This beautiful book weaves together faith and wonder, miracles and mystery, to tell the little-known story of Saint Ciaran of Ireland.

Revised, expanded edition of expert guide encompasses a history of Aran knitting; complete workshop in technique and design; 60 charted patterns for the original 14 designs, many reknit in contemporary yarns; including a new design. Color photographs.

Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister's book, 'The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran,' delves into the hagiography of one of Ireland's most revered saints, St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise. Through the comparison of Latin and Irish sources, Macalister offers a comprehensive analysis of the life and miracles of St. Ciaran, shedding light on the cultural and religious significance of this early Irish saint. The book is meticulously researched and presented in a scholarly yet accessible manner, making it a valuable resource for students and scholars of early Irish history and hagiography. Macalister's blend of linguistic expertise and historical insight brings new depth to the study of St. Ciaran's life and legacy. Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister, a prominent Celtic scholar and archaeologist, dedicated much of his career to studying ancient Irish texts and monuments. His passion for the preservation and interpretation of early Irish history is evident in 'The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran,' where he skillfully combines his knowledge of language, history, and archaeology to paint a vivid portrait of St. Ciaran and the world in which he lived. I highly recommend 'The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran' to anyone interested in early Irish history, hagiography, or the intersection of language and culture. Macalister's thorough research and insightful analysis make this book a must-read for those looking to deepen their understanding of Ireland's rich religious heritage.

Clonmacnois was one of the main ecclesiastical centres in early Christian Ireland. Yet no comprehensive work has hitherto been published which examines its history as an institution of religious, social and economic life. This book undertakes a detailed analysis of Clonmacnois before and during the age of reform and assesses possible reasons for its subsequent decline as an ecclesiastical centre. It traces the history of the former lay-ecclesiastical aristocracy down to the later Middle Ages, and, using previously neglected evidence surviving in seventeenth-century transcripts, sets out to reconstruct the extent of the former monastic lands.

Shamrock Tea is an Irish drug that enables its users to see things not given to ordinary mortals. They can sense colours and sounds more vividly; they can penetrate the surface of paintings; they can cross time. The narrator, his cousin and a strange Belgian friend know that their lives are ruled mysteriously by the great van Eyck painting, The Arnolfini Portrait, and they have travelled in dream like moments through the painting into other times. They discover that each moment is connected to every other. But in the strange world of Shamrock Tea, no story can be straightforward. With a cast of characters that includes the gardener Ludwig Wittgenstein, this book will blow your mind.

Why do smokers claim that the first cigarette of the day is the best? What is the biological basis behind some heavy drinkers' belief that the "hair-of-the-dog" method alleviates the effects of a hangover? Why does marijuana seem to affect ones problem-solving capacity? Intoxicating Minds is, in the author's words, "a grand excavation of drug myth." Neither extolling nor condemning drug use, it is a story of scientific and artistic achievement, war and greed, empires and religions, and lessons for the future. Ciaran Regan looks at each class of drugs, describing the historical evolution of their use, explaining how they work within the brain's neurophysiology, and outlining the basic pharmacology of those substances. From a consideration of the effect of stimulants, such as caffeine and nicotine, and the reasons and consequences of their sudden popularity in the seventeenth century, the book moves to a discussion of more modern stimulants, such as cocaine and ecstasy. In addition, Regan explains how we process memory, the nature of thought disorders, and therapies for treating depression and schizophrenia. Regan then considers psychedelic drugs and their perceived mystical properties and traces the history of placebos to ancient civilizations. Finally, Intoxicating Minds considers the physical consequences of our co-evolution with drugs—how they have altered our very being—and offers a glimpse of the brave new world of drug therapies.

Last Night's Fun's is a sparking celebration of music and life that is itself a literary performance of the highest order. Carson's inspired jumble of recording history, poetry, tall tales, and polemic captures the sound and vigor of a ruthlessly unsentimental music. Last Night's Fun is remarkable for its liveliness, honesty, scholarship, and spontaneous joy; certainly there has never been a book about Irish music like this one, and few books ever written anywhere about the experience of music can compare with it.

Founding father of the famous monastery on the island of Iona, a site of pilgrimage ever since his death in 597, St Columba was born into one of the ruling families in Ireland at a time of immense expansion for the Irish Church. This account of his life, written by Adomnán - the ninth abbot of Iona, and a distant relative of St Columba - describes his travels from Ireland to Scotland and his mission in the cause of Celtic Christianity there. Written 100 years after St Columba's death, it draws on written and oral traditions to depict a wise abbot among his monks, who like Christ was capable of turning water into wine, controlling sea-storms and raising the dead. An engaging account of one of the central figures in the 'Age of Saints', this is a major work of early Irish and Scottish history.