This excellent introduction to the Irish Cast of mind outlines  a world that practised the art of making contradictions dance, so unlike the linear centralising thought.  Greco Roman thought of so much of the rest of Western Europe.  The introduction and the chapters on Mythopoeic thought are particularly relevant.

This book is an outline of the meaning of the Irish myths as a wisdom tradition of relevance to us today in contemporary life.  Peter stresses that to navigate a path into the labyrinth that is this tradition, it is important to stay anchored in your own ‘ground’.  In the case of Peter this is the field of psychoanalysis and archetypal psychology so popularised by Freud, Jung Hillman and Campbell.  He argues that ‘psychology needs re-mythologising’ as he goes about his task of mythology being psychoanalysed.  This book is an essential read for anyone interested in the relevance of mythology to a troubled modernity.

This important book explores the ancient Irish concepts of unity – political, cultural and geographic.  This renowned scholar’s last book outlines the important thinking on distributed power and the early division of Ireland by the Fir Bolg and then outlined further by Fintan MacBochra in ‘The Settling of the Manor of Tara’.  In a world increasingly questioning the behaviour of the hierarchical elite this is truly thinking to immerse yourself in today.

This is a summary of the literature of the Kings – sometimes called the Historical Cycle.  These tales are in no way as well known as those of the Ulster (CúChulain) and Fenian (Finn) Cycles.  Maybe it is that a colonised country will tend not to tell King tales.  And for this reason this book and the stories very much deserve to be read, enjoyed, absorbed and told in a world wondering about leadership, and the so called elite in culture.

Excellent introduction to the unique and extensive written heritage of Old and Middle Ireland 600 – 1200 AD.  Gives an introduction to all of the cycles as well as setting the literature within a cultural context.  So the poets, druids and the Christian monks are briefly covered along with some material on the shift from oral to written and the resulting and vitally important manuscripts.