Crann na beatha Stories and Poetry

A programing note to start off: I tried just offering audio files to accompany these weekly articles and after retrospect, I decided to go back to videos again. You have the choice, once again, of watching me or just reading the article. If you truly just want to listen to an audio post, you can find the audio podcast on most major podcast platforms and also on my website at www.crann-na-beatha.com. Thank you for indulging me once again.

Fáilte

Welcome to The Village Oak Tree

I am your host, Terrance Ó Domhnaill.

Thank you for joining me.

I have so much going on this month, I’m having trouble keeping up, so I’m going to make this a short one this week, sort of.

Lately, I’ve been picking up more and more IT gig work from this company I’ve been working for, for the last five years. They want me to take care of corporate computer refreshes and network printer installs out the wazoo lately and I can’t seem to get ahead on my own work. The worst part is, like all gig work, the pay sucks and there’s no benefits. How many of you can relate?

This week, I want to touch on a point again about something near and dear to my heart. I know I’ve said this a few times before that I’m married to a foreign born wife, who has a daughter living in another state, also foreign born and these days, I’m constantly worried for their safety.

So, gather round, sit you down somewhere comfortable for a bit and let’s talk about what Trump’s latest anti-immigrant foreign policies might mean for people like us.

I watched a MS Now news story last Sunday about a Chinese asylum seeker that hit home for me and it got me thinking about all of this again. I’m also including this story from Zeteo that they published last Sunday to add to this.

Trump and Stephen Miller want to come after everyone they don’t like, period, full stop. They’ve never tried to hide this but in the last week, they’ve decided to ramp things up even more.

In the wake of the killing and wounding of those two national guard soldiers a couple of weeks ago, Trump and company have decided that immigration services will now be tasked with “reviewing” all green card holders and naturalized citizenship grantees from nineteen countries that Trump and Miller have decided that are national security risks or high risk.

They even pulled out a couple of people from the que at a naturalization ceremony in Boston last week because they were originally from one of the countries on Trump’s new list. They were told to just go home. Their swearing in ceremony canceled indefinitely as they do a deeper dive on their records. Now, they’re worried about being deported.

In accordance with The Office of Homeland Security Statistics, there are approximately 12.8 million legal Permanent residents with valid green cards living in the U.S. Many of whom have been living here for decades. According to the Migrant Policy Institute, there are nearly 25 million naturalized citizens living in the U.S. Both classes of immigrants constituting nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population now in 2025. Do the Project 2025 founders truly think they will remain in power long enough to deport 10 percent of the American population at some point in the future? Anyone with half a brain knows they can’t possibly do this by the end of 2028, so what’s their plan?

Back in 2011, I was single and dating a French Canadian widow for a time, who has been living in the U.S. under a green card for decades. Her kids, adults, were born in the U.S. We were both living in a border town in north eastern Maine and she has extensive family living across the border in New Brunswick, Canada. I would take her to visit her family members now and again during the year we dated and I never had any issues crossing back and forth across the border at either the Limestone, Maine crossing or at the Madawaska, Maine crossing. The point I’m making here, is that there are a lot of Canadians living in the U.S. with just green cards from Maine to Washington State. What if Trump decides on a whim that he doesn’t like Canadians and wants them all deported, regardless of immigration status? This is what he’s saying he wants to do to the Somalians, Haitians, Afghans and all of these people from the 19 countries he’s just decided he doesn’t like.

Think about that for a minute. This means that valid Permanent Resident Aliens with green cards are no longer safe, especially if they’re from one of these nineteen countries. As we all know, this list will expand at the whim of Der Führer. Rubio has been revoking green cards since last January, so this is nothing real new, but it is an expansion, something those of us who’ve been paying attention, have said would be coming.

We’re there now.

On top of all of that, there is the story I mentioned at the beginning of today’s show. That story about the Chinese immigrant who came to the U.S. to apply for sanctuary, or asylum as they call it. CBP arrested him at his last immigration check in meeting a couple of months ago and they also took his six year old son into custody as well. Who has now been disappeared into the U.S. foster care system somewhere.

Then there is this story from Al Jazeera I found yesterday, about how all of these minor children are being treated in these makeshift child detention centers as they wait for something to happen regarding their immigration cases.

US authorities acknowledge immigrant children held beyond court-set limit

Court filings indicate that several kids were held for up to 168 days, far surpassing the 20-day limit on custody in facilities not licensed for childcare.

From Al Jazeera

Can you imagine knowing that there are children getting sick with food born illnesses and poisonings from rotten food in these places? How many have died? We may never know.

Remember the outrage Americans had when Trump was cruelly separating minor children from their parents at the southern border during Trump’s first term? Where is that outrage now? It’s still happening, despite new laws stating that ICE and CBP can’t do that anymore.

It’s no longer happening just to immigrants from Latin American countries any more. It’s happening to anyone who is in the U.S. without a valid green card or is not a naturalized citizen. The news media for the most part, is now ignoring this obvious humanitarian crime, likely because they’re afraid of Trump.

For me personally, this is another wakeup call. I’ve already had several conversations with my Chinese born wife in the last few months, and I had another one last Sunday. She tells me not to scare her or her daughter, whom I consider to be my step-daughter, but they need to know they’re not safe anymore.

I’ll wait a little to see what the six justices on the corrupt supreme court are going to do about Trump’s executive order gutting the 14th amendment before I talk to my step daughter and son in-law. He’s a first generation native born American of Chinese descent but, if the six justices rule in Trump’s favor, he will no longer be safe anymore either.

If Trump decides that he doesn’t like China enough to get froggy and decide to deport all of the Chinese immigrants and first generation citizens just because, no one is safe anymore, unless you look like Trump and Miller.

Of course, the supreme court could rule in favor of the 14th amendment and it will become a moot point. Trump will be handed another judicial defeat and he’ll find something else to use to go after immigrants and asylum seekers with.

