A Green Day

Irish Blessing

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

The Irish are known for many amazing things, from their blessings to even saving civilization [by Thomas Cahill]!

One amazing book created by Irish monks with beautiful illustrations in about 800 AD is the Book of Kells, the first four gospels of the Bible in Latin.

Book of Kells page

Public Domain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LindisfarneFol27rIncipitMatt.jpg

You can see the Book of Kells online here; scroll to  folio 27v and folio 34r for more beautiful pages and zoom in!

How about illustrating a poem for National Poetry Month like these gorgeous pages?

Share it on your blog!

What does Ireland look like?

I found a photo essay by an historian here: Irish History Podcast Photo Gallery. Included are essays and podcasts.

Perhaps you could create your own drawing based on one of the images and write a poem or story to go with it — adding in a border illustration like the Book of Kells.

Share on your blog.

How about an Irish story?

Good luck! Click a book on this page to find many stories from Ireland: Library Ireland Folklore ! Which one did you find?

Perhaps you can draw a story map of one of the stories and create an illustrated border like the Book of Kells to share on your blog!

What are other resources?

I discovered this old site, some of the links don’t exist anymore, but most do. It’s the Luminarium — see what you can discover. You can discover a “name generator” to generate an Irish name or your characters! You will find history. You can learn about Irish fairies!

Create something to share based on what you find!

Drawing, story, audio retelling, map…

Good Luck!

What’s the difference between the Irish shamrock and a clover?

According to plant experts…. Look here.

According to IrishCentral… Look here.

According to Sharon at Dave’s Garden… Look here.

And according to the Smithsonian… Look here.

What do you believe? What’s your story about the shamrock [after all, you’re able to write your own version]!

Perhaps you could draw your shamrock and write a poem or your own Irish blessing on each leaf.

Share it on your blog.

I think the shamrock is wood sorrel, because here it is in my yard– spreading good luck and sunshine to all ! And that’s like the Irish, my ancestors!

And, to hope you’ll have good luck, here’s a pic of my four-leaf clover, found in my back yard many, many years ago:

 


Photo / Poetry by Sheri on Flickr

Photo of my Four-Leaf Clover on Flickr

Photo of wood sorrel by Sheri

Other credits with photos as captions or links.