The Bard: An Overview
The Bard Site is, for many the first point of contact. What is on offer here to subscribers is an oral rendering of The Irish Myths, organised in to the traditional four Cycles: The Mythological, The Ulster Tain, The Fenian and the King. We have added another which we call Voyages and Adventures.
his year we are adding Bard Global, where we are producing Oral Tellings of some of the Mythologies of the World. For various reasons we think Ireland is a natural place to host such a collection (see Bard Global Why Ireland). We are completing Tellings of two of the World’s great mythologies, epics in the German Nibelung and the Mayan Popol Wuj. These will be available shortly. Bard Patrons is a way of helping encourage and support this initiative.
In addition we offer Bard Programs, some face to face and others offered on Zoom to Global participants. See bardprograms for details. These are the Nine Waves Immersion in Irish Myth, The Mythic Voices Mythic Times which is the Bard exploration of myth in history/herstory. In addition and in conjunction with the launch of Bard Global we plan to run our first series on The Nibelung and the Spirit of German Nationalism later this year.

Our Foundational Program has always been the Bard Summer School on Clare Island, Co Mayo. This very popular event has run for nearly 30 years. It has always been hugely supported by the people of the Island for which we are very grateful. In many ways the Island feels like the Bard’s “home”. We do intend to continue this tradition.
What we are also focussed on now is Bard Productions. This is the creation by our network of work, myth inspired art be that a book, a painting, an activity, a sculpture, a piece of music, a poem. We were very encouraged by long time Bard participant and partner, Karina Tynan’s successful book Táin: The Women’s Stories. Paul Joyce, Artist of the Myth now has a very significant body of work which we are going to collect in to a book. The Bard Friend subscription for Bard participants is a way of being part of this network of myth tellers and creators.
Overall the challenge here is to understand and experience The Myths we Live By. The ones we currently live by seem to be taking us in really dangerous directions. The hope is that this Bard project might play a role in nudging things in a more hopeful direction. This is a timeless yet contemporary project, journey, way…. the Way of Myth.