My wife and I have a dear friend who left the United States a couple of years ago to go back and live in her home country of Mauritius. She’s young and idealistic and we love her for that but. She recently posted on her a Facebook page that she was feeling a little melancholy about not living in the U.S. anymore. She had a valid green card when she left but I don’t know if it’s still valid anymore. I warned her about coming back now and I strongly advised her against it. She has a darker complexion than I do and now that she’s reestablished residency in her home country, CBP may not even let her back into the U.S. anymore. The last thing she needs right now is to be detained by customs at an airport and sent to a nasty detention center to await deportation back to Mauritius.

I hope she listens. I told her that the United States she remembers from a couple of years ago is gone now. It’s not safe for anyone. Much less anyone trying to come live here from another country, even if they have valid permanent residency or even have attained naturalized citizenship. For resident aliens, they’re not allowed to live outside of the country for more than a year at a time, so that would be her first problem. If she did manage to get her naturalized citizenship before she left, which I don’t remember if she did or not, they could just revoke it while she’s being held at a concentration camp and still be deported. Trumps state department has been doing this a lot lately. Notably, it’s been for immigration violations or criminal activity for the most part, but they’ve also been doing it to student activists and so on as well since last January.

Immigration Agents Have Often Grabbed and Mistreated Citizens, Congressional Investigators Find

Prompted by ProPublica’s reporting, an investigation by Senate Democrats documented the experiences of nearly two dozen citizens wrongly detained by immigration agents, contradicting the Trump administration’s claims that it only detains immigrants.

From ProPublica.org

So, bottom line, if you’re living outside of the U.S. and are not a native born citizen, your citizenship status is not a guarantee of reentry anymore.

As for those folks living in the U.S. who are not native born, Trump and Miller may be coming for you eventually, unless the courts find a way to stop them. We all know how feckless the congress has been so they won’t do anything to stop them unless the democrats retake the congress at the end of 2026.

They’re targeting the Latin Americans first and foremost because there are so many of them and they’re relatively easy targets. ICE and CBP have also been going after Africans from central and South Africa just because Trump doesn’t like them as well. He’s also going after Haitians, Afghans and Somalis now too. Basically, anyone he says comes from one of his “Shithole” countries.

Do you hear what I’m saying? They’re looking for any excuse, even going so far as to make up excuses, in order to deport anyone they don’t like the looks of.

Issuance of H1 B and other work visas are at an all-time low right now, and the ability of people from elsewhere to apply for asylum has effectively been shut off now. All applications have been paused in the wake of the shooting of the two national guard soldiers in Washington D.C. a couple of weeks ago. Which means that any asylum applicants residing in the U.S. are now fair game for ICE and CBP.

On top of all of that, Trump is also trying to export all of this white supremacy to western Europe with his new NSS foreign policy paper. He recently excoriated the Anglo Europeans for letting in so many immigrants from countries whose people aren’t like them. He blames all of the economic woes of the EU on past excessive immigration policies and he strongly suggested they follow his example in the U.S. to get rid of their immigrants and undesirables.

Which has riled up the Europeans. They’re openly criticizing Trump for trying to tell them how to run their countries. This is from the people, not the governments or EU council, although I’m sure they’re having some more quiet back room talks about the Americans regarding all of this.

Although allowing too many immigrants into western Europe in the past has caused some economic woes, it can’t be solely blamed for Europe’s current economic problems. But that’s another story for another day.

If anyone has been reading my articles or listening to this podcast, and remembers what I asked everyone last week, I want you to ask yourself that question again this week. What are you truly scared of right now if you’re not a native born citizen of more than one generation?

If you’re not a native born American, you probably should be on alert these days, no matter what your citizenship status is. Last week, I talked about the fear of food and shelter insecurity for the poorest amongst us. This week I can add to that, the fear of a revocation of citizenship and deportation for all non-native born people of any immigration status residing in the United States and the very real scenario of being separated from your children when they get around to coming after you.

Keep an eye on this birth right citizenship case being looked at by the supreme court now. No one knows how they may rule but once they really start looking at it and things get leaked out, and they will, stand by.

I’m watching all of this very carefully as it’s personal for me. What about you? How personal could all of this be for some of you?

I will leave you with that question this week as I take my break. When I return, I’ll read another chapter from The Priest by Michael Campi once again.

Speaking of my advertisement, I’ve been actively reworking my website over the course of the last couple of weeks, and now we’re into December and I’m still not finished yet. I’m creating massive expansions of the content inside, along with a complete cosmetic makeover. I still have another week or two before I’ll be ready to launch it so stay tuned. Meanwhile, the old one is still up, in case anyone’s interested. I’m doing all of the work myself so it’s taking a while to complete as I have a few other things drawing my attention away. So, with that said, go to my website and donate or buy a book. All proceeds go directly to my efforts to bring all of this to you once a week.

Go raibh maith agat, thank you for watching or listening to the show today. I hope you enjoyed it and that you’ll return again to listen to me offer a voice to what a lot of people are thinking these days.

As I say good bye this week, I want you to think about what the U.S may look like if Trump is allowed to keep doing as he’s doing? Is it still a place you feel comfortable living in anymore? Slán go fóill.

Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This venture is an experiment to see if anyone likes these kinds of stories. I have more, if there’s an interest. If you don’t like stories like this, let it go and I’ll be back with my regular podcast next Wednesday for those who would rather I talk and write about what’s going on in the world. If you do like it, let me know.

Fáilte

Welcome to The Village Oak Tree

I am your seanchaí, Terrance Ó Domhnaill.

Thank you for joining me.

Today, I'm going to start reading a short story I wrote a couple of years ago. I will break it down into short bits so the written portion fits on your mobiles and give it to you over the next couple of weekends. If people tell me they like this sort of thing now and again, I'll do it again sometime. I have a few other stories I've written, plus some of the olde ones that I can bring to the village oak tree to tell.

