the size of an actual pumpkin. We'd cut the top off, scoop out the insides, put some kind of a face on the outside, and then light a candle inside. And this was to ward off evil spirits. We did this even when we were kids, When I was a kid. So this was in the 80s and 90s as well. So there's a really, really long tradition.

[Dan Snow]

And so that's before pumpkin carving was a thing in the States. No, I'm not saying when you were a kid, of course, but that tradition stretches. The OG Pumpkin carving is actually turnip carving an island.

[Anthony Delaney]

Contrary to popular belief, I do not date from the 18th century, but this is all.

[Dan Snow]

You do have a sort of vibe.

[Anthony Delaney]

Listen, I'm not going to dispute this, but this all dates back to emigration from Ireland and then immigration into the United States. Obviously, there's a huge Irish community there, and they have taken the idea of carving the turnip, adapted it to what was more plentif there, I. E. Pumpkins. And so now we have this very possibly more aesthetically pleasing, but definitely less frightening. So therefore, I think the pumpkins are.

[Dan Snow]

The turn of the less authentic.

[Maddie Pelling]

We now learn less authentic, arguably better Halloween colors, though it has to be said, controversial, potentially.

[Dan Snow]

Traitor.

[Anthony Delaney]

Right.

[Dan Snow]

Should we start carving, folks? Let's do it.

[Anthony Delaney]

I'm scared of this. I actually don't know what I'm doing.

[Dan Snow]

You've given me a mighty knife.

[Anthony Delaney]

Can you even get the thing off? No.

[Maddie Pelling]

Are you two going in freehand or do you have a plan? I feel like I'm going to mark now.

[Anthony Delaney]

Oh, she's marking.

[Maddie Pelling]

I'm taking it seriously.

[Dan Snow]

So it's actually, we got some food here to eat as well, because as I've learned from Regina Sexton, who's a historian, there's all sorts of special cuisine attached to Samhain in Ireland as well.

[Anthony Delaney]

So I think we're going to be learning a little bit about barmbrack. And if you're unfamiliar with barn brac, it's kind of a cakey, bready thing. And it is delicious.

[Dan Snow]

Right.

[Anthony Delaney]

When I was a kid, I didn't really like it. It was more of an adult Halloween thing. Oh, my God. My carving is diabolical.

[Maddie Pelling]

Is this the cake where there's stuff hidden inside it? Right.

[Dan Snow]

Oh, yes.

[Anthony Delaney]

And so you might get a ring, Right. And if you got a ring, that meant. So it's all about divination. If you got the ring, you'd be like, roger, we're going to get married that year. Or. Yeah, it's a good thing, at least. Guess what else you could get though? Wooden coffins.

[Dan Snow]

And tell me, what does that mean.

[Anthony Delaney]

Dead and going to die in the next 12 months. We talked to Kelly Fitzgerald, who's the head. Dr. Kelly Fitzgerald, who's the head of Folklore and Other Things at the School of Also Folklore University College Dublin. Yeah, other things.

[Maddie Pelling]

One of the things that I loved in our conversation with Kelly actually, was the way that she talked about storytelling at this time of year and how, you know, we think about Halloween. It's this time when the dark is drawing in, the nights are drawing in, and we are here carving these turnips that traditionally, as you said, Anthony, would have embers from the fire in, and they're a way to bring in a little bit of light as well as some fear to your home. And Kelly talked about how in the past in Ireland, people who've been working agriculturally in the fields, really laboring away, would bring comfort into their home. And storytelling was a way of getting to grips with the changes of the year, which is just such a lovely. It's such a lovely thing. And I do think there's something comforting about horror. There's something comforting about this fear.

[Dan Snow]

Do you think when you're snug in by your hearth, with your family, then maybe there's something a bit comforting about telling yourself that beyond that door, beyond those thick walls, it's a dangerous one.

[Anthony Delaney]

Can you eat raw turnip?

[Dan Snow]

We're about to find out.

[Maddie Pelling]

So here's our chat with Kelly Fitzgerald.

[Anthony Delaney]

Kelly, we're so lucky to have you. Welcome to After Dark.

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

Hi, Anthony. Hi, Maddie. So lovely to meet you.

[Anthony Delaney]

So this is a question I'm very delighted to have to ask. Take us back to ancient Ireland. I wish I could say that to more people more often, but why is Samhain such an important date in the year at this particular moment in time?

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

When we think of Halloween even in its earliest times, our evidence is. Is found in the literature that talks about the Tuatha Danan, these magical, mystical beings that are possessing this island, that they're holding the sovereignty of Ireland at the time. And Samhain is the time of the year that they are able to win their battles, play their tricks and draw the natural world that has this preternatural, supernatural element. It allows them to carry out what they need to do. And elements of that mischievousness, that magic, that mysticism, has remained with us to this day.

[Maddie Pelling]

So, Kelly, this is the time of year when, as you say, the supernatural and the natural worlds are coming very close to each other in these interesting ways. But for those of us who didn't grow up in the Irish tradition, I find this a little bit complicated because we're not just dealing with the living world and the world of the dead, as we might expect if we engage with Halloween traditions elsewhere in the world, but there are multiple other worlds on there in the Irish tradition. So can you tell us a little bit about the layout, the landscape of those other worlds and how they interconnect?

