Irish Spirits

An Irish twist on an Espresso Martini that had us up all night...just like the subject of our show this week: werewolves! Brew Moon, get it? Yea, we can't stop singing the song either !

We turned our attention to one of this island's longest standing lupine cryptids, focusing on everything from saints' curses to what exactly is a viral werewolf we found that the folklore is older than we ever thought...even within popular culture!

A staple of any horror podcast we knew we were in for the long 'howl' (so, so, sorry but I'm too caffeinated to make better puns) and that Ireland was going to offer some serious stories of wolfish shenanigans - despite the fact we haven't had wolves (were or otherwise) for over 200 years. We tackled gender, puberty & good old fashioned folklore in all it's 'lycanthropic' glory thanks to Alex's 'Brew Moon' - swapping vodka for poitín and trying the Jameson Cold Brew, the full recipe can be found on our Instagram at: @irishspiritspodcast

Our apologies if we were speaking too fast!

The sources that kept us wired to the moon were: dúchas.ie, Tarquin Blake's Haunted Ireland,  'How a tale of cursed werewolves in Ireland finds its way to 13th century Norway' by Minjie Su  on medievalists.net, John Carey's ‘Werewolves in Medieval Ireland’, Brereton’s Phantasmagoria, Werewolves: A Hunter’s Guide by Graeme Davis, Matthew Beresford’s The White Devil: The Werewolf in European Culture,  David Wyatt’s Slaves and Warriors in Medieval Britain and Ireland, Leslie Sconduto’s ‘Metamorphoses of the Werewolf: A Literary Study from Antiquity through the Renaissance, Catherine Karkov’s. "Tales of the Ancients: Colonial Werewolves and the Mapping of Post-Colonial Ireland,  The Cursed and the Committed: A Study in Literary Representations of ‘Involuntary’ Shapeshifting in Early Medieval Irish and Old Norse Narrative Tradition by Camilla Pedersen With, https://www.celticwhiskeyshop.com/blog/Poitin,%20Ireland,%20history, https://punchdrink.com/recipes/stefano-dorsognas-espresso-martini/, https://punchdrink.com/articles/ultimate-best-espresso-martini-cocktail-recipe/, https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1066&context=honorscollege_theses, https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/vatican-slams-twilight-series/story-iklbHYQ6i1pjmQsYCU6cgI.html & https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/witches-vampires-and-werewolves-10-ghoulish-archaeological-discoveries-004402 

As ever you can find the recipes for any of our Instagram @irishspiritspodcast 

You can follow us on Twitter @irishspiritspod or email us at: [email protected]

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We know...ominous...but Season 2 continues and it's our first location based episode!

We headed to the Garden County to delve into one of the most  haunted buildings in Ireland - Wicklow Gaol. First built in 1702, we tracked how the gaol functioned, expanded and dealt with criminals of all types who were locked up. You guessed it - it was bleak!

From the unorthodox ways they disposed of bodies to the forms of torture carried out within it's walls - it is no wonder Alex crafted a particular potent cocktail to get us through it all...nicknamed the Gates of Hell after the fact that it was likely if you went in you wouldn't come back out, we opted to name our gin and madeira based drink the very same! (It was way too easy to drink, more locked than locked up...get it? I'll see my way out - unlike the prisoners)

Helping us navigate through this spooky clink, the sources we used were: Mícheál Ó Dóibhilín's  Anne Devlin - bravest of the brave from Kilmainham Tales, https://www.wicklowshistoricgaol.com,  https://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/27234, Wikipedia, https://heritage.wicklowheritage.org/places/wicklow_town/wicklow_gaol,  https://www.ouririshheritage.org/content/archive/place/miscellaneous-place/wicklow-gaol-prisoners-and-transportation, https://darkemeraldtales.wordpress.com/2020/10/13/through-the-gates-of-hell-dare-you-enter-haunted-wicklow-gaol/, https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/1020/1172649-irelands-gate-to-hell-oweynagat-roscommon-otherworld-halloween-folklore/, https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-patrick-s-purgatory,  From Cruachan Aí Rathcroghan, Elaine Conroy talks about Oweynagat, the Cave of the Cats, https://archaicwonder.tumblr.com/post/65390637184/at-the-end-of-a-country-lane-in-ireland, The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/11/the-broken-technology-of-ghost-hunting/506627/, https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-20317307.html, https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/what-is-madeira-wine/, https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/madeira-toast-4th-july-like-founding-fathers/ & https://www.diffordsguide.com/encyclopedia/43/bws/madeira-fortified-wine

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As ever you can find our recipes for our first cocktail of Season 2 on our Instagram @irishspiritspodcast 

You can follow us on Twitter @irishspiritspod or email us at: [email protected]

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WE'RE BACK!!!!!

