Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Shout out to the Irish as Celtic Irish mythology was the catalyst to starting my writing career. When I was a senior in graduate school, I had to take an independent study. My friend, Kathleen, suggested women in Celtic literature. 

The world of Irish mythology, their matriarchal society, Queen Maedbh of Connaught—who demanded equal rule with her husband, Brigid--goddess of healing, poetry, arts, and crafts like blacksmithing, Macha of the Red Tresses, and Aine—goddess of sun, summer, love, fertility, —was recorded for all to read centuries later. 

According to the book by Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization, Patricius (later to be known as St. Patrick) first arrived to Ireland as a slave from Rome when he was a boy. He suffered extreme cold and malnutrition. He prayed all the time until one day a voice told him that he was going home. He traveled for two hundred miles to a ship took him home. 

The horror of slavery wasn’t lost on Patricius so after he received a theological education, he was called St. Patrick. He went back to Ireland, and they became his people. He established bishops throughout many parts of Ireland and “In his lifetime, the Irish slave trade came to a halt and other forms of violence, murder and intertribal warfare decreased.” (110)

Unfortunately, British Christians didn’t recognize Irish Christians so they suffered from this prejudice. Yet St. Patrick found a way to maintain the Irish psyche and way of life while joining it with Christianity. 

Because Ireland wasn’t invaded during the fall of Rome, great works of literature were saved. 

These myths and histories inspired my first books Warriors Within and Eyes of the Goddess of the Fianna Cycles. I’m currently writing a stand-alone book based on those stories and continuing the rich Irish mythology and magic that still lives deep in Irish culture.