Episode
Spooky Samhain with Dr Hannah Mac Auliffe
- Published
- Oct 30, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 2871
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Summary
"Great was the darkness of that night and its horror, and demons would appear on that night always." Oíche shamhna shona daoibh go léir! Happy Hallowe'en! To accompany you on any trick or treating or early morning/late night wakenings this weekend we bring you our spooky Samhain special! Dr Hannah Mac Auliffe, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Maynooth University, explains how the festival of Samhain appears in medieval Irish literature as a time for feasting and merriment, with the High King’s Feast of Tara taking place on Halloween in several medieval stories. And just as we gather together and tell stories of demons and ghouls each October 31st, so too did the people of medieval Ireland. We hear of everything from zombies, threefold deaths and beheadings to werewolves, witches and kidnappings by the fairy armies of the sídhe. Be careful out there! Recommended reading: Hannah Mac Auliffe, 'Great was the darkness': Spooky stories from medieval Ireland, RTÉ Brainstorm: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/1023/1412430-ghost-stories-medieval-ireland-folklore-halloween-samhain/ Lára Ní Mhaoláin, 'Preserving Samhain - Halloween in the Schools’ Collection of Irish folklore': https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/research/spotlight-research/preserving-samhain-halloween-schools-collection-irish-folklore Elizabeth Boyle, 'How authors in medieval Ireland made Samhain a good read': https://blogafragments.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/how-authors-in-medieval-ireland-made-samhain-a-good-read/ Primary sources mentioned (thanks Hannah for the references!): ECHTRA CORMAIC: https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T302000.html Stokes, Whitley (ed. and tr.), ‘The Irish ordeals, Cormac's adventure in the Land of Promise, and the decision as to Cormac's sword’ in Windisch, Ernst, and Whitley Stokes (…