So, gather round, sit you down somewhere comfortable for a bit and let me tell you the story of Sean Murphy and The Púka of Log na Coille.

Sean Murphy, Big Murph as his mates called him in the local pub, was a big man, both in size and temperament, he always had been. And he knew it too. He never had a problem pushing himself around the town trying to be the big man and being well liked by all of his neighbors and mates.

He was a noted hiker and loved to hike up on Log na Coille or Lug Mountain as the tourists called it, from where he lived in the little town of Cnoc an Aragain (Knocknarrigan). He would go up for hours at a time looking for lost treasures left by the tourists and the legend of Sidhe treasure whenever he had free time. Truth be told, he was more interested in finding the Sidhe treasure that was supposed to be on this mountain, according to the old stories.

Tourists rarely left anything of real value but he would always take a small bag because, as he would tell his mates over a pint, “You never know what you might find up there someday”. He knew the towns people thought he was a bit touched in the head over his obsession with finding any Sidhe treasure but he wasn’t afraid of anyone and he would tell them so after he’d downed a pint or two. No one dared to come right out and say it to his face as he would threaten them with a thrashing if they did.

Despite the snickering and remarks behind his back, he continued his trips up the mountain to see what he could find. When he was younger, he would brag to any and all about how he was going to find the Sidhe gold someday and show them all he was right. As he never found anything through the years, he eventually stopped talking about it in the pub. He knew everyone was making fun of him but he just knew it was only a matter of time. He told himself he mustn’t give up the quest.

By now, he was starting to get a little on in years and his little shop was doing well enough for him to get by comfortably these days. The fever to find a rich hoard of Sidhe gold wasn’t as strong as it was in his more adventurous younger days. Nowadays, he continued to scavenge the tourist trails, looking for lost items like the occasional gold bracelet or other small treasures, all lost by the many tourists who climbed the trail around the mountain. What little he found, he would take to the local lost and found in the town and if no one claimed it within a certain time, he’d pawn it off and drink the money up at the pub.

He usually went up the mountain late in the afternoons on the weekends, after most of the tourists had left the park. Lug mountain was not a place to be wandering the trails after dark though. There were the usual dangers of the fog and rain at the top and in the valleys around. Then, there were all of the legends of the Fae who were supposed to be out and about in the more rugged areas off the marked trails.

This is where Big Murph liked to go after he had scavenged the tourist trails. Especially if he didn’t find anything of value around the tourist trails. He had lived in Cnoc an Aragain all of his life and he knew all of the stories. He also knew that despite the legends, the mountain could be dangerous all on its own. There were rocky cliffs and hard walking off the trails where a man could make a wrong turn or trip on a rock and it would be over before anyone could find him.

On this particular Saturday, he waited until late afternoon, as he was wont to do, before setting out on the main trail from town. He’d been this way so many times since his youth, he could hike it blindfolded. Not that he would. Despite his familiarity, there were too many things that could happen without warning, such as the weather, and it didn’t pay to take chances or take anything for granted.

While he walked up the familiar trail, he would tip his hat to the tourists. It paid to be nice as they provided the town a nice revenue stream from their tourism. His little shop being one of the beneficiaries of that money. Sean Murphy’s shop sold metal trinkets that he made himself out in a little shop in the back of his store. There were little metal bracelets and necklaces for the ladies, window chimes, and other tourist knickknacks made in the shapes of the wee folk of the stories. He found out years ago that superstition sells and, although it took a little while, he was now selling enough to make a decent living.

He whistled a little ditty as he headed up the mountain this day and with the sun warming his back as it settled in the afternoon sky, he felt pretty good. “A good day for a hike with me bag over my shoulder,” he thought.

As it was starting to get close to sundown, he noticed that the tourists had pretty much all left the trails for the day. There were still one or two stragglers but they were headed down as well. He was the only one going up. “Good, now I can have the mountain to meself,” he says to no one in particular.

He hiked up to his usual spot on the trail, which was a lookout place where the tourists could look out across the valley and enjoy the view. This was usually where he set up his metal detector kit to start looking for lost valuables. Once he had everything ready, he would start walking back and forth over the sides of the trails to see if someone dropped something or anything else he found of an unusual nature.

As he started out this afternoon, he just did his usual sweeps without thinking, out of habit more than anything else. While walking through the heather on each side of the trail, he started thinking again about the stories of Sidhe treasures that were supposedly somewhere up on this mountain.

There have been stories about this treasure horde being guarded by the Sidhe going back as far as anyone could remember. Big Murph always wanted to be the one to find the fabled treasure so he could be the local hero.

While he walked around looking for lost items this evening just before twilight, he thought he saw something move just out of eye sight. Just a hint of movement for a brief moment off to the right side of the trail ahead. He stopped and stood in the trail in order to focus a little more at where he thought he saw the movement. He stood looking out over the open heather for a couple of minutes but he didn’t see anything so he chalked it up to imagination.

He continued his sweep of the trails and noticed the clouds starting to move in over the southern horizon. Sean watched to see if they were going to come in fast. He didn’t want to get caught up here in a downpour. The nearest place to get out of the weather was over a half hour away towards the top of the mountain.

Sean knew of a rocky outcropping that would give him some marginal shelter from a rain storm but he was too far away yet to be able to make it ahead of a fast-moving thunderstorm. As he watched, the clouds seem to be moving very slowly so he determined that it would likely be raining on the morrow. If he was going to find anything this weekend, it would have to be tonight.

Sean was a little uncomfortable being on the mountain after dark but he had his torch with him so he wasn’t too awfully worried. Since the trails were well worn and marked with signs, he knew he could find his way back to town with little trouble after dark. He had hiked these trails for years and knew them all too well.

