View from the Big Hills

  Song for Bealteinne Who comes maying, comes maying with me? - Lad and maiden, sweetheart and friend – Softly slip from your house-doors free: Sweet May-night in the woods we'll spend! We'll pass by where the hawthorns white Breathe their bridal odour of love: Not a twig shall we pluck till light - Sweet May-night in the woods we'll rove! Bring ye plenty of bread and ale, Meat and sweet as it pleases ye, bring: Lanterns vying with moonlight pale, In the woods we shall sup and sing! Praise the Goddess-Queen for whose feast Love's the hymnal and kisses the creed: Two and two 'mid the leaves embraced, Sweet May-night in joy let us speed! Bathed in dew when the daybreak is come, Boughs of hawthorn bear we away - Crowned and decked with its sacred bloom, In the morning we'll bring home the May! ~ Vivian Godfrey (aka Past Presider, OBOD) When I reached my early twenties, I often found myself “awaken...

Over the past few months I’ve been carrying out some further research about the great artist and Theosophist, Art O'Murnaghan. As readers will know from my earlier post on him, the trip has taken me down some odd paths that at times appear strange bedfellows – WB Yeats, The Society of the Inner Light, Ella Young, Irish Nationalism, Sara Allgood, Theosophy, Irish Drama, Dion Fortune and Philadelphian whiskey maker, Joseph McGarrity . In these searches I was delighted to come across a 1946 book, All for Hecuba, by Anglo-Irish dramatist and actor, Micheál Mac Liammóir .  A photograph of the book's cover is shown below. In his autobiography Mac Liammóir provides a captivating description of Art acting in Denis Johnston’s play The Old Lady Says No . Art O’Murnaghan wielded the drumsticks with untiring devotion  and a rapt expression like a druid at some sacred rite. He was an elderly saint who worshipped Angus and Lu and the ancient  gods of  Ireland...