Claire Roche doing her first performance of new songs accompanied by piano. This is Hold On. Claire performed without a PA as it was not needed, but the mic in the video is for the audio recording that we will replace on this video soon The venue is King House, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, Ireland.

A collage of clips from roaming around Keash Caves of Morrigan, Bhride and Cormac mac Airt were born here. Then a few shots of Cairn G of the Carrowkeel Cairns and then a bit of full moon. Music is a clip from an epic song by Claire Roche called "Hold On" from her forthcoming album, "Now and Then"

Claire's first performance in our, as yet unfinished, Two Worlds little theatre. Since this performance the walls have been lime and hemp plastered and we should be open within 6 or 7 weeks

I found this quite incredible, quite moving. Would love to learn a little of this one day.

One of the most delightful “finds” during our tour visit to Clare Island last Sunday was a remarkable set of ancient 13th or 14th century frescos within the Cistercian Abbey. The abbey is locked up and no signs of how to get the key. Asking around I was led to a cottage and the keeper of the key who calls himself Bernie Winters

There are mixed opinions about this but I think this is quite an incredible trusting relationship between men and birds. We had a wonderful afternoon with these birds yesterday.

..

Summer Solstice is a big day in Ireland, or should I say June 21st as most of the celebrations tend to fix to that date no matter what the real solstice date is. This year June 21st lands on a Saturday, a time of several major and intense sports matches so dates of celebration during this time have scattered.

The real Summer Solstice, or Midsummer, or Litha (a Saxon name now adopted by modern neo-pagans) date was June 20th this year. It was a beautiful evening and I was kicking myself as I have a backlog of admin to do for upcoming tours, and missed it. Augha Killy Maude mummers of Upper Lough Erne, Fermanagh held their celebrations last night too along with their colourful folk drama guests from Bulgaria.

I was kicking myself even harder the night before on June 19^th, because at the point of sunset the full moon rose. What a sight that may have been at Carrowkeel !!!  It was a clear night too.  I think that only happens once ever 19 years by Midsummer, and that happening on a clear night must be once in ………  ??????? 

I thought of compensating myself by catching the full moon setting as that is supposed to light up a cairn on Carrowkeel too, again a phenomena that happens once every 19 years, if the sky is clear. Unfortunately the sky was not clear. It clouded over by moon set.

Summer Solstice does stir a lot of interest, awe and excitement with many but somehow it brings to me a little solemnness. This is a habit I must learn to overcome.

For me the best time of the year is from Beltaine, about May 5^th, until Midsummer of about June 21^st. For me that is truly the fertility time of Summer. In Ireland this seems to be very true. During most years this is when we have our best weather, for one. It is when nature truly accelerates, when flowers become abundant, trees fully bloom and the landscape is whitewashed with the blossoms of hawthorn, elder, apple and rowan trees. I find myself becoming more and more excited by the lengthening of days.

What I also find wonderful is that this is the time that is booked out first by tour groups so I am out and about through most of this season.

Then June 21^st comes, and I do not know why, but for the last 5 or so years it has turned into a cold, windy and wet day. It is today. Add to this the realization that the days are now going to get shorter again, hence my touch of solemnness.

However, this is a time to celebrate, though, even though its not really a celebration day. Midsummer is, by ancient tradition, an observance day. It is a day for keeping a record of being the time of longest daylight. Its a time when farmers of old, and even today, can assess what the yield of the upcoming harvest is going to be, and how well this will take us through the winter.

Today, I find myself doing something similar, though I am currently not working any land. Therefore I am taking stock of how the seeds of ideas planted in spring took "root" from the fertile celebration of Beltaine up to this point. By doing this any solemnness in my spirit soon turns to some joy. It was a darn good time passed !!!

From the emails I am receiving now I am hearing of people who travelled with us during this time are now making great strides with their work, passions and interests. Some are arranging and planning wonderful get-togethers around the time of the next true celebration time, Lunasa, around August 5^th, our first harvest time.

A couple of days ago, my partner, Claire Roche, approached King House in Boyle to use their piano for a recording for her upcoming CD. The conversation became quite lively there and she left not only with the opportunity of a live recording on their wonderful Steinway piano set in a beautiful Georgian room but with an actual concert and live recording on August 5^th, Lunasa time.

It has been a dream of Claire's for some years to do a concert at King House, Boyle but this goes further than this.  This will be the first time that Claire has performed a concert that features her on piano.  This is a must attend concert!  I'll speak more of this on a later blog, but it is worth getting a sample of what she will be doing. 

Got to Claire's MySpace page  at http://www.myspace.com/claireroche

…. and click on the track "Hold On", which is also downloadable.