Thank you for being so patient with us! You will hear all about what we got up to at the beginning of Episode I - Season 2! 

This episode was called The Old Switcheroo and was all about Changelings in honour our Alex having just had a baby! (he's the cutest thing we have ever seen...but is he really a human? Caoimhe tested him with her very own quiz at the end of the show!)

Between the start and the finish though we delved head first into fairy lore and a cultural folktale that has transcended both borders and time - the changeling. From babies being hit in the back of the head with a sheaf of wheat to why eggshells are so mystical, we picked apart the societal fears and worries for new life - and we kept ending up in Tipperary! We also kicked off the season with an ovoid cocktail based off the classic 'flips' courtesy of our resident phantom bartender - Alex! Cheers to being reunited!

Helping us 'crack-on' with our return were the following sources:  Archaeology Ireland, The Irish History Podcast, punchdrink.com, VinePair.com, Difford's Guide, Thomas Crofton Croker's Fairies in Southern Ireland, dúchas.ie, https://creggan1.tripod.com/Creggan2h.htm 
, Eggshells and Changelings (weebly.com), hauntedattractiononline.com, 'Changeling' - J.H. Moncrieff (jhmoncrieff.com & the Writing in the Margins blog. 

As ever you can find our recipes for our first cocktail of Season 2 on our Instagram @irishspiritspodcast 

You can follow us on Twitter @irishspiritspod or email us at: [email protected]

It's good to be back!

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Happy St. Patrick's Day! (Lá Fheile Pádraig sona dhaoibh!) from our resident historian, Laura Fitzachary - though this mini-sode is more mythological than historical. Regaling you all with an origin story of St. Patrick's banished snakes and an epic battle he had with their mother,  she washed this bit of bonus content down with an experimental ale.  As part of their Spree Series, The White Hag released the very seasonal (Paddy's Day) Shamrock Shake Ice Cream Ale...perfect for this episode because it is literally green! Please remember to drink responsibly while stocks last! 

The sources used were: gotireland.com & Dáibhí Ó Crónín's Early Medieval Ireland

Have a look at what Laura's drinking over on our Instagram @irishspiritspodcast

Happy Paddy's Day from Caoimhe, Laura & Alex (Irish Spirits) 

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This episode was called Petronilla's Garden and it was our Season 1 finale!!! Focusing on the witch trials in Ireland (or lack there of) the cocktail that wrapped the season was inspired by the fate of Irish women accused of witchcraft! Brewed by ourselves, it was a 'herb-ful' concoction in which our resident mixologist Alex included; Aqua Vitae.  The original recipe belonging to the bad guy in our jam-packed finale still exists today, which we used! Take that Richard Ledrede! - we name our drink after one of your victims of 'justice'. Of the very few Irish witch trials recorded, Caoimhe & Laura focused on the first and last ones in Ireland; Alice Kyteler and the Islandmagee witches - what they were accused of and their punishments. What surprised us most though? - how coveted dairy products were in Ireland....one could argue they still are #bewarethebutterwitch

You can find all of our recipes for all of Season 1's cocktails on our Instagram @irishspiritspodcast 

You can follow us on Twitter @irishspiritspod or email us at: [email protected]

In preparing for our own depositions, the sourced we consulted were: Andrew Sneddon’s Possessed by the Devil, Malt-Review.com, Punchdrink.com, https://www.spookyisles.com/ireland-witch-trials/, https://sites.google.com/site/supernaturaleire/irish-witch-trials , https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/witchipedia-ireland-s-most-famous-witches-1.3262008 , https://www.jstor.org/stable/24338815 Witchcraft belief and trials in early modern Ireland - Dr Andrew Sneddon, https://www.historyireland.com/medieval-history-pre-1500/the-sorcery-trial-of-alice-kyteler-by-bernadette-williams/, https://www.historyireland.com/volume-22/possessed-devil-real-history-islandmagee-witches-irelands-mass-witchcraft-trial/, Larissa Tracy ‘Torture & Brutality in Medieval Literature’ & https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/158276553/ann-glover 


