The tricky 2nd newsletter

Manchán's summer update

I promise I have great plans for this newsletter format, but haven’t yet given it the love and care it needs. I plan to offer exclusive audio and video here at some point. I really do.

For the moment, I can reveal the first images of my new book due out on 13th Nov. There will be a launch in the Fumbally Café, Dublin 8 at 6.30pm. It will be for sale from www.mayobooks.ie as well as loads more bookshops from early to mid November.

---

I can also let you know about my brand new podcast: The Bog Shaman: Manchán on Moriarty. There are two episodes here, and the rest will drop on 30th Sept.

You can listen to the first episode by clicking on the image below.

---

Later, in this newsletter, I plan to let you know about my UK Tour of Arán & Im that begins on Wednesday, 3rd October, and runs for 4 weeks through Wales, England and Scotland.

Also, news of the Irish lecture tour, Rewilding the Mind.

But first, pigs…

I had just acquired 8 piglets when I put out my first ever newsletter in March. They have now grown big and strong, and have ploughed up my front field, and brought more life to it than I’ve seen in a long, long time. I’ve a load of fruit and nut trees growing in the field - many type of apple, plum and pear trees, with walnuts, cobnuts, hazel nuts and sweet chestnuts. There are also aronia berries, honeyberries, loganberries, seabuckthorn, edible rowan berries, saskatoon berries, and many varieties of unusal Siberian and Eastern European berries, fruits and nuts that were in danger of being chocked by the weeds. There’s no danger of that any longer. The pigs have cleared the field better than any strimmer. They are now in the freezer, and each meal I have I honour them and the life and vibrancy they have brought to my soil.

---

UK TOUR OF ARÁN & IM - 3rd Oct to 1st Nov

Arán & Im is my one-man show celebrating the Irish language in an engaging, accessible bilingual way, through sourdough bread and home-churned butter. In this 70-minute theatrical performance/installation I bake sourdough bread while offering insights into the wonders of the Irish language – exploring potent words of landscape, terms of intuition and insight, and the many phrases that bring to life the mysterious glory of our natural world. Meanwhile the audience churns butter to enjoy with their bread.

It was originally produced in association with The Abbey Theatre, and toured Ireland numerous times in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Then in 2022 it toured the East Coast of North America with thanks to Department of Foreign Affairs and Culture Ireland. In 2023 I toured the West Coast of North America. Now it’s coming to England, Scotland and Wales. The North American shows all sold out, but I’m not really sure if anyone knows me in the UK. We’ll soon see. (I’m still hoping to find a venue in Glasgow for the show.)

3 October: Mwldan, Cardigan

4 October: Norwegian Church Arts Centre, Cardiff

10-11 October: Irish Cultural Centre Hammersmith, London

18 October - 5:30pm and 8:00pm: Liverpool Medical Institution (as part of Liverpool Irish Festival)

20 October: Tyneside Irish Centre, Newcastle (as part of Tyneside Irish Festival)

25-26 October: Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

30 October: An Lanntair, Stornoway

1 October: Seall, Isle of Skye (tickets on sale soon)

---

Rewilding the Mind: Reconnecting to the Spirit of the Land

This is my lecture tour that I shall be doing throughout November and December around Ireland. It explores the rising connection people are having with the spirit and the lore of the land of Ireland. Beginning with the creation myth and origin story that our ancestors have passed down to us, he examines the mythological and archaeological clues to how our forebears identified with both the physical realm and the magical realms that surround it.

I'll look at the rising awareness of the centrality of the goddess in all aspects of Irish culture, lore and ritual, and how it can help to steer us towards a deeper connection with nature and landscape.

Ultimately, this talk is a celebration of the extraordinary heritage our ancestors have passed down to us and how it can inspire and empower us, guiding us in how to live, how to feel and how to relate to the wider world. It also explores the wider resonances of Ireland’s heritage with Indigenous cultures and Vedic India.

This 70-minute talk is an exploration of the rising connection people are feeling with the spirit, the lore, and land of Ireland… (and its resonances with Indigenous cultures around the world).

I’ve added a date in Delvin, Co Westmeath, and The Everyman, Cork. Two of the Fumbally Café dates are sold out. There are 6 tickets left for the show on 13th Nov, which is set to run straight after the book launch for Brehons and Brahmins. The Dock in Leitrim is sold out, as is Heaney HomePlace and others.

---

There was a recent Irish Times article about my RTÉ TV series Manchán’s Europe By Train that went rather heavy on my illness. I promise I’m not quite as sick as it suggests, and certainly amn’t in any immediate risk of death. I was first diagnosed with prostate cancer last November, and in February we realised that there was a tiny amount in my lymph glands and bone. But, it is well under control, and while it is not curable, it is definitely very manageable for the moment.

Oh, and there’s a podcast accompanying my TV series about taking trains around Europe.

Slán go fóill…