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

Halloween is a really wonderful, interesting time here in Ireland. And in some ways, perhaps why it has had such a strength to it is that not only is this grounded in the natural world, in how we as humans express ourselves and our creativity and mark the year, but it is the other world, this kind of supernatural tradition that is constant in the Irish landscape, that is parallel to this world, but shall never be this world. And then finally, this is the time of year that we have the world of the dead. And in Roman Catholic tradition, where purgatory was such an important part of. Of the belief system, this was a time of year when All Souls Day is happening just after Halloween, and people are preparing for that third element to come back into the world as well. And what makes Halloween so interesting and wonderful and fascinating is that we're seeing these three worlds come together and have a bit of fun. Now, as we look at the world around us this time of year in the Northern hemisphere, you know, the autumn colors, the world is dying around us. We are coming into the darkness. We are entering into our darkest days of the year. And so we have that otherworld connection and what that can do. But interestingly enough, this is of course, that time of the dead. And in folk traditions and in Ireland, they would not confuse the other world with the world of the dead. In Roman Catholicism, purgatory stayed very strong, a very strong belief system of purgatory. And November 1st is the All Souls Day. So the church has really taken this time of the year to emphasize that those kind of your ancestors are coming back. And we have these wonderful traditions of people really teaming the house and preparing for their ancestors to come back into it. And we see those traditions when we think of Diaz Los Martos in Mexico and other places being connected to that sense of purgatory as well. We then have the other world. And of course, everything is better in the other world, right? The food tastes better, the music sounds better, everything is just better. But of course, in folk traditions, they have to have a check and balance system, because if it's better, then everyone would just want to go there. So they may have that life, but those beings, these kind of fairy beings, will never make it to heaven. So they may have this great life, but they will never have the afterlife. And so you can see this kind of way in which these traditions can play out, that you can tease yourself with them, you can kind of engage with it. You don't want to be lost there forever. You don't want to become a changeling. They can bring you great stuff. They can make you a great musician, they can make you a great hurling player, but they can also make your life really miserable as well.

[Anthony Delaney]

Well, they never gifted me with any hurling ability and I'm from Kilkenny, so they need to up their game a little bit on that. But just to. And Kelly, correct me if I'm wrong at any point during this, I just want to do a little bit of a summation of these three worlds that we're talking about. We have our world that we're living on a daily basis where if we're talking about let' the 19th century or prior to the 19th century, people are toiling, people are working, or at least the working people are. And there's a kind of a sometimes a grim reality to that life. Then there's the Other world that you have spoken about, Kelly, which is infused with magic and fairies and sprites and these beings that are mischievous, potentially magical, definitely have powers and can have power over us. And then there's the world of the dead and the other world, by the way, that fairy world is kind of always there. But the world of the dead, once Christianity starts to become involved, can only move closer to the real world, our world, at a specific time of the year. And that specific time of year is Samhain. How did I do, Kelly? Does that. Does that kind of sum it up, Anthony?

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

That's great. I think it's our time that the natural world kind of marks or commemorates the world of the dead and that separation from a kind of fairy being, from a ghost. So again, in Irish tradition, the fairy world are not ghosts. They are not souls coming back. If we think of American, the American impact on Halloween, they've conflated these three worlds into two worlds. And I think then it's really important to emphasize that this Irish tradition has this parallel world that's ever present. And then it is at Halloween and at the 1st of May, which are two days directly across from each other, that the veil is very thin. And then, particularly then at Halloween, that veil is very thin. And we're also recognizing the souls of the departed being present as well, which I think has given a kind of validated or given a strength to why traditions at this time of the year have stayed so strong and have had a kind of greater international impact as opposed to other days in the year.

[Maddie Pelling]

It's absolutely fascinating to me to hear all of this, because as someone who's grown up in the English tradition of Halloween, which, of course, in recent decades has been absolutely Americanized. This is alien to me, this idea of the three worlds rather than these two, the living and the dead. What I'm wondering, Kelly, is we have this great tradition of storytelling and mythology and these different ways of understanding the world that are also linked to the church in Ireland and have all of these sort of dogma attached to them. But how did Samhain operate for ordinary people? Anthony alluded there to, you know, for example, the 19th century, ordinary people working in the fields, later working in factories. What kind of practices do ordinary Irish people engage with in order to engage with Samhain? Or is this just a sort of story that you might hear down the pub or in the church porch after a service? Are there specific things that people are doing outside of their daily lives?