Thank you so much for listening to Irish Spirits Season 1 , let's pray to Lucifer and all of his ghouls that we will be reunited to drink together for Season 2! Much love - Caoimhe, Laura & Alex

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The episode was called 'The Ragged Boy' and was inspired by  the stories within what could be our scariest episode yet! Happy...Lent?! From a boy who repeats the last moments before his death over and over to the ghost of a girl you can feel skip by you on a staircase, this episode on Ghost & Demon children was...creepy. Think of hearing giggles in the house at 3am...but you have no kids. We examined (and subsequently agreed) that the most petrifying of all that is ghoulish are those that appear in kid form.  Who ya gonna call? Not us!

Especially if you live in Cork, which is where most of the ingredients were sourced for Alex's cocktail which you can recreate and drink along with us, the recipe is on our Instagram @irishspiritspodcast - it was divine and honestly we needed whiskey to stop us freaking out, the sources that nearly cracked us though were: Met.police.uk, Possessed by the Devil by Andrew Sneddon, killahoraorchards.ie, irishdistillers.ie, https://www.spookyisles.com/irelands-6-scariest-ghost-children/ (Ann Massey), https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/house-of-spirits-1.1112290, https://www.ireland.com/articles/nine-most-haunted/ 
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/terrifying-pictures-ghost-children-caught-7684746 , https://www.rte.ie/archives/2017/0508/873383-galway-poltergeist/ a clip of the father talking about the ghost (Fahey family), wikipedia.com , https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-1.132828 , https://offalyhistoryblog.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/the-ghost-of-charleville-castle-tullamore-eleanor-ridley-specially-contributed/ , https://web.archive.org/web/20150406160101/http://www.chooseireland.com/offaly/harriet-ghost-charleville-castle/ , https://www.renvyle.com/en/history/ , https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/10/28/why-do-so-many-kids-see-ghosts-we-asked-some-psychologists/  & https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/crying-boy-painting-fires 

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This episode was called 'The Salt Bae' which we thought was an apt name for Irish lads who fall in love with women that were formerly seals. Yes, that's right this episode is all about the selkies, merrows and mermaids. We knew there was something fishy going on when Alex told us to get the mead and sherry in but as per usual the cocktail was delicious - check out our Instagram for the recipe where you can (responsibly) drink along! The briny taste transported us to the shores of our little island, which though small, is full of human-fish hybrid lore.

Though our more docile creatures won't drag you down to the depths of the Atlantic kicking and screaming - we always knew there were secrets behind those black eyes...our sources this episode were: https://www.wildernessireland.com/blog/irish-myths-legends-part-4-selkies/, Wikipedia, https://www.celtic-weddingrings.com/celtic-mythology/the-seal-people, https://talesfromthewood.ie/selkies-and-merrow-the-sea-folk-of-ireland/ , https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/legends-selkies-hidden-germs-sea-mythology-006409, http://www.elisabethgifford.com/blog/2014/5/3/the-secret-history-hidden-in-the-selkie-story, https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2016/12/selkies-sex-and-the-supernatural/, https://www.icysedgwick.com/selkies-folklore/ , https://etc.ancient.eu/education/summer-solstice-celtic-traditions/, https://punchdrink.com/recipes/jabberwocky/, https://www.liquor.com/slideshows/salt-cocktails/, https://www.sliabhliagdistillers.com/an-dulaman/, duchas.ie, Field Guide to Irish Fairies
Further reading for listeners:
Briggs, Katharine. 1976. An Encyclopedia of Fairies. Pantheon Books: New York.
Matthews, John and Caitlin. 2005. The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures. Barnes & Noble Publishing.
Monaghan, Patricia. 2009. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. Arrow Books: UK.
Spence, Lewis. 1948. The Minor Traditions of British Mythology. Rider and Company: Towrie, Sigurd. "The Selkie Folk." Orkneyjar: the heritage of the Orkney Islands. Accessed 1, August 2016. http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/selkiefolk/
Williamson, Duncan. 1992. Tales of the seal people: Scottish folk tales. Interlink Books: NY.
Jøn, Allan Asbjørn (1998), ‘Dugongs and Mermaids, Selkies and Seals’, in Australian Folklore: A Yearly Journal of Folklore Studies 13, pp. 94-98.
Silver, Carole G. (2005), “Animal Brides and Grooms: Marriage of Person to Animal Motif B600, and Animal Paramour, Motif B610”, in Jane Garry and Hasan El-Shamy (eds), Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature, New York: M.E. Sharpe.

