🎥 Watch the Song from this Episode

Huge GRMMA to Grace!

🔗 https://youtu.be/BJyO6xRL5KA?si=8dUh09AjWVaT78Ow

Christmas in Ireland — Am na Nollag — is not a single tradition.

It is a layering of customs: Christian belief laid gently over practices far older than Christianity itself. In this episode of Undercover Irish, we explore how Irish Christmas traditions preserve ideas of survival, fire, hunger, and renewal — stretching back to the solstice and the rebirth of the sun.

Using material from the Dúchas Schools' Collection, traditional song, and Irish folklore, this episode traces how Ireland kept not old gods or new gods — but the instructions that worked.

At the heart of the episode are two constants:

• The Kerry Christmas Carol, a song of preparation and fire-keeping
• An Spideog, the robin — a winter bird spared in Irish tradition

Together, they reveal how Irish Christmas still carries the memory of darker winters, lived hunger, and the careful keeping of life.

🔥 What This Episode Explores

• Why Christmas in Ireland is both Christian and pre-Christian
• The tradition of leaving doors unlocked and candles lit for Mary
• The older belief in midwinter as "the birthday of the sun"
• Yule, fire rituals, and survival through darkness
• Why the robin is protected — and the wren is carried out
• How famine and hunger shaped Irish ritual language
• What Irish Christmas customs tell us about continuity, not belief

📜 Dúchas Schools' Collection Sources 🎄 Christmas Night — Belcarra, County Mayo

Accounts of leaving the door open and a candle in the window on Christmas Night so that Mary might find shelter and leave her blessing on the house.

🔗 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4427957

☀️ "The Birthday of Our Sun" — Carnadough, County Longford

A Schools' Collection account recording local belief that midwinter was once known as "the birthday of our sun".

🔗 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4490871

🔥 Yule and the Feast of the Sun — Carnadough, County Longford

An accompanying entry stating plainly that "Yule meant the feast of the Sun", and describing midwinter fire customs.

🔗 https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4490873

🎶 Featured Song

The Kerry Christmas Carol

Traditional Irish Christmas song emphasising preparation, hearth-keeping, and survival through winter.

▶️ Watch / listen on YouTube:

❤️ Support Undercover Irish

If you enjoy deep dives into Irish history, folklore, language, and tradition, you can support the podcast and access bonus material on Patreon.

🔗Undercover Irish | Patreon

🎥 Watch the Song from this Episode

Huge GRMMA to Grace!

🔗 https://youtu.be/BJyO6xRL5KA?si=8dUh09AjWVaT78Ow