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

Calendar customs and special days of the year are really important. And particularly when you're thinking of a traditional society that's really based around the agricultural year, this is the end of the harvest, and the harvest is hard work. And it is that time that you almost can exhale and you can relax and that sense of mischievousness coming into it now is that time to release things. And this is a real time for young people, a time that allows them to be different, to pull pranks, to get away with pulling pranks. Again, how society kind of sets itself up to what can happen on this day that would not be allowed on any other day. Now, in the Irish tradition, when we think of these kind of masking or mumming or geysers or fancy dress, that's really the beginning of that. Because when you look at the fuller year, in the Irish tradition, we have the Christmas mummers and the Wren boys on St. Stephen's Day. And even in traditional society going to Bridget's Day with the Biddy boys. Fancy dress is a part of the winter time in Ireland. It's also the beginning of storytelling time as well. Of course, during the harvest and when there's work to be done, you're not idling around in the fire listening to stories that could take hours to tell. So now this is that time to say, look, this is what we can do. Now we kind of come in and again, love this time of the year when the darkness is coming. By 3:00 in the afternoon, there's no direct sunlight anymore. All of that is really dire. But you can see how society has kind of set it up so that you expect it and you make the most of it, and you kind of take it to your advantage and how you're living.

[Maddie Pelling]

Okay, so we've got the dressing up element that we might recognize and participate in today, but we're missing the trick and treating element a little bit here. Kelly, you've hinted at it already, but tell us some of the things that people would do in order to ward off these spirits. Does this element of trickery have any other function within the communities that it's practiced, or is it simply to create a barrier or mischief with these other worlds?

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

In some ways, you could see that you're dressed up your fancy dress. And similarly, even if you think of the 26th of December, which is St Stephen's Day in Ireland, people would go around and perform and they'd be given food or drink or money. So that exchange for a bit of performance, you've gone to this effort and you deserve something for it is a bit of Halloween as well. But at Halloween, there's that threat, you know, this threat that if you don't give us, literally, you either give me something or I will pull a trick on you. Right, so that sense of it could be water down the chimney, you know, pulling up your cabbages, just causing a little bit of damage. That would be annoying, you know, not punt. Unbelievable, but quite annoying. And that adds to the fun of the day as well. So if we think of the trick or treating, that's part of it. Also, this sense of divination, again, this is a day where the world is not quite the same as it is any other day. So when you see how that is expressed in the way in which people act, they see ways in which weather divination happens on this day as opposed to other days. It's a day of marriage divination, the way in which your life is going to be. So all of those elements kind of contribute and you can play it on that like the supernatural can play tricks on humans, and this is that time of the year that humans can play tricks on each other as well.

[Anthony Delaney]

If anybody's wondering why I ended up being so dramatic, the answer lies in growing up in Ireland. This is the most dramatic landscape that you'll ever find. There's people hopping around the place that you can't even see that you have to spread salt in your head to mind, and everything is just absolutely bonkers, but brilliantly bonkers. Kelly, we have this perception, or some people have this perception. Let's say that a lot of how we understand Halloween now is American and comes from America. And you mentioned the pumpkin already, but of course, the pumpkin even has a bit of a history, and that history is turnip. Why has America taken of all the Irish customs that we came across with through a long history of emigration and immigration into the United States? Why is this one really taken hold in America, do you think?

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

It's interesting when we think of how Halloween has really taken off in America, and I would argue when we think of America, autumn there is not even called autumn anymore. They have called it fall. What is absolutely happening around them, they're so conscious of it. On the one hand, it feels like England. It feels like these islands, it is called New England. But yet when leaves start turning color, they are so much more intense than we have on this side of the water. And I think it's really interesting that when new communities were moving to the new world, they were seeing what felt familiar. But then even what they saw intensified things. Now, I would argue again Traditionally, Halloween would been much stronger in England as well. If you probably think of your childhood, Anthony, you might remember the bonfires at this time of the year as well. The bonfires are really important. Interestingly enough, in England, Halloween is not for bonfires, but Guy Fawkes Day is. And so in some ways, you can see how when traditions change, when the relevance changes and what people are celebrating, they're getting the same thing out of what they would have gotten at a different time, but it has a different premise around it. So we see that perhaps in America as well, that Halloween could have been much stronger amongst all migrants in the diaspora there at the time. But then we also have that puritanical side in America that really started to emphasize the world of the dead and that sense of being caught by that world in what was going to happen to you. And it's not so much, you know, this kind of hell and damnation and that kind of more evil side that we see to Halloween. We don't find that in the Irish traditions, but we see that definitely reflecting back from the American interpretation of this time of the year.

[Maddie Pelling]

That's been absolutely fantastic. Kelly, thank you so much for telling us this.

[Dan Snow]

That was fascinating chat, wasn't it? I'm just so struck by the fact that this Irish tradition, rooted in paganism, has survived and flourished and metamorphosized so much in North America, when everything we think of as Irish culture in North America is very Catholic. It's. It's that there's a particular identity. But actually, it turns out this is one of the biggest legacies of migration, and it's. And it's a much deeper past.

[Anthony Delaney]

Yeah, but it also speaks to the kind of coexistence of that Catholicism that you're talking about, Dan, with the pagan past in Ireland and how those two traditions sit side by side. Kelly spoke about fall and how fall has influenced Halloween because basically of what's.

[Maddie Pelling]

Available in America makes a difference because America's so colorful. And I think that's why there was a shift from the turnip to the pumpkin, because it just matches those incredible four colors that you get, especially on the east coast of America at this time of year. Now, I will say these, they're looking pretty good so far. They don't smell great raw. And for me, Halloween is really all about eating tasty, sugary treats.

