Listen to the Land Speak: A Journey into the wisdom of what lies beneath us

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It's a very good book with some upsetting topics ranging from ancient celtic mythology about rape and slaughter, Christian conversion and abuse of pagan beliefs, destructions of bog lands and the environment, to oppression by the English, to famine and the killing of unbaptised children. In this illuminating new book, Manchan Magan sets out on a journey, through bogs, across rivers and over mountains, to trace these ancestor's footsteps. Not unambitiously titled, Listen to the Land Speak: A Journey into the Wisdom of What Lies Beneath Us is a comprehensive guide that succeeds in informing us of the past, and how we might hear its whispers for ourselves. By infusing his work with his own personal experience of the places he has visited and explored, he proves just how simple it can be to reconnect with these moments of lost knowledge, leaving us a guide map to the landmarks in Ireland that still hold the gravitas and energy to reconnect us to the past. The saint was a descendant of Rudraige mac Sithrigi, a high king of Ireland who is associated with the great supernatural wave Tonn Rudraige and who is said to be buried on the shore beside it.

Listen to the Land Speak – An Siopa Leabhar Listen to the Land Speak – An Siopa Leabhar

A really interesting look at the history ensconced in our landscape and what it tells us of ourselves and our people.

I found this most enthralling when Manchán examines how patriarchal the monotheist religion is compared to the more matriarchal polytheism of paganism (and even with references to Hinduism in the earlier chapters), for example, how in paganism Sionainn was said to have acquired the wisdom of Connla’s Well to become the River Shannon, whereas in Christianity she was said to have drowned for wanting more than what is expected of women. Magan reprises some of these stories in Listen to the Land Speak: from Queen Maeve to Cú Chulainn to Tír na nÓg. And He said to me, "Prophesy concerning these bones and tell them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!

land around us - RTÉ Manchán on the legacy of the land around us - RTÉ

Often throughout the book I experienced a sense of deja vu, as if I was reading something word for word that I had already read. If there were more people like Magan around Ireland, and for that matter the world would be a better place.I feel like the editing could have been better in places as many of the sentences suffer from repetition, but the passion and knowledge is evident and the chapters about the famine were particularly moving.