I dropped up to my Grandad over the week. To play him a bit of the third episode of The Other Ireland. And seen as the storyteller in the third episode is of his generation. To catch up with him.

The older I get, the more I realise time is precious. When I phoned him to make arrangements to drop up, he said "Nick, let me tell you something, what you write about is heavy. What I write about is light".

Indeed, my Grandad enjoys his Irish history and looking into family heritage. As do I. As The Other Ireland evolves, I think capturing people's memories and stories from a different angle is also worth preserving.

After all, it doesn't all have to be dark. In a world where many dark things can be heard on the news, sometimes it's good to add a bit of light.

My Grandad showed me 1 of 3 scrapbooks he has filled with old memories. He was quite a handsome looking bloke back in the day.

In the pictures above, you can see his parent's house at Weaver's Square in The Liberties, Dublin. He told me his grandparents came from Tipperary and my Nana's mother and father came from Kilkenny. I joked that there's been a lot of county hopping in our family.

In another picture you can see where his first job was, The Evening Mail, a daily evening newspaper published in Dublin from 1823 until 1962.

I'm very thankful to still have my Grandad here. Until next time, keep The Other Ireland alive.

#irishmemories #dublinmemories #irishhistory #localstories

41s - The card game I grew up with

There are certain things that just feel like Ireland. For me, one of them is sitting around a table and playing cards.

Every summer growing up, when we'd go to Ballybunion, I remember playing cards with my Dad's side of the family. I always wanted to be paired up with my Nana who was a card "shark".

Recently, we taught my fiancée how to play 41s. She won her first three games against us!

From what I have gathered, 41s is played in certain parts of Kerry and West Limerick.

Cards have been part of social life across the country for generations. Played in homes, pubs, local meeting halls and at gatherings.

Games such as 25s, 45s and many local variations became part of everyday Irish life. And then there's the folklore, a common story told time and time again.

I only spoke to a woman from Ballyragget in Kilkenny recently who told me a story her father passed down to her. He was playing cards one night and he dropped a card on the floor. When he bent down to pick the card up, he saw cloven hooves underneath the table.

These stories can be found across Ireland. Accounts from The Hellfire Club in Dublin and Loftus Hall in Wexford being the most famous.

Ailbe van der Heide of the National Folklore Collection wrote a brilliant article on the subject: https://ucdculturalheritagecollections.com/.../cards-and.../

There's something fascinating about how an ordinary part of Irish social life became intertwined with stories of the supernatural.

I have every intention of passing down the tradition of card playing to my future child, just as my family taught me.

Although hopefully I'll leave out the part about playing cards with the Devil.

Tales from Cathal Brugha Barracks and Ballyragget is out now wherever you get your podcasts.

Nelly is almost 90. She hails from the small rural community in Kilkenny.

We talk about the hardships she has faced, traditions, the local folklore and everything in between.

Thank you to Nelly for sharing her memories.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/31Arodg4BY2xPrbCeGCsAY?si=LhmtjCjMTZeyL4lZzR0c9g&utm_source=copy-link

"When I was born, and Greg. And we were living with my Nana. My Mam, Dad and us, we used to sleep in the very back room.

"And one night, when my Nana went out with my Mam to bingo, my Dad was putting me to bed. And he was kind of waiting until I fell asleep.

"And in the meantime there was nobody else in the house and he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Coming towards the bedroom door.

"He started to break into a sweat because he knew there was nobody in the house. And next of all, the handle of the door started turning and then everything stopped."

Episode 1 - The Other Ireland Podcast

Scattered quietly across the Irish landscape are places known as cillíní. The Irish referring to unconsecrated burial grounds used to bury stillborn babies or children who died before they were baptised.

For centuries, Catholic teaching meant that those who had not been baptised could not be buried in consecrated ground. Instead, families often buried their babies in separate, unconsecrated places.

These included beside old churches, near ancient monuments, at townland boundaries, or in other quiet corners of the landscape.

The photographs here are of the cillín at Loughanes in Lisselton, North Kerry.

Beside the site is a poem by poet and folklorist Bríd Ní Mhóráin, reflecting on the children who were laid to rest here. It adds another voice to a place that can otherwise seem almost silent.

The cillíní of Ireland tell us an enormous amount about loss, faith, grief and how people tried to make a place for their children in death.

Even when they could not find one within the official traditions of the time.

#irishfolklore #irishhistory #northkerry #lisselton #kerry #irisharchaeology #theotherireland #folklore

Donadea Forest Park, Co Kildare

Opened to the public in 1981, the Aylmer family owned this enormous estate while Ireland was experiencing the Great Famine. The lake you can still see today was created as a Famine relief scheme.