[Dan Snow]

It is.

[Maddie Pelling]

Dan, don't you agree? Have you never been trick or treating and filled a bucket full of chocolate?

[Dan Snow]

Oh, I certainly have. And I assume that trick or treating was the result of our 20th century explosion. Explosion in the amount of different ways we have to get sugar into our body. But it turns out, talking to the excellent Regina Sexton, that trick or treating is very ancient and rooted in Ireland. Regina, what do people believe happens at Samhain?

[Regina Sexton]

I suppose, for Irish people celebrating Halloween or Samhain, it's possibly one of the most anticipated festivals in Ireland after Christmas. And it's anticipated, I suppose, because lots of us have memories of activities when we were children, and a lot of those centered around not just food, but also games and merriment and mischief and so on. In more recent times, I suppose that has been kind of what you might say, colonized by a more commercial aspect to things which have, to some degree, changed practice and so on. But that's the dynamic of culture, if you like.

[Dan Snow]

Where does Samhain come from? How far back should we look for its genesis?

[Regina Sexton]

Gosh. Well, now, that is the question. And Samhain, as you say, is two things, I suppose, really. Samhain is the Irish word for the month of November, but also Samhain is the name that was given to one of the quarter festivals that is associated with what you might think of the Celtic year, if you want. So the Celtic year had two big festivals. One of them was Samhain, which is the end of October, the 31st of October into the 1st of November, and the other one was Bjaaltana, which is the end of April, the first of may. And then you have two minor festivals dividing those two halves of the year. We hear about these Celtic festivals from a lot of the Roman writers, because the Romans would have come in contact with what you might call a Celtic culture or a Celtic civilization, a Celtic way of life. It's also mentioned to some extent, we're kind of skipping on a bit in time now, but it's also mentioned to some extent in the literature that comes out of Ireland in the early medieval period, the later medieval period, and for us in Ireland, those dates are between around the 5th to the 12th centuries and a bit beyond. But then what happens in Ireland is that you also get descriptions and references to the festivities around this time of the year from a lot of the antiquarian writers, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries.

[Dan Snow]

Tell me more about some of those folkloric accounts in the 19th century. What do they describe happening?

[Regina Sexton]

Well, what they describe happening, I suppose, is a kind of a mixture of all of that past, if you want. So it's all sorts of intersections between maybe memory and legacy and trying to go back to the past and so on. Taking from the past to create a sort of a sense of this festival in Ireland. A lot of that would have been associated in the late 19th century with this idea of Celtic revival, which was connected to a culture revival, if you like, that was linked to an Irish identity. So essentially what it is is a mix of fun and games with sort of some connection to the idea that this festival, which kind of spans between the sun going down on the 31st of October and the sun going down on the 1st of November, this 24 hour period between dusk and dusk, there's some sort of folk idea there that it's not just associated with fun and feasting, but there's also some connection to another cosmos, to the other world, if you like. And for Irish people, that other world would be, again, this is a whole kind of concentrated knot of cultural complexity. It's connected to religious belief and folk belief.

[Dan Snow]

Now, perhaps the food is less contested than some of the theology. Tell me about the famous food traditions.

[Regina Sexton]

Food is really interesting at Halloween because it plays several different roles. So the first thing is that you do try to have a special festive collection of foods for the celebrations. You have the overlap between Christian belief and folk belief. The following day is All Saints Day. It's a holy day. So in Catholic observance, the day before holy days is observed as a non meat eating day. So the first point is that the food and the dishes associated with Halloween are non meat. So they're all vegetable plant based, if you like, in a sort of a contemporary way of talking about it. So in Irish custom, the two big things associated with Halloween are the non meat dish of kulcannon. So that's sort of the savory dish and then the sweeter dish of the Halloween bread, which is a barmbrack. And the kulcannon is mashed potatoes that's mixed in with a cooked brassica, a cooked member of the cabbage family. And that can be cabbage or kale, curly kale, different types of kale and so on, or just simply cabbage in various different forms. So you cook the cabbage first, you make mashed potatoes and you mix the two of them together. So that's the Halloween dish, kulkannen. And then the sweet dish is the barm brac. The barm brac is either a yeast leavened bread barmbrack, or else it can also be interpreted as a sweet and enriched soda bread, which is made with bicarbonate of soda rather than a yeast levelling agent. So they're Essentially, the two big dishes for Halloween in Ireland.

[Dan Snow]

I'm getting so hungry sitting here talking about this. Now, as well as being delicious. How do they reflect what's going on?