Sean continued scanning the sides of the trails. So far, he was not finding anything of value tonight. Just after sundown, with just a sliver of sunlight on the horizon, Sean thought he saw movement in the meadow off to the right again. Once again, he stopped and looked to see if there was something there.

This time he pulled out his torch and started shining it around to see if he could find whatever was moving around out there. Again, nothing. Sean was starting to get a little anxious. He normally didn’t scare too easily but a chance meeting with one of the Sidhe here on the mountain, in the dark, made him nervous. They were very dangerous, according to the old stories, and Sean was no match for their Fae magic. He didn’t want to get taken away, as they were supposed to do, into one of the Sidhe mounds, never to be seen again.

Sean decided that he should pack it up. He was too nervous and had lost the mood to continue his search for trinkets and gold. As he kneeled down to start putting everything away, he heard a sound like someone clearing their throat. He looked up and saw a horse with blazing red eyes, a coat as dark as coal, and a mane that was blowing in the breeze, when there was no breeze, standing on the trail in front of him. The horse said, “tráthnóna maith (tranona maa) (good evening).”

Sean started with his eyes going wide as saucers. He knew what this was and wanted no part of it. This had to be a púka, a trickster sprit of the mountain. The púka stared at him and asked him in the Gael, “What’re you doing up here so late in the day?” Sean, even though having grown up speaking Irish as a first language, had to think for a minute before answering as it had been a while since he’d talked to anyone in Gaeilge.

Sean gathered his wits and explained to the púka, “I’ve been looking for treasures left behind by the tourists but I was just leaving for the night,” and tried to excuse himself. He hoped the púka would take the hint and leave him be. Not so. He told Sean, “I know where the Sidhe keep some of their treasures and I can lead you to it, if you want?”

Now Sean, being very anxious at the moment, wasn’t sure he understood the púka right. He asked him to say that again, slower this time. The púka cocked his head and looked at Sean as if to say, are you deaf or something? He repeated himself with a little annoyance in his voice and Sean quietly thought it over for a bit.

Sean knew all about how púka’s liked to trick people for their own pleasure and he wasn’t in the mood to play games with the fae, with himself being alone out here after dark. But he worried that if he tried to just brush him off, something bad might happen and he certainly didn’t want that. Better to play the game to see where it leads. He reasoned that the worst thing that could happen would be a night out in the dark talking to a púka.

That’s the end of part 1 for this weekend. If you like this story so far, let me know in the comments.

I also want to dedicate this new weekend story adventure to my fiction writing friends here on Substack, Kathrine Elaine, ReddOscarwrites, Shadows and Space, Stone, Soil and Soul and Crann na beatha, who have inspired me to post some stories of my own to see if anyone likes them.

Thank you for joining me here and I will be back next week with more. Sláinte

Thanks for reading Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Fáilte

Welcome back to another episode of Crann na beatha Stories and Poetry

I am Terrance Ó Domhnaill, your village scéalaí, returning again this week after my holiday with more stories and poems from authors around the world.

This week, I have three stories and two poems

I continue with The Grave Diggers of Orpheus chapter 10, another short scary story from the same author, an scary Irish story from a Medium writer, and two poems. I will be reading one of my own scary poems this week as this is the last show before Samhain and finish up with a nice thought provoking, meditative poem from Bulgaria.

Some notes about future changes to this show. I had talked before about making some changes regarding this show starting in November and I decided to stretch things out a bit. I will continue the current schedule and title until next July but I will be uploading the shows under The Village Oak Tree heading on rss.com starting in November. The same for my Substack page. By next July, everything will be under that heading and Crann na beatha Stories and Poetry as a separate show will cease. I figured it would be better for everyone if I changed things up slowly rather than doing anything abrupt.

So gather round once more and let me read to you under the shade of the Crann na beatha, the tree of life. 

To offer a glimpse into what I did last week while on holiday, I will give you a couple of details.

My wife and I went up to Brooklyn, New York so my wife could celebrate our youngest grandson’s first birthday. Sounds simple enough, right?

Our difficulty lies in that we drove our RV motorhome. I hate hotels. I managed to find an RV campsite somewhat close to Brooklyn, in Jersey City, New Jersey. The campground had high ratings in our guidebook and their website touted the closeness to the Statue of Liberty, plus upscale camping facilities and so on.

It turned out to be just the opposite. The campground was run down and shabby looking, run by some folks who needed to find some investors. The electrical system was a mess with me fighting with it to keep things on. We kept tripping breakers when we needed something besides just lights. The place was just an old converted downtown parking lot next to the dock yards. Miles from the Statue of Liberty. You could see it from the docks but it was at least five miles off. I did manage to get a couple of pictures with my large zoom lens.

My son in-law told me that the reason the place was so expensive, was that Jersey City is considered a high rent district. Given the high rises surrounding us, I could believe it but my issue was the deception by the campground. The place looked nothing like the pictures on their website. Needless to say, we will never stay there again.

Otherwise, the visit with children and grandchildren was great. They went to the restaurant to eat and enjoy the party and I stayed behind at my son in-law’s house to dog sit and get a little work done on my book. Everybody was happy.

We like to travel in our RV whenever we can. My wife loves to visit national and state parks to enjoy nature, or as much as one can from an RV park. We have visited some parks where there were no hookups per say and had a great time. We have also discovered RV parks that sucked and marked them off our list of returns someday.

My wife wants me to take her back to Key West, Florida someday so she can watch the sunrise and sunset from the same camping spot. We didn’t get to do that last time we went a couple years ago.

Next year, we are going out west to make a loop through all of the more famous national parks, such as Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Bryson Canyon, the Grand Canyon and so forth. I will take lots of pictures to share.

In the meantime, I will keep reading stories and poems throughout the cold weather months much like my ancestors did in ancient times. We don’t have a meeting hall with a big fireplace to sit around drinking mead while the seanchaí tells the old stories these days but I do try to bring something close to that here.

