Craic na Samhain 🎃🧹

So, What’s the Craic?

We’re back with more news on this pre-Samhain Friday. While it’s not quite October 31st yet, we thought we’d entertain you with The Craic Halloween Special, (mostly) looking at Samhain-focused news and traditions from Eire. Enjoying The Craic? Help us out by sending this on to your Irish-loving friends and family.

News from Home

Book Brought Back from Dead. Just in time for Halloween, a long-lost story by Dracula author Bram Stoker will go on show in public for the first time in 130 years this Saturday. The haunting tale “Gibbet Hill” was discovered by Brian Cleary when digging through the archives of the National Library of Ireland. It’ll be read at the Bram Stoker Festival in Dublin this weekend.

Derry Gears Up for Halloween. While Ireland (sort of) gave Halloween to the world, we probably don’t celebrate it with as much gusto as our American cousins. That said, there are exceptions: Derry City hosts Europe’s biggest Halloween festival each year. You can expect parades, street parties, music, fireworks, and thick-but-beautiful Derry accents that nobody born outside the parish can fully understand.

Something a Little Different in Cork. Derry isn’t the only party this week, and we’ll draw your attention to the brilliant Leap Scarecrow Festival on the other end of the island in Co. Cork. Focused on the Blessing of the Crows, a local myth, the festival has grown from humble beginnings to become a magnet for artists, storytellers, and people who like to have the shite scared out of them by bands of roving scarecrows.

A Scarily Good Achievement. Not a Halloween story, but we thought it worth a mention: 75-year-old Louth ‘granny’ Collette O’Hagan will run her 1,000th marathon in Dublin this weekend. The Craic got the calculator and atlas out, and we reckon that’s the equivalent of running the Earth’s circumference with a bit to spare. Maith thú, Collette.

The Irish Influence

How to describe Blindboy Boatclub to those not familiar with his work? Finding fame with the Rubberbandits – a satirical rap duo – he turned his attention to video game streaming, television presenting, and podcasting. It’s the latter for which he is best known, with the Blindboy Podcast (Spotify, Apple) getting millions of weekly listeners worldwide. He’s been called Ireland’s biggest cultural export, but what sets him apart is his endless curiosity – a kind of obsession for obscure knowledge that makes him utterly compelling. This week he has, of course, been chatting about Halloween in his own imitable way, or rather, How Hyper Capitalism Has Made Halloween More Terrifying Than Its Pagan Beginnings. He’s also got the not-scary-but-dreamy Cillian Murphy lined up as next week’s guest. We can’t get enough of him, and it seems millions of you feel the same. The man with a bag on his head is, it seems, something of a genius.

Cúpla Focal

As it’s the last edition of The Craic before Halloween, we thought we’d run through as many related words as possible. As you’re probably aware, Samhain means Halloween, but the more commonly used term for the specific event is Oíche Shamhna (literally night of Samhain). Púca means spirit/imp/puck (not the hockey one), Taibhsí is a term for ghosts, puimcín for pumpkin, and sciathán leathair is a bat (it literally means leather wings). Bean sí means fairy woman or the anglicized banshee. Cailleach is the common term for witch, but there’s also a slang term, bean Ultach, which literally means Ulster woman (we are offended on their behalf). That’ll do: all that’s left to say is Oíche Shamhna shona daoibh; Happy Halloween to you all.

Blast from the Past

On Halloween Night 1996, we saw the launch of TnaG (Teilifís na Gaeilge; literally Irish-language television). Yes, we had television before 1996 – we aren’t that parochial – but it was all in English. The launch of the channel, which now goes by the name TG4, was a significant milestone in Irish history, signaling a new-found appetite for reclaiming and promoting our linguistic heritage. Opening night looked a bit rough and ready, but it featured some class Halloween stuff, as well as our current President Michael D. Higgins, who somehow looked exactly the same as he does today. The increase in the number of Irish speakers today, as well as growing interest from home and abroad, owes a lot to good old TnaG.

And One Last Thing…

Who invented Halloween? Well, we love to claim it as our own. Well, we as in the Irish Abroad, Blindboy and yes, even the government themselves, but it might be a little too simplistic to say the Irish invented the holiday. Parts of what became known as Samhain were harvest-focused rituals of the Celts across Ireland, Britain, and even northern France. The marauding Vikings also brought their version of Halloween, Álfblót, across Europe with their raiding ships. Later, you’d get imported Christian elements, such as the All Souls’ Day stuff, thrown into the mix. Even the Halloween that was exported to the US by settlers wasn’t fully Irish, as many Scottish emigrants also brought their Halloween-esque traditions with them. So, yeah, we can’t take all the credit for it. We did invent whiskey, color photography, hypodermic syringes, and Colin Farrell, though.

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