[Regina Sexton]

Generally, these are special foods, if you think about kilcannon, what it has, and particularly if you think about a rural economy in Ireland, and also maybe for people who were less well off. The kilcannon is made distinctive not just by the base ingredients, but also by the addition of liberal quantities of melted butter, because that melts into the mashed potatoes. It makes it really good. And of course, fat has all the flavor, and so on and so on. So fat is making this dish special. The sugar and the fruit additions to the soda bread or the barmbrack, if you're buying it, makes it special as well, that sweetness element. So there's a specialness in terms of the ingredients, but there's also a specialness in terms of the functions of these two dishes at Halloween. So they're not just to enjoy in a sensual way because they taste really good, but also they function for different purposes at Halloween. And the two big functions of kilkaton and Barmbrack is for divination, divining the future. So you can tell the future with these two dishes, and you can tell the future specifically by reading the charms that you find that are incorporated into the kilcannon or the barn brac. So for the kilcannon, for example, one of the practices was to put into it or hide in it a gold ring or a wedding ring. So that was the easy one. Everybody would get a bowl of kilcannon, and part of the fun was to see who would get the gold ring in their kulcannon, obviously without having any accident of choking or whatever. So if you got the ring, it meant that you would be married within the year. Okay, so that's all very pleasant. That's for divining the future. But then when it came to the barmbrack, this was a bit more complicated because there was a whole variety of charms that were baked into the bread. So you did have the ring. And this is what I remember from my childhood. It's a bit different now. So you did have the ring, but you also had things like a P, a bean, a rag, a stick. And each of these charms signify different things. So the ring in the barmbrack could either be like it was in the kilcannon, it could be that you would marry within the year. But also these charms had fluidity in how you could interpret them. So the ring could also mean that you would live the longest or you would be the first to die. The P meant poverty, if you got that. And the bean would mean riches. Or it could also mean that you would cross water, that you would emigrate. The thimble, if that was baked into the bread, could mean that you would either be a tailor or a dressmaker, or else you could be a spinster. And if finding them and divining the future, each of them sort of connects to, I suppose, the society of the time and what was important for the society of the time, you know, women getting married, having a good profession, the fear of being poor, joining the church, being a priest or a nun, the religious orders or emigration. And if you think about Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries, these are all social facts, I suppose, really, that have consequence and meaning for people's lives. You know, marriage and good marriages, death.

[Dan Snow]

Heading across the seas. Yeah.

[Regina Sexton]

Yeah.

[Dan Snow]

Amazing. Now, speaking of heading across the seas, many of the traditions that we associate with are still quite American. Halloween, now, I didn't realize, are very Irish. And let's start with pumpkin carving. Tell me about the beginnings of that.

[Regina Sexton]

There is evidence of carving turnips not just in Ireland, but also in England and in Scotland and in Wales. So in all likelihood, this is an idea that would have traveled with people to America. Not just an Irish grouping, I suppose, but there is a custom of just hollowing out a swede turnip or a suede turnip. So you hollow that out and then you carve a face on it. And that's used as a lantern, I think you call them maybe jack O lanterns in England and in America as well. And that was supposed to kind of light the way, I suppose, really, particularly in Halloween, when it's associated with this fairy activity or activity from the other world. So this was kind of light, light the way and to keep you safe in that sort of context of uncertainty.

[Dan Snow]

And that evolved into the pumpkins that we carve right across the world today.

[Regina Sexton]

Yeah, I mean, there is this kind of idea that the turnip was replaced by the pumpkin because the pumpkin looks much better. I mean, it's got that beautiful, vibrant color, and it might be a little bit easier to carve. You know, the flesh is a bit softer and you get this spectacular looking orange head once the work is done. But in more recent years, I suppose in the last maybe five years, there's been kind of a revival in Ireland of carving a swede turnip. So you have to hollow out that and that's a bit difficult to do because the interior is very hard and you can carve out the eyes into the nose and the mouth and all sorts of stuff and put a candle in that. And they look fairly bad and fairly frightening. You know, I think they look better myself, actually.

[Dan Snow]

I'm going to make my kids engage their Irish heritage now and carve turnips this year. That's going to be great.

[Regina Sexton]

I just give you a hint that it's probably not very traditional, but if you've got a melon scooper for making melon balls, that kind of kitchen tool that makes carving a swede turnip really easy, I've done it myself.

[Dan Snow]

Yeah. Because it's that time of year when the kids are allowed finally to get all the kitchen knives and everything gets a bit loose. It makes me a bit nervous. So. Okay, thank you for that. And what about the ultimate thing we associate with Halloween, but turns out has got its origins in Ireland as well, which is trick or treating.

[Regina Sexton]

Yeah. And this, I suppose, is what children look forward to for the most part, Dan. I think it was this sense of kind of just being set loose out on the streets or set loose on the country roads. And the children went from house to house asking for donations for a kind of a party that happened at the end of the night. And not just the children, but also the teenagers saw this 24 hour period, particularly when it gets dark on Halloween night, as a period for complete mischief and disarray and social disorder in many ways, you know, and they played big tricks on local communities, taking gates off, throwing cabbage stumps against the door and running away and all sorts of stuff. So it's not just confined to the children in terms of collecting in that it does venture into the kind of those teenage years and so on. And likewise for the games that the girls played in the. In the small cabbage gardens, like pulling cabbages and just looking at the root of the cabbage to determine the character of their future husbands. So there's all of this thing which extends to the children's games as well. So it is a night generally of mischief and disarray and fun.

[Dan Snow]

My grandmother, my Welsh nine, remembers as kids it was very much bar the doors and the streets in that kind of respectable early to mid 20th century British world. The streets became raucous and riotous and it was a time when respectable folks stayed inside and very much kept themselves, themselves and drew the shutters.