That’s it for this week. I appreciate everyone who drops by to listen to the stories and poems, and read a little bit about my adventures now and again. Sláinte

 As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. "May your path rise up to meet you and the sun warm your bonnet as you walk down the lane to the pub. May your travels bring you to a quiet place where the ocean meets the sky and the birds greet you with a kind word or two." Slán go fóill - goodbye for now.

Stories and Poems for the week:

The Arianrhod Treasure

A mantle of feminine power

Author, D. Denise Dianaty

The Hunger

Terrance Ó Domhnaill

A New Day

Comes with the dawn

Mariana Busarova

Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thanks for reading Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life! This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that I did not have the time to record any stories and poems this week as I am going on holiday for the weekend. My schedule was so busy, I was unable to manage the time to record something earlier in the week.

I will be back on schedule next week with the stories I had saved up for this week. Thank you for understanding. Sláinte

T. Ó Domhnaill - Gaelic Seanchaí

Fáilte

Welcome back to another episode of Crann na beatha Short Stories and Poetry

I am Terrance Ó Domhnaill, your village scéalaí, returning again this week with more stories and poems from authors around the world.

This week, I have three science fiction stories and a poem about the children of Palestine

I continue with the two serialized space faring stories this week from Substack writers, with a scary science fiction story and the poem I just mentioned. This episode may be a bit shorter than usual as I had a time trying to find enough decent stories to fill the half hour. Next week, I will start bringing seasonal stories and poetry as I can find them as we get closer to Samhain.

So gather round once more and let me read to you under the shade of the crann na beatha, the tree of life.  Click play above to listen to the stories and poem.

I am struggling a bit to find enough stories and poems again to fill the half hour these days. Today was a good example. I came in just under the thirty minute mark. I do have a couple of stories and poems set for next week, plus the two serialized stories I have been reading. I have tried very hard not to offer two stories from the same writer but I will be making an exception next week, since we are coming up on Samhain.

This is the time of year when all of us write spooky stories and poetry and I am no exception. I have one of my own scary poems I dusted off and tweaked a little bit for next week. I rarely read any of my own work because this show is supposed to be for other writers whom I find that write such excellent material. I will let the audience judge whether I am making a mistake or not.

All of which brings me back to the future of this podcast. I will scrounge up enough stories to maintain my current schedule until the end of this month. Then, I will be combining my podcasts back into one. The Village Oak Tree.

I will still read stories and poetry on a regular basis but only when I have found enough stories and poems to make up a thirty minute show. So, it might be once a week, or I might skip a week to give me time to gather up enough stories.

I will create a audio and video broadcast with these details as we get closer to the end of the month and post it in all of my media platforms and social media accounts.

It is time to get back to work on my book writing and I can’t do that if I am spending my work week producing podcasts. I have decided after a year, to prioritize my goals. I have had fun doing these shows but it is time to turn back to writing the stories that are bouncing around in my head.

Especially since I am not charging for these podcasts, like some people on the podcast circuit seem to think I should be doing. I am content to keep my Substack page the way it is for now. If someone wants to be generous and offer a little support, there are many ways to do so. The obvious way is to be a paid subscriber here but this is probably the only time anyone has ever seen me say so here. I am not one to go around hat in hand, just so you know.

I do mention my donations opportunities for my efforts on my podcast web page at rss.com and on my website at www.crann-na-beatha.com for anyone with some spare change or so in each podcast as a commercial break.

Enough about that. I leave you the readers of these small newsletters with my thank you for all of the support you have to offer. Even if it’s just a bit of a read now and again. Sláinte

As a Seanchaí, I hope you will allow me  to continue delighting you with a story or a poem here under the Crann na beatha. Maybe they will bring you a smile and take you away from your troubles for a time.

 As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. "Let the devil take the low road and you take the high road. Ne’re the two of you ever meet at the pub when you arrive there" Slán go fóill - goodbye for now.

T. Ó Domnhaill - Gaelic Seanchaí

I near forgot to add in the links to the stories and poem. Here they are a day late. Sorry.

Don’t Read

It’s life-threatening

Nevena Pascaleva

Whispers of Innocence:

The of Children Palestine… A Poem

Creative Capricorn

Thanks for reading Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Cead Fáilte

Welcome back to another episode of Crann na beatha Short Stories and Poetry

I am Terrance Ó Domhnaill, your village scéalaí, returning again this week with more stories and poems from authors around the world.

This week, I have three stories and a lovely poem from my friend in Bulgaria

I am starting a new space opera series today, along with the ongoing story The Gravediggers of Orpheus. My last story is a short story about loneliness, and the poem is about sadness.

So gather round once more and let me read to you under the shade of the crann na beatha, the tree of life. Click the play button above to listen to this week’s selections if you want to hear the audio podcast.

I wish once again to thank the writers that allow me to read their stories and poems to the world. I can’t thank them enough as without them, this little show wouldn’t be possible.

I will also add that this podcast is growing in listeners as more and more people seem to be looking for a little time out from all of the chaos going on. Not only on Substack but through my hosting platform at rss.com, where this show is distributed all over the world. I don’t have many listeners outside of the U.S. but there are a handful so I have hopes that maybe I can reach more people around the world with these stories and poems.

I am sure that some of this is due to the language barrier and I wish there was a way for me to set up a translator for this podcast audiobook so it could be broadcast in multiple languages around the world. I did set up Google Translate on my website at www.crann-na-beatha.com so that people around the world can read what I have there.

I tested it myself when I set it up and it reverted the website to Gaeilge just fine, and back to English again with no troubles at all. There are many more available languages in the translator tool than I can relate here but you get the idea. I put the link dead center of the Home page so you can hardly miss it.

I’m afraid that it only translates the written words though and not the audio in the podcast episodes. That is something I wish I could set up. I wonder if there is an app for that? Does Substack have an option for these posts to be translated into other languages? If so, how does a body check that in the settings?