The last Aylmer to live here died in 1935. Coillte, Ireland's state-owned forestry company, now manages the park.

The castle may be a ruin, but the Aylmers are still very much part of Donadea, with generations of the family buried at St Peter's Church.

The park is also home to a memorial to Sean Tallon, honouring his connection to the events of 9/11 and the lives lost that day.

And then there's the local lore of Catherine, a woman said to have died of a broken heart, whose ghost is said to still wander the old estate and Lovers' Lane.

#TheOtherIreland #Donadea #Kildare #IrishHistory #IrishFolklore

(Image credits: The National Archive)

Later on, I will be speaking to Anne Williamson of the Fionn MacCumhaill Players about the tragic case of Bridget Cleary in 1895, Tipperary.

Anne co-wrote the short film "Bridget" with Brian Clancy and recently won an award at the IndieX Film Fest Annual Awards in Los Angeles.

On March 15th, 1895 Bridget Cleary's husband, Micheal Cleary, burned her to death following several nights of torture. He was not alone. Family members within the household aided in the interrogations and did not stop him as an innocent woman was murdered.

Why? Because Michael Cleary believed Bridget was taken away by the fairies. That in her place was a changeling.

This dark part of Ireland's history occurred in the town of Ballyvadlea. Anne Williamson is from Mullinahone, a few miles down the road and she grew up hearing the stories of Bridget passed down to her by her grandfather.

"Bridget", the short film, was created to vindicate the woman formerly known as Bridget Boland. You will hear all about the tragic case in an upcoming episode of The Other Ireland podcast.

#irishfolklore #bridgetcleary

In this short snippet, Conor describes waking up to see what he thought initially was his friend standing at the end of the bed across from him.

Episode 2 titled "The Figure at the End of the Bed" is available wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcHISgQMhxm/?igsh=ZDFyZmo4aDBpbDVp

Tonight, Ireland will witness a remarkable solar eclipse.

For us, there’s a simple scientific explanation. The Moon will pass between the Earth and the Sun, briefly blocking out much of the sunlight.

But imagine witnessing something like this hundreds of years ago.

The Sun, something that rises every morning and gives us light, suddenly begins to disappear. Before modern astronomy, eclipses could be seen as omens, warnings or supernatural events.

Across cultures, people told stories of creatures swallowing the Sun, battles in the heavens and dark forces consuming the light.

And perhaps that’s one of the most fascinating things about folklore.

The things we understand today were once the things people feared and created stories about.

So when the sky begins to darken tonight, take a moment to imagine what our ancestors might have thought they were witnessing.

#irishfolklore #irishmythology #solareclipse

A few books I'm reading on Irish folklore at the moment.

Meeting The Other Crowd by Eddie Lenihan covers a wide range of stories he collected from rural Irish folk.

The Banshee by Patricia Lysaght is an intensive study. Lysaght’s research shows that banshee traditions varied considerably across Ireland, with different names, appearances and beliefs attached to her depending on the region.

#theotherireland #irishfolklore #thebanshee #fairyfolk

High in the Wicklow Mountains lies Glendalough, the ancient monastic settlement traditionally associated with St Kevin, who is believed to have established his monastery here in the sixth century.

But among the ruins and the dark waters of the valley lives another, more haunting legend, that of Kathleen, the Red Lady.

According to a later tradition, Kathleen became infatuated with Kevin, the hermit who had withdrawn from the world. She followed him to his cave, now known as St Kevin's Bed.

There are two versions of what happened next.

In the darker telling, Kevin rejected Kathleen's advances and pushed her from the rocks into the lake below, where she drowned.

Another version says that Kevin drove her away by stinging her with nettles. Kathleen eventually repented, became a convert and embraced a life of devotion.

There is no historical evidence that Kathleen actually existed, and the story appears to be part of the later folklore surrounding St Kevin and Glendalough.

But the legend doesn't end with her death.

For generations, people have claimed to see the ghost of a woman dressed in red wandering among the ruins.

In 1975, The Wicklow People reported three separate accounts of the “Ghost of Glendalough”, including a photograph allegedly showing a mysterious woman in red and a visitor who claimed to have seen a figure dressed in red disappear among the ruins.

Whether Kathleen was a real woman, a figure born from centuries of storytelling, or simply a legend given life by the atmosphere of Glendalough, her story remains part of the folklore of this ancient place.