This is a demo recording, plus highly compressed for MySpace streaming but it provides an idea of the concert to come, Claire as most of you have not heard her, bluesey, spectacular and awesome unbelievable vocals.  There will be songs and harp too. How could there not be.

Also, our Cottage and Two Worlds Theatre coming along fast now, Thatched roof complete, flagstone floors all down, wooden ceilings all up, lime and hemp walls of the kitchen diner all built, wiring all done, plumbing almost there, rockwool outer wall of the theater coming along nicely, lime and hemp interior plastering well under way and the most beautiful stone step entry into the theater, almost like a small Aztec pyramid hugged by a circular wall. That is a mason's masterpiece. Next year that will be covered in creeping rock plants.

It looks like the move in time will also be around Lunasa, so there will be so, so much for us to celebrate in our own lives and we look forward to sharing this with others.

When we lived by the shore in Scotland we used to become excited by the upcoming spring tides, those low tides that revealed more rockpools and more abundance of food captured in those pools such as oysters, prawns, and sometimes good whiting, crabs and monkfish. It sort of reminds me of now

The tide has turned as the length of nights become longer. I know I have to turn from focusing on the great times since Beltaine to now to embracing how those times have set the abundance of what is to be harvest by August, by Lunasa.  With a lot of folks that travelled with us this is the cataloguing and sharing of pictures and videos they created on their journeys here and then using the inspiration from these to create friendships, share ideas and do some incredible things that they may not have had the confidence to do before. 

For some, its now a time to catch the wave, get on the board and ride in while we can.

Looking forward to seeing some of you again at first harvest time, Lunasa, early August.

Loughcrew is up for sale, a cool 5.8 million euros.

The Naper family have lived at Loughcrew in Oldcastle, Co Meath since the 16th century which has included taking over stewardship of the large network of the remains of over 50 passage cairns and stone circles the predate both Newgrange and Stonehenge. The preserved cairns, known as Cairn L and Cairn T are perhaps the most famous.

Cairn T is open to the public and is now very popular due to its preservation of one of the best collections of megalithic art in Europe. Inside this cairn are 16 large stones with carved arrangements of sun positions, moon positions, star charts and stories told. During a sunny equinox sunrise a beam of light lights a sun symbol on a stone and then travels through an arc of sun symbols as the sun rises, a spectacular site.

Cairn L was closed to the public about 20 years ago, but is the most spectacular, to me, because of its function. There is not the collection of art as in Cairn T but a free standing quartz standing stone lights up like a torch on a sunny Samhain and Imbolc sunrise. This light is diverted into a mysterious chamber with a large bath-like stone with holes. In Ireland's National Museum are what limestone balls that once fitted into these holes.

From Cairn L is the source of the Yellow River that runs by Athboy and Hill of Tlachtga into the Boyne. In ancient times at Samhain there was a new fires lighting ceremony that was passed down these rivers to Tlachtga and onto Tara.

Charlie Naper is descended from the same family that have lived there for 400 years. Together, he and his wife Emily have developed quite an enterprise in several small farm, cottage and tourism industries. Now they just want to retire, although its hard to imagine the Napers doing this, but I am sure they have a wonderful new project in mind.

Currently, most famous for them, is their annual Opera Festival. This is quite quirky, outdoors, lots of tents, and a passionate atmosphere. They also have a 200 acre estate farm worked by themselves and a tenant farmer. Through the summer they host their own wonderful farmer's markets. Also, their estate property hosts bed and breakfast and a range of country craft and self help courses ranging from gold guilding and metal crafts through to yoga and creative writing. The creative writing courses have also evolved into a successful publishing business too.

For some of our tours their wonderful cafe and gift shop is a wonderful sojourn

Its in a great location for after our visit to the Loughcrew Cairns.  

It appears the Napers will be very selective about who will buy their property and lands as they also aim to include their profitable enterprises into the package. They wish to sell to someone who will continue and develop these enterprises, especially the Opera Festival, Cafe and Publishing.

The Naper family came to Ireland during the Cromwellian times of the 16th century so there is a strong Anglo Irish culture and tradition within the Loughcrew estate. The days of master-servant have long gone and like all of these estates they have largely dwindled back into the ownership and stewardship of Irish farmers and home owners. Naper's estate in the 1800s was over 180,000 acres and now dwindled to 200 acres.

Loughcrew is one of the most historic, as well as most beautiful, corners of Meath that drifts over into Westmeath. Loughcrew is named after a local lake but mysteriously the name as been applied to its network of cairns towering from the highest point of its very green hills.

I prefer to know this area by its more ancