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Bringing an ancient festival to life

This article is from page 76 of the 2008-07-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 76 JPG

TO coincide with the celebration of the ancient festival of Lughnasadh, the Mountshannon-based Mogh Roith Historical Re-enactment Soci- ety are taking visitors to Craggauno- wen several steps back in time.

The ancient Festival of Lughnasadh honoured the Celtic God Lugh and celebrates the arrival of the harvest season.

On August 3 and 4 there will be displays demonstrating various apsects of Ireland’s history and herit- age from different time periods, with

showcase events such as a Brehon Law Trial and a hand-to-hand com- bat demonstration.

There will be a Bronze Age dem- onstration at the fulacht fia featuring re-enactors in Bronze Age costume, demonstrating and discussing as- pects of Bronze Age technology and lifestyle.

The Iron Age display will be at the Crannog, and will cover the La Tene period of Irish archaeology, when Celtic art, religion and language first entered the country.

As well as a range of weapons and tools, there will be costumed re-en-

actors demonstrating period musical instruments, stone-carving, cooking, weaving and dyeing.

Described as Ireland’s Golden Age, the Early Christian period display will demonstrate a range of aspects of life from 8th century Ireland, in- cluding ancient hurling and board- games, textile production, bread making, weapons and manuscript illustration

The medieval display at the castle will showcase Ireland’s medieval pe- riod, and feature demonstrations of tapestry, spinning and embroidery, and will offer the braver visitors a

chance to explore the weapons and armour of the Anglo-Norman and native Gaelic warriors and soldiers who once inhabited Craggaunowen or TS Aer

The time-travel goes on each day from llam to 5pm.

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