Bard Mythologies

MYTH AND MODERNITY “The Myths we Live By” – an exploration of the Irish Myths and their continued relevance to modern life

// March 11th, 2010 // Events, General, Uncategorized

An Opportunity

This is an opportunity to explore myth and it’s relevance to the modern world, looking initially at the matter of ‘leadership’ or in mythic language, ‘kingship’. What is proposed here is an opportunity to work within a group context to explore a series of the important myths of the rich and unique Irish Tradition. Specifically we will look over four Saturdays at Irish Leadership Myths and the stories of Lugh and Balor, Cormac mac Airt and Conaire, mythical king of Tara. This is within a context of a research study within UCD Folklore Department on ‘Myth and Modernity’, the relevance of myth to the modern world, and understanding the mythic roots of modernity. What we will look at is what is the leadership wisdom encoded in the myths and how has this wisdom been in evidence in modern Ireland or not as the case may well be. Later in the year we will work with Irish Wisdom Mythology and Irish Martial Mythology

Who might be interested.

Anyone interested in the Irish myths and specifically re-connecting, re-working and perhaps ‘harrowing’ the myths as a way of understanding and making sense of the modern world and all the turbulence and change. Also anyone interested in leadership and social issues might find the series of interest.

The Research Context

The context in which this is happening is a research PhD looking at “Myth, Mentality and Modernity”. Mentality in this context is the worldview of ordinary folk as embodied in an oral tradition. It can be seen as a culture’s hard wiring or to use a computer analogy, a culture’s operating system. It works in a largely unconscious way. The task is, working with these assumptions, to look at these ‘myths’ and ask ‘do they serve us’ and what might be myths to let go of, re-claim, and what might be a mythology to live by, a sustainable mythology. These questions and explorations can be asked in a group context. They can also be explored within a narrative, a novel. My interest in facilitating the exploration and then writing it up within an academic context.

Who Is running the Events?

The Events and Research will be run by Sandy Dunlop. Sandy works applying archetype and myth to brands. He also runs a summer school on the relevance of myth to the modern world. It is run every  July by the Bard Myth team on Clare Island and has run successfully since 1995. Sandy will be assisted by the Bard Mythology team at the events.

What is involved?

We plan to meet on four Saturdays which are:

March 27,    April 17,      May 15,        June 19

The meetings will be in Belvedere House, Mullingar,  and will run from 10 to 4.30.The intention is to cover costs for the room, lunch, teas/coffee etc so a fee of e50 per day will be the charge.

If interested?

Send me an e-mail to sandy@alexanderdunlop.ie

or call Sandy on 086 2430981 to find out more.