[Regina Sexton]

And that's the sense as well that comes through from the folklore accounts from Ireland in that it was kind of a free for all that night. Nothing very bad, but, you know, there was that kind of thing of mischief and disarray that was associated with us.

[Dan Snow]

Wasn't that a fascinating chat?

[Maddie Pelling]

It really was. And you know what? I am so keen to try some of this cake now.

[Dan Snow]

Well, you're going to get some. And I don't know if this. Have we got little coffins and bullets and rings in this one?

[Anthony Delaney]

No. Health and safety won't let.

[Dan Snow]

I'm actually quite glad because the last thing I need is I'm chopping this with the turnip knife, so you'll forgive me. Oh, that looks.

[Maddie Pelling]

Oh, thank you.

[Dan Snow]

Chops around that.

[Maddie Pelling]

Checking there's no coffins in here, just in case.

[Anthony Delaney]

Thank you.

[Dan Snow]

A raisin. What does that signify, Anthony? Dried fruit, Our Irish speaker translator.

[Anthony Delaney]

Hey, you know what? That's.

[Maddie Pelling]

It's really good.

[Anthony Delaney]

As he talks with his mouth full. My mother is losing all her senses.

[Maddie Pelling]

You're embarrassing all of Ireland right now, Anthony.

[Anthony Delaney]

That is a good barn brac. You know what you need to spread on that? A good dollop of kerrygold butter.

[Dan Snow]

But you know what? That was made by Mariana, the producer, who is Croatian. What a world. What a world.

[Anthony Delaney]

International cuisine. Oh, no, no. I actually like this. I'm gonna eat the whole thing.

[Dan Snow]

I'm gonna eat the whole thing. Folks, this is not a prop. It's getting eaten right now.

[Maddie Pelling]

So, Anthony, talking of great Irish exports and traditions, a little shout out to Kerry butter there. Tell me a little bit about the parades that happen at Halloween, because I've looked online, I have googled, and the costuming, the puppeteering is incredible. Is it mocking? Is that one of them?

[Anthony Delaney]

So mockness is in Galway. I'm not in Ireland for Halloween this year. I'm here in the uk, but that is where I would be going if I could. It is.

[Maddie Pelling]

Will you take me one year, please?

[Regina Sexton]

No, no.

[Anthony Delaney]

This is the end of our relationship.

[Maddie Pelling]

Oh, that's a shame.

[Anthony Delaney]

This is a real theatrical feast. It is so exciting. It shows the best of Irish craft. It shows the best, best of Irish making, the best of Irish theater. But it's also situated in Galway, which is just an incredible city. It's so incredible. So, yes, we must go some year. Must go for after dark, actually. Some year. Dan, I don't know if you've ever visited Derry, but Derry is.

[Dan Snow]

Is many times, so.

[Anthony Delaney]

Derry is also known for its Halloween parade. We bring out the puka at this time of year.

[Dan Snow]

Sorry, I'll stop you. What's that?

[Anthony Delaney]

A Puka is a ghost. So the puka festival, which you'll find in Ireland as well, that is one of the things that we celebrate, that not the other world, because remember, the other world is the fairy, but the puka is the moving closer to the dead as come to All Souls and All Saints.

[Dan Snow]

I'm really shocked because there's a big. There's a real narrative here in the uk, isn't it, that Halloween is this foreign American festival. It's another symbol of our sort of cultural subservience to the Americans. So why don't we take great pride in the fact that actually it's. It's far from far closer to home. Why don't we take great pride that it actually this is something to celebrate that is from these islands.

[Anthony Delaney]

Yeah. I mean, and even in Ireland, we're having a real resurgence in that. So if you want to get an authentic Halloween experience. Experience, even Maddie and I, we've always talked about going to Salem. We're like, oh, let's go and have this authentic Halloween experience. But there's this Gaelic revival happening in Ireland at the moment. We're calling it the second Gaelic Revival. One happened at the turn of the 20th century. It's happening again now. The language is starting to come back into use more. So people on TikTok are speaking even broken Irish just to be using the language again. But the Halloween traditions, such as makna, such as the puka, such as the parades across the country, they are really showing the origins of where this festival comes from, the Celtic, the pagan origins, and how we are getting back to the land a little bit with that, as opposed to it being so commercial.

[Maddie Pelling]

So, Anson, you mentioned puka there. What does that word mean?

[Anthony Delaney]

So puka is Irish for ghost. And you'll often find the word puka in Irish place names. So, Paul Nafa is the hole of the ghosts, for instance. So you'll find it in different places around the country. But I want to point out there is a difference between the puca, the world the puka comes from, and the world the banshee comes from. And Maddie, I don't know if you remember, but earlier in the very early days of After Dark, we spoke to Derry Girl, actress and friend of mine, the lovely Siobhan McSweeney, and we had a bit of a discussion about what exactly the banshee was. Maria, I'm just wondering, like, what do you know about banshees from your perspective, having come from outside Ireland?

[Maddie Pelling]

To me, a banshee, she is a little Bit like a mermaid, maybe. I have been reliably informed that is not the case and that they are not necessarily coastal. I also know that they're. I want to say specifically an Irish thing. It's something I'm guessing the pair of you grew up with in a way that I didn't in England.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Is that fair?