Wouldn’t it be grand if I could record this podcast and have it translated to the majority of the world’s primary languages? Languages such as French, German, Russian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Hindi, Arabic, Farsi and so many others to be able to name here.

Could you imagine the impact our writings and podcasts would have if more people around the world could read and listen to our words in their native languages?

Sure and I am dreaming big, weighty thoughts here but it’s worth thinking about. I would love to think I can use this podcast to bring the world’s peoples a little closer together for a brief spell every week. God’s know we could all use a time out now and again from all of the world’s troubles.

I will leave everyone who reads this with this thought. Do you think the world would be a better place to live in if we all could move past our differences in language, cultures, the colors of our skin and so on? Imagine a place where there were no more wars and abject poverty to the point of starvation? A world of smiling people all eager to help one another out in trying times? We can dream can’t we.

Go raibh maith agat. Thank you for reading this and listening to the show (hopefully). I hope you enjoyed the variety of stories and poems again this week. If you like the show, please share it with anyone you care to. I offer it for free so everyone that can find it will have an opportunity to listen to the stories and poems, for which I will add links to at the bottom here.

As a Seanchaí, I hope you will allow me  to continue delighting you with a story or a poem here under the Crann na beatha. Maybe they will bring you a smile and take you away from your troubles for a time.

 As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. "May your days bring you peace and contentment and your hearths be welcoming to all who visit your home." Slán go fóill - goodbye for now.

T. Ó Domhnaill - Gaelic Seanchaí

The Gravediggers of Orpheus [8]

Kathrine Elaine

You Have to Love Yourself Too

A short story inspired by one of my favorite quotes from “Once Upon a Time”

Sara Fellers

Silver in the Fleeting Glow

A spiral of sadness

Mariana Busarova

Thanks for reading Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Cead Fáilte

Welcome back to another episode of Crann na beatha Short Stories and Poetry

I am Terrance Ó Domhnaill, your village scéalaí, returning again this week with more stories and poems from authors around the world.

This week, I have two stories and three poems for everyone

My first fiction story is from a new writer I found. Then, another episode of The gravediggers of Orpheus. The three poems I bring are written to make one think. The last two are about the war in Palestine and are a bit harsh. One is from an Australian woman who rages against imperialism on her Substack page, and my last one is from another activist who lives in the north of Ireland. I will do my best to record this poem in her own voice as she posted a video of herself reading this poem on her Substack page. Her voice is so much better than mine when it comes to this kind of poem. I will add their page links in the newsletters later today.

So gather round once more and let me read to you under the shade of the crann na beatha, the tree of life. Click the play button above to listen to this special show.

I will say that when I recorded Ramona McCloskey’s own reading of her poem, it turned out better than I expected. Her special Palestine poem is the very last one for the day. I hope anyone reading this takes some time to listen to her in the show.

That is the theme for today’s show, sort of. The first story is a bit of an activist kind of story if you read between the lines a bit, and the last two poems were definitely pro-Palestine poems. Although Caitlin Johnstone’s poem is more of a rage against the imperialists that are allowing all of this carnage to happen in the first place.

I subscribe to both of these people’s Substack pages and get their articles in my email box. I also subscribe to a lot of other people as well, both on Substack and Medium. I try to support all those I can, as I can, as funds allow.

I also subscribe to Jessica Wildfire, wherever she goes on the internet as well. But she doesn’t publish anything I would use for this show. I just wanted to giver her a shout out as she is struggling a bit now trying to find a stable platform to host her website. People like her need all the help they can get in these trying times.

I will say this again. This is what this podcast and newsletter are all about. To support all of those who write and are struggling to make ends meet from week to week. Some of you are doing okay financially and that is good too. I still want to do what I can to support writers struggling to make themselves stand out from the crowd. The very large crowd of world-wide online writers and poets.

This will continue for as long as I can. Maybe under a different name, sort of, soon but the stories and poems will still be there for all to hear on a weekly or semi-weekly basis.

If I do slow down a bit, I will probably lose my air spot on WAA Radio but that is okay. They aren’t paying me anything anyway. That’s what happens when you agree to work for a non-profit. You do so out of the kindness of your heart, or so they tell me.

Who knows, they may censor me anyway after the reading of these two poems today. No great loss if they do. This podcast airs in a time slot that only appeals to people working the evening or graveyard shift anyway. I have been told that it is mostly the trucking industry that listens to their radio show and we know that a majority of truck drivers are very conservative as a rule.

I am anticipating an email from the station manager next week regarding my selections for this week’s show telling me that people called in complaining about these poems. I have an answer for him if he does.

I am looking for more stories and poetry that support the Palestinians and to raise a voice to stop the genocide in Gaza, the West Bank, and now, maybe Lebanon. If any of you have anything you wish to offer, I will be glad to read them for you here.

Feck the Americans and their corporate censors if they don’t like it.

That’s another thing you may start seeing a little more of as I become more angry at the world we find ourselves in. My Irish idioms are starting to bleed through a little bit more with my temper. Please excuse me. I am starting to lose my patience with these ijits that call themselves world leaders and elected politicians. This applies to all of the countries everywhere, including Ireland.

I read another newsletter from Sinn Féin this week talking about how they have lost a generation of young professionals who have left Ireland for Australia and Canada as there are no houses or apartments available or affordable in Ireland anymore. Notice I did not say the United States. No one but the uninformed poor want to come to America anymore.

In the U.S., Canada, and Australia, affordable and available housing is a big issue as well. I won’t even mention the UK as they are in a category all to themselves.

But I digress. This is how angry I have become as I watch the world start to go up in flames everywhere.

If you want to hear me rail against the wealthy elites now and again, check out my other podcast, The Village Oak Tree. That is where I don’t pull any punches in my anger at the world and the United States in particular, since they seem to have instigated most of the conflagrations going on in the last fifty years or so.

