Blue hour at Fanad Head Lighthouse, Co #Donegal, Ireland.

Deireadh Fómhair (October) is the "End of Harvest" in Ireland. In the Gaelic calendar the new year begins on the 1st of Samhain (November).

Oct 31: Celtic holiday of Samhain, or "summer's end", is celebrated; a night where the dead are unleashed from the Otherworld to roam ours.

Samhain is a festival of both life & death: One's ancestors are honoured around communal fires, and the incoming year is celebrated joyfully.

In medieval Ireland, bonfires were lit at the Hill of Tara at #Halloween 👻 to commemorate kingly sovereignty over the land:

Irish poet Giolla Brighde, who died 1272 AD, defended the poets as keepers of ancient memory:

'The Window Seat', 1901 by Dublin artist William Orpen.

The painting depicts his wife Grace on their honeymoon in Bantry, Co Cork.

'The Chess Players' - William Orpen (1878-1931).

Grace reading at Howth Bay, by William Orpen, 1902.

#Howth

'Portrait of Yvonne Aubicq as a Nun' - William Orpen (1878-1931) date unknown.

#Irish

The Sídhe or 'hollow hills' found in Ireland are synonymous with the #Celtic Otherworld.

The space inside is vast & ruled by unique deities.

The inhabitants of the Sídhe look like humans but are different. They are superior: immortal, more beautiful & possess supernatural powers.

The word 'sídhe' - referring to the ancient burial mounds & barrows of Ireland - means 'the abode of the divinities'.

'A Spirit or Sídhe in a Landscape', by George William Russell (1867-1935).

The Aes Sídhe of Irish folklore resemble both the Roman numina & Germanic elves: the latter may have been a parallel supernatural race. Indo-European similarities.

In Irish mythic tradition, the Aes Sídhe are conceived of as 'unfallen humans' or as neutral angels that had no part in the war in Heaven.

One medieval viewpoint of the Aes Sídhe was that they were, "merciful angels sent before the coming of Christianity.. to guide the Irish":

Queen Maeve's Cairn, the enormous neolithic monument on the summit of Knocknarea mountain in County #Sligo.

'Breton Girls on a Beach' - Aloysius O’Kelly.

He was one of many Irish painters who trained & painted in France.

'The Stained Glass Window' by Aloysius O’Kelly, another from #Brittany.

Aloysius O'Kelly - Breton women in a kitchen, 1905.