[Anthony Delaney]

And what do you think, Siobhan?

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Well, the way. I mean, it's a really good question whether it's uniquely Irish. Banshee, basically, you know, is Gaelic for a fairy woman. Ban woman, she of the. Of the fairies. So I don't know, maybe it's in Scotland as well.

[Anthony Delaney]

Yeah, no, you know, I think it is kind of uniquely Irish in that it's linked directly to the families. Well, it's linked directly to the families and we'll get to that in just a second. But it's the Tuatha Dannen, and if you don't know what the Tuatha Danan is, it's basically this kind of pre Christian fairy folk that surreptitiously ruled Ireland. It was almost kind of folkloric and religious in its own sense. And it was this kind of army of fairy people, basically, who were manipulating the climate, who were manipulating all different types of things. And the banshee comes from that kind of. That mythology. And there was a lansheeda who was the spirit of life, and then the banshee. The banshee was the spirit of death, and so there is this death associated. So I do think it's actually even more specific than Celticism. I think it is Irish in that because it's linked so specifically to the Tua.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I. My understanding of it is actually not even as a woman, just as a wailing noise.

[Maddie Pelling]

So the sound is really important.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Yeah, really, really important.

[Maddie Pelling]

So you hear her before you hear her. Okay, okay.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

It's actually, I think, like, you almost try to block your ears, so if you don't hear it, it's a way of.

[Anthony Delaney]

Yeah.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Postponing the inevitable.

[Anthony Delaney]

I did that as a child.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Did you?

[Anthony Delaney]

Yeah. Because I was on the border of sanity probably for 98% of my childhood.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

On the border of Kilkenny.

[Anthony Delaney]

I thought Kenny and Mesh. I was. But I do remember being in my bed with the bed clothes pulled up with the fingers in the ears and the things. Can anyone say anxiety? But honestly, that I do remember going, no, we're not hearing this. I don't care what's going on. We're not hearing it because she was just around like, yeah, it probably Helps if you've got a bit of an imagination. But, like, she seemed to be quite present. She did.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

And I think perhaps uniquely rural. Yeah, certainly. Yeah. With. With the wind, maybe coming in through drafts or whatever. Yeah. The fact that she would be a woman or a fairy woman, it was only ever the voice that struck terror, I think.

[Anthony Delaney]

And that's interesting, right, because that's an Our generation thing, I think, because in, like, the 19th century, it was very much a visual as well.

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

Right.

[Anthony Delaney]

So it was a particular type of woman. So the long. And my great grandmother was alive when I was born. I remember seeing her, and I say. And I remember seeing her, God love her, now that there's another Irish person in the room, and suddenly got into all the colloquialisms. But I remember seeing her and she had long silver hair down to beneath her bum.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Right.

[Anthony Delaney]

And I remember going. I am not going near that woman.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Because she's obviously.

[Maddie Pelling]

This is clearly.

[Anthony Delaney]

This is a warning of death. And she did die eventually. God love her. But that's neither.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Did you say you're great great?

[Anthony Delaney]

No one great. Okay, maybe I did say great great. But she was my great grandmother. My fantastic.

[Maddie Pelling]

And your great grandmother. Not great grandmother.

[Anthony Delaney]

She was a great grandmother.

[Maddie Pelling]

So, okay, so the Banshee is part of this very alternate world that has sort of tangible effects on real life.

[Anthony Delaney]

I would like to say that alternate world because for the people who believed in the tua, it wasn't alternate. It was very much. It was very much intertwined with how they experienced everyday life. So it was. It was kind of far more present than we would even think of religion as being now. Or people who kind of follow certain religious beliefs. But we were talking about, like, listening out first, but actually, you'd be wasting your time slightly, because the legend went that only certain families could hear her.

[Maddie Pelling]

Okay, so talk to me about that.

[Anthony Delaney]

Well, I'll list you some of the families, and you can see if you recognize any of these names. And if you're listening in with any of these surnames, try not to get too freaked out. But if you're a McCarthy, a McGrath, an O'Neill, an O'Reilly, an O'Sullivan, an O'Riordan, O'Flahertys, essentially, any families that begin with OS or MCS are the people that she follows around. And during the research for this, I found out that the old iteration of my name was O. Delaney.

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

Oh, really?

[Anthony Delaney]

Yeah. Well, O. Dufloina in Irish. No, O'Reilly. And because I initially went looking for you, I was like, I bet you she's after Siobhan somehow.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

And well the max. Yeah, but. And oneals. That's my mother's line.

[Dan Snow]

So.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Yeah. And McCarthy and O'Sullivan.

[Regina Sexton]

I think.

[Siobhan McSweeney]

Y.

[Maddie Pelling]

Dan, do you have any of your own Halloween traditions?

[Dan Snow]

I do now. I'm gonna eat this bread and I'm gonna carve turnips with you guys every.

[Maddie Pelling]

Year until we're dead.

[Anthony Delaney]

Yes, that's quite haunting in itself.

[Maddie Pelling]

Absolutely.