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This episode was called 'The Long, Dark & Full of Terrors' - but full of alcohol it was not! Our first ever non-alcoholic cocktail means everyone can drink along! We chose a different route  this week because of our theme: Haunted Roads & Fairy Paths (or any supernatural thoroughfare). From steering our way through anecdotes of apparitions appearing to motorists to exploring the unstoppable force of fairies and their sense of direction, we needed caffeine to get through this one. Alex's concoction paid homage to those long drives on dark roads...enjoy!

In a roundabout way, we drove home the point that ghosts can truly appear anywhere so this time around we are advising you to drive responsibly as you never know what you'll see...The coffee shakes started way back when we were researching for this episode and our sources were: http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20160509-andrew-mccarthys-irish-quests-the-haunted-bog-road, https://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/hawthorn-horror-of-old-bog-road-29889182.html , https://www.oughterardheritage.org/content/topics/transport/oughterard-and-connemara-travel-and-transport-to-the-19th-century, https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4428216/4386701/4456820, https://www.easirent.com/uk-haunted-roads/, https://www.dangerousroads.org/around-the-world/our-lists/4590-top-15-haunted-roads.html, https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/05/31/the-dark-hedges-the-long-creepy-ominous-tunnel-of-northern-ireland/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_highway, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_hitchhiker, https://www.paranormaldatabase.com/ireland/antrim.php?pageNum_paradata=1&totalRows_paradata=59  , Lovin.ie , https://bookmygarage.com/blog/haunted-roads-around-the-world/ , https://www.ballymoneytimes.co.uk/lifestyle/could-be-only-known-photograph-grey-lad2260718, https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/craic/grey-lady-ghost-dark-hedges-northern-ireland 
https://www.historyeye.ie/hendrick-street-dublin, https://medium.com/@womenontheroad/12-eerie-haunted-spots-in-dublin-eff0d8f22e66, Magic Roads of Ireland, https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-30623485.html
http://atriptoireland.com/2013/03/21/the-magic-roads-of-ireland/ , Duchas, http://look-what-i-made.com/2020/08/21/refreshing-coffee-mocktail-recipe/ & https://talesofthecocktail.org/behind-bar/booze-less-cocktails-buzz-how-use-coffee-non-alcoholic-drinks/

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Happy New Year! As we get  ready for our post-Christmas episodes please enjoy our third 'minisode' courtesy of resident bartender, Alex Buckley. He delves into why we call our local pubs, our local haunts... at one of Dublin’s most Haunted Pubs, John Kavanagh ’The Gravediggers’ in Glasnevin. The main sources used were Valentina Valentini writing for BBC Travel and Atlas Obscura http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161019-where-gravediggers-drank-their-pints and https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/gravediggers-pub-dublin, and Frank McNally writing for the Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/old-haunts-an-irishman-s-diary-about-dublin-ghosts-1.2347566. Have a look at what Alex is drinking on Instagram @irishspiritspodcast and make sure to drink responsibly!

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Our Christmas special for you, this episode is called 'The Irish Coffee.' To round off what has been a year we will never forget Laura & Caoimhe (shout out to Alex who we will hopefully be reunited with soon) talked about about the more unusual side to Christmas traditions through the power of governmentally-advised socially-distanced workplace bubbles...truth. We washed this minisode down with our own version of an Irish coffee (sorry Alex!) all whilst including a festive ghost story to boot.  Less sugar plum fairy and more watery tart, enjoy! We, at Irish Spirits, wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, thank you so much for listening and as ever our sources were: weaverscoffee.com, duchas.ie, museum.ie, wildernessireland.com, Wikipedia & darkemeraldtales.com. Let's hope 2021 is not nearly as haunted. 

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