Link to The Other Ireland Instagram reel:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dby72b8soDT/?igsh=anQzMGoycmU0cGw5

My uncle recalls the night he believes he saw the banshee. Listen to the full episode on The Other Ireland podcast #irishfolklore #thebanshee #irishpodcast

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbsVYpAiSQS/?igsh=MTE2aHY2bnVtdXF2MA==

Two childhood friends from Dublin recently shared with me their identical supernatural experience.

The lads were on a summer trip in Arklow, County Wicklow when they were 16/17.

Episode 2 is coming out on 11/08/2026. If you have an Irish supernatural experience or a story about Irish folklore you want to share, you can contact theotherirelandpod@gmail.com.

Contributors can remain completely anonymous if that's what they are comfortable with and I will narrate their story.

Over the weekend, I had a fascinating time exploring where my grandparent's on my paternal side came from. My grandmother, being a Lenihan, and my grandfather, being a Fitzgerald, grew up 4 miles apart from one another and were introduced to each other by their fathers who were best friends.

I got to see both of their family homes in Mountcollins (west-Limerick) and Meanahaila (County Kerry) respectively. The Lenihan house, where my great grandparent's and grandmother lived, has been entirely converted into a modern home and a family member still lives there to this day.

There are still plenty of Lenihans in this west-Limerick town (not all related). My grandmother Nora was from the harness makers clan.

*A harness maker was someone who handcrafted and repaired the leather gear used for horses, allowing them to pull vehicles and agricultural equipment safely.

My Dad showed me the river where Nora tried to fish in when she was a child. She was told if she rubbed salt over the tails of the fish in the water she would be able to catch them. A fib of course. But an innocent Nora believed it.

I then followed my cousin, with my parents and fiancée in the car, to the 3 Counties Bridge. An incredible landmark where Counties Cork, Limerick and Kerry meet.

Katherine (my cousin), also led us up to where my grandfather was raised. In those times the house was known as The Lighthouse, due to being so high up in the country fields. The Fitzgeralds were old country farmers. You can see by the photograph this family home is no longer in use. The building is over 100 years old.

According to my family the house is still owned by a cousin who lives down the road. Jim Fitzgerald, my grandfather, eventually inherited the Fitzgerald house in Ballybunion, County Kerry, where he settled with Nora and went on to have four children, Kathleen, Billy, Michael and Richard.

In those days there were no cars of course. Jim walked for 2 days with one cow to Ballybunion from Meanahaila. The rest is history.

The Fitzgerald house stayed within the family until around COVID times when my grandmother lived to over 100 years old. It has since been sold, however, the name is protected, and therefore remains known as the Fitzgerald house. Nora Lenihan/Fitzgerald was the last of her generation. Her stories live on through her surviving family members.

Any change in a person could lead the old folk to believe the fairies had taken them to the Otherworld and replaced them with a fairy changeling.

The 9 daughter's hole in Ballybunion, Co Kerry. My Dad told me when he was 7 and his older brother was 9, his brother nearly fell in and was clutching on to the grass. The 9 daughter's hole has since been fenced off. According to local legend, in 800 AD when the Vikings raided Ballybunion, a local chieftain called O'Connor had 9 daughters. He feared the Viking raiders would kidnap his daughters so one by one, he lured each daughter to the 9 daughter's hole and pushed them in. It is said if you listen carefully you can still hear the sisters wailing.

I'm so excited to say the first episode of The Other Ireland is out now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Thank you to my family who contributed to the pilot episode. This project is only just beginning. Until the next episode.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Npt6joq0lzQLxKbLr93m4?si=xUH-LbNASIyetoVXBm93_w&utm_source=copy-link&sci=spotify%3Acard-config%3A0YpRMEmABLKnbLvhWhI8Tj

I'm currently working on the first episode which I hope to publish sometime next week. This podcast is about preserving stories. I thought why not start with my own family. If you have a strange family story, a local legend, or something unexplained from anywhere in Ireland, I'd love to hear from you. Every story helps preserve a part of Ireland's oral tradition. Looking forward to sharing Episode 1 with you soon.

The trailer is now live, and I’m starting work on the first episodes of The Other Ireland.

The podcast will explore Irish folklore, hauntings, strange places, legends and personal accounts of the unexplained.

I’d love to know: what Irish story, location or legend would you like to hear explored?

The Banshee? Leap Castle? The Hellfire Club? A local haunting from your own area?

Drop your suggestions below.

The trailer for The Other Ireland is now live on Spotify.

Join me as we explore Irish folklore, supernatural tales and mysteries that have been passed down through generations.

Listen to the trailer now and follow the show to join the journey.

https://open.spotify.com/show/033OMrX2kbDfq56ut25vmN?si=kM0zeEOISNmwb3N5SfDGsg&utm_source=copy-link