Let me leave off here with the links to this week’s stories and poems to read as you listen to the audio podcast above.

Songbirds

…Let’s scream into the void. Spec-Fic Short Story.

Cee R.

HUMBLED BY THE WORLD.

POET

Go raibh maith agat. Thank you for reading this, and (I hope) listening to the stories and poems I brought to the world this week. Please support these writers in their struggles by clapping on Medium, liking and, especially, subscribing, if you can, everywhere else to support all of those whom I have mentioned in this week’s newsletter. Sláinte

As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. “May the Gods bless you as you toil about your world. May the world finally free the Palestinians from the grip of their oppressors soon”. Slán go fóill — goodbye for now.

T. Ó Domhnaill — Gaelic Seanchaí

Thanks for reading Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Cead Fáilte

Welcome back to another episode of Crann na beatha Short Stories and Poetry

I am Terrance Ó Domhnaill, your village scéalaí, returning again this week with more stories and poems from authors around the world.

This week, I have three stories for everyone

We continue with part 2 of that Bulgarian tale about a girl and dragons. Then, another episode of The gravediggers of Orpheus, and a scary techno thriller called The Suff, which apparently is a urban legend on Substack these days with other writers posting stories about this character.

So gather round once more and let me read to you under the shade of the crann na beatha, the tree of life.

I am starting to enter into a new phase leading up to the New Year at the end of October. I finally made up my mind on how I want to change things up to help me manage my time better throughout the work week.

I will be combining this podcast with my other one, The Village Oak Tree, starting on November first in line with the Celtic new year. I had determined a few months ago that what I have been doing every week wasn’t sustainable for me over the long run and I needed to think about the best way to manage all of this.

I came to the conclusion this week that drawing down a little was the only thing I could do it and still maintain the relationships I have with the writers and WAA Radio.

My plan is to put everything under one umbrella, The Village Oak Tree, and see how things work out. If it is still too much, such as keeping me from doing the other things I have on my to do list, I will slow it down even more but that remains to be seen.

I do enjoy reading the stories and poems for everyone. That is the easy part, the reading. Then I have to edit and that is the bulk of the work that takes up nearly a whole day to create the final podcast, get it posted, then write the newsletters and post to social media.

I still like to create news commentary and interview people as well but I think that part of my media company will slow way down. Reading stories and poems will become my primary podcast material.

My intent is to free up more of my time to finish writing my books. I didn’t know how much was involved in writing books until I ventured down that path last year. That adventure has cost me a lot of money (And I am still spending) to get a book published, with a good cover design, proof reading (Something I just found out I need) and marketing, which in itself is a big expense and leg work.

Who knew back in early 2023, when I decided to self-publish my story, Fugitives in a New United States, that it would cost me so much in time and money way beyond just setting my story on digital paper.

They say that you learn your lessons on the first go around and it gets better going forward. I certainly hope so. I have contacted an indie publishing company this week that I hope will be good to work with. I have heard so many horror stories from other authors about their efforts to publish their books that I am very leery now. I don’t want to get taken advantage of, like Danielle Orsino did, whom I interviewed a couple of weeks ago.

I have had a LinkedIn account for many years because of my former vocations. When I started writing, I redid my profile to reflect my new writing career. Here lately, I have been inundated with young people from the U.S., and central — west Africa trying to get me to ‘hire’ them to digitally market my book.

I obviously politely said no thank you. I understand that this kind of work is a good work from home gig, if you can get the clients, but I am not going to put my trust in anyone I don’t know or can not verify on the internet. Especially when we are talking about several hundred dollars for dubious services.

I am also dubious about someone who tries to low-ball me for services as that might be a sign that they are not who they say they are. I am looking at someone right now that looks a little fishy to proof read my book.

That is something I am learning about LinkedIn of late. It used to be website for professional people to network on. A search for reputable companies that may be hiring and so on. Now, I think it may have gone to the dogs. It seems to be full of possible scammers these days. I have never been flooded with so many people sending me messages wanting me to hire them to work on my book and they with nothing but a profile on LinkedIn.

This all started when I had a reader leave a review on Amazon last month stating that there are lots of grammar and spelling errors that distracted from the story. So, now I am looking for a professional proof reader to scrub the manuscript for me so I can make any corrections and resubmit to my book distributors.

I worked so hard with Suzy Jacobson Cherry when she offered her expertise in editing this book in the beginning. Now, I feel bad that I have to scrub it again just to make sure. Sorry Suzy, if you read this.

Are there any professional proof readers on Medium or Substack who might be interested in proof reading my book? Leave me a message at [email protected] if you are interested. I just have a small budget to work with so please keep that in mind. I can’t afford the couple thousand dollars that have been quoted to me in the past. My budget is more in a few hundred American dollars range.

I will talk more about this in future blog posts. I have interviewed a couple of authors lately and I am working with a young man from the west coast who wants another interview again soon about another book he has just published. Maybe this will become a thing, where I interview indie authors about their struggles in the publishing world.

Let me plug in this weeks stories here and close things up for the week.

Dragon’s Wings — Part 2

And some revealed secrets

Mariana Busarova

Go raibh maith agat. Thank you for your support. I will be back next week with more stories and poetry. Sláinte

As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. “May the Gods bless you and yours, with the luck of the Irish. May your week ahead bring you a little extra coin to jingle in your pocket and a smile from everyone you meet.” Slán go fóill — goodbye for now.

T. Ó Domhnaill — Gaelic Seanchaí

Thanks for reading Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Cead Fáilte

Welcome back to another episode of Crann na beatha Short Stories and Poetry

I am Terrance Ó Domhnaill, your village scéalaí, returning again this week with more stories and poems from authors around the world.

This week, I have three stories and two poems.