[Dan Snow]

Every year till we're dead anyway.

[Maddie Pelling]

Yeah.

[Dan Snow]

And then perhaps after we're dead as well.

[Anthony Delaney]

Oh.

[Dan Snow]

That's what I've learned today.

[Anthony Delaney]

Irish Halloween. Irish childhood Halloween traditions. Right. What we used to do was dress up in black plastic bags. Did you do that here?

[Maddie Pelling]

Not so much the plastic bags. I would go as a witch every single time.

[Dan Snow]

I think we would go to Argos and get clothes.

[Anthony Delaney]

Ah fancy. No, we dressed up in black plastic bags, bin bags. And then we just had like pound shop masks. I was always Dracula in a plug in a black plastic bag. And then trick or treating around the local area. You get loads of things. Monkey nuts. Is that a thing that you have here? Ah lads, monkey nuts. You need to check out monkey nuts if you don't get them. We get those in the bags and then we do some apple bobbing and then fireworks. But they're illegal in Ireland so we.

[Dan Snow]

Just did dressing up. They used to have that foam like kids like crazy foam which we would spray the spray.

[Maddie Pelling]

Spider's webs.

[Dan Snow]

Yeah, exactly. Yep.

[Maddie Pelling]

Yeah, that was good. I reread all of Mr. James ghost stories every year.

[Regina Sexton]

Right.

[Anthony Delaney]

Even as a child.

[Maddie Pelling]

Yeah. I started reading them really young, probably inappropriately young actually. They're quite frightening.

[Anthony Delaney]

Stop to. Did you trick or treat?

[Maddie Pelling]

No, not so much. We didn't do that.

[Dan Snow]

Oh God, look at this one.

[Maddie Pelling]

I was at home reading a book, reading gothic literature and look where that has got me.

[Anthony Delaney]

Did you trick or treat? Did you go to Houston?

[Dan Snow]

Yeah, we treat. Well my mum's Canadian so we. Little did I know that I was actually channeling my Irish born dad's tradition. But we thought we were doing what my Canadian mother brought up doing which was going around the neighborhood. In the 80s in London lots of people still thought you were a bit weird doing. I mean it wasn't trick or treating was not a thing. And so we'd bang on neighbors doors and they'd be like what is going on with these children now? I think it's. Now.

[Maddie Pelling]

I think it's more acceptable now. Yeah.

[Dan Snow]

Twice I've taken my kids to engage their Canadian and their Irish heritage, it turns out in Toronto, in Canada, and that is like a sort of Hollywood movie version. It's like the sort of central casting version. People decorate their houses, they spray things that like, it's chaos. The streets are closed, there's parades, school gets a day off. Like, it's wild.

[Maddie Pelling]

I love the people who get like the 10 foot tall skeletons and stuff like that. So brilliant.

[Dan Snow]

And so hands that kind of come out of the lawn and grab you as you go following. It's just out of control.

[Anthony Delaney]

Well, lads, if you think that's bad, you need to get yourselves to the west coast of Ireland. All up and down that west coast. Have yourselves a little stay down there. And the wind will be blowing, the nights will be dark, the trick or treaters will be out, the music will be playing and the turnips will be lighting in the windows. That is a scary Halloween. That is an atmospheric Halloween that you do not want to miss out. So forget about going to America, forget about going to Canada. Go to the west coast of Ireland.

[Dan Snow]

Finally, before we go and eat more cake, let's check in on the turnips. Maddie. Oh, look at that. I've gone for a little.

[Maddie Pelling]

A little mouth, a little scary mouth.

[Anthony Delaney]

Oh, it's quite.

[Dan Snow]

It's lovely.

[Anthony Delaney]

Tim Burton esque.

[Maddie Pelling]

Yeah, that's. That was the vibe.

[Dan Snow]

There isn't any space inside for a candle though.

[Maddie Pelling]

I thought maybe in the eyes if.

[Anthony Delaney]

I held them a little bit more Tiny. Tiny.

[Maddie Pelling]

Yeah. Not my best work, but it's acceptable.

[Anthony Delaney]

You're very neat.

[Dan Snow]

You were over there with little chisel, chiseling it out as we were wielding the knife in a. Here.

[Anthony Delaney]

Well, tell me I haven't done a good job.

[Maddie Pelling]

Oh, my goodness.

[Dan Snow]

See, there's a candle inside, so the eyes are glowing. So it's like a little desiccated human head. It's like one of those mummies that you find like underground in Sicily or something.

[Anthony Delaney]

Yeah. Which is absolutely what I was going for.

[Maddie Pelling]

I fear that Anthony might have won, but Dan, go on, show us yours.

[Dan Snow]

Well, never, never miss an opportunity to get the brand out there. I've gone with an hh.

[Anthony Delaney]

And what does that stand for, Dan?

[Dan Snow]

It stands for Happy Halloween.

[Maddie Pelling]

If, if, like me, you have been absolutely taken in by all of this and you want to go to Ireland and experience this for yourself. Anthony, where can people go to find out more?

[Anthony Delaney]

Ireland. But if that's not directly within your remit, then ireland.com can show you the way.