My first story is part 1 of a Bulgarian tale about a young girl and dragons. I will read part 2 next week. My second story is a take from old Scottish Gael stories about Brownies. Then the third is from Africa. A story about a parrot and his love. The poems I picked out are about war and death and a dark poem about Autumn from a Substack writer.

So gather round once more and let me read to you under the shade of the crann na beatha, the tree of life.

The days grow shorter as the harvest season comes to another year end. The days grow cooler now as we head into Autumn. For some, this brings on the changing fall colors of the trees and setting the heat for the cooler nights ahead. When I lived way up north, I would already be burning wood to warm the house up at night by this time of year.

I am traveling a bit more now and trying to keep up with my work week, so to speak. I keep telling myself that I am supposed to be retired. My plan after the turn of the new year is to spend less time with podcasting and more time with traveling and writing.

I will still put forth this podcast/audiobook every week to promote the writers I find as they can surely use the exposure.

I have stopped considering my own fortunes as it has become obvious after this summer that my little blog articles and newsletters will only reach a handful of people around the world. I am now content with that. Which is why I am slowing down a bit.

I am not a professional blog writer and I don’t have the time to write something at least once a day like so many others. If I want to say something that is on my mind at the time, I will post something. Otherwise, I am moving on to other things like marketing my current book, writing other books, and traveling more during the spring and fall.

There would be a lot of people who would miss this half hour story time as well so I at least need to continue that for as long as I can. This podcast is broadcast all over the world using my podcast platform at rss.com and the amount of listeners outside of these platforms are pretty substantial.

If you have ever listened to the show, you would know that I introduce every story and poem with the name of the piece, the author and the publication, if known, at the start of each reading. This is how all of the writers I select to read get world-wide attention.

That is all I have to say today. I will return again next week with more stories for everyone. I have three stories set to go for next week. Part 2 of Dragon’s Wings, another chapter of the space opera I have been reading by a Substack writer and another science fiction story by another Substack writer.

Here are the links to this weeks selections:

Dragon’s Wings — Part 1

Unbearable fears

Mariana Busarova

Brownies and Cream

When a minor annoyance takes a surprising turn to something more, folklore and a mother’s worry work to even the score

Arpad Nagy

What did the Parrot’s Lover do to help It?

Ignatious C A

I, Whom Time Abandoned

~ it’s all too familiar, you see ~

Farida Haque

Go raibh maith agat. Thank you for your time

As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. “May the warm winds of summer still warm you a bit, and the cold rain stay off your shoulders as you prepare for Samhain.” Go sit you by the warmth of the fire to rid you of the chill and listen to the my stories as the days grow shorter. Slán go fóill — goodbye for now.

T. Ó Domhnaill — Gaelic Seanchai

Thanks for reading Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Cead Fáilte

Welcome back to another episode of Crann na beatha Short Stories and Poetry

I am Terrance Ó Domhnaill, your village scéalaí, returning again this week with more stories and poems from authors around the world.

Today, I have four stories and a poem for everyone.

I will start off with a short western, then a futuristic story, a sad romantic story, the last story is the first chapter about a young adult getting a start on a new life, and lastly, a poem that will resonate with a lot of people.

So gather round once more and let me read to you under the shade of the crann na beatha, the tree of life.

I want to thank those few readers who are still with me as I get close to my two year anniversary for this podcast/audiobook. Hard to believe it has been nearly two years since I started reading Medium stories and poems for the world in a podcast. I didn’t start the YouTube uploads until last November, I think, but my first upload to rss.com was on November 15th, 2022.

At first, it was just my own stories and blog articles I had written, then it was the news stories but by August of 2023, I was reading other peoples stories and I don’t think I have taken a week off since I started reading other peoples stories last year.

Not that I haven’t taken any small vacations here and there but I always made sure I had an episode in the can, so to speak, before I left on holiday.

Which is what I will be doing next week. Another miniature holiday early next week on reservations we made a year ago. That is how popular this particular place is. You have to make reservations a year in advance if you want to go camping there.

We will be back in time for me to create another show next Friday, don’t worry. I will be taking a extended vacation next spring though. For that, I might have to skip a week or so as we plan to be gone for at least a month.

With the literary world of online publishing the way it is, I am sure few will miss me while I am gone. Maybe I will post a travel log of our adventures as we travel around the country. I think that will depend on the availability of the internet during our trip.

I continue to mix things up with both Medium and Substack writers and plan to continue as I like the diversity. I have found one Substack writer living outside the United States who writes stories of all sorts. From romance to science fiction. I will also pick out one or two others as they come across my feeds.

As always, I have my medium writers that I can sort through for stories and poetry. Keep writing everybody as we head into our third year together soon.

With that, let me give you this week’s selections to read while you listen.

The Price of Gold

A short western story

Amalia Cotovan

Miss Anne’s Book Nook

Every story has a lesson for the characters to learn. And sometimes, the reader, too.

Sara Fellers

Castles in the Sky

Gather them in rhymes

Mariana Busarova

That is all for this week. I am glad you joined me once again as we continue on this journey together. As always, feel free to reach out with any suggestions and I will see what I can do. I couldn’t do this without any of you. Until next week, Sláinte

Go raibh maith agat. I hope you enjoyed the variety of stories and poems again this week. If you like the show, please clap, subscribe and reply as this goes a long way towards reaching more listeners around the world.

As a Seanchaí, I hope you will allow me to continue delighting you with a story or a poem here under the Crann na beatha, The Tree of Life. Maybe they will bring you a smile and take you away from your troubles for a time.

As I say good bye this week, I wish to leave you with this Irish blessing as you go about your day. “May the wind be at your back and the sun kiss your cheeks as you travel about your business over the next week until we meet again.” Slán go fóill — goodbye for now.

T. Ó Domhnaill — Gaelic Seanchaí

Thanks for reading Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Crann na beatha-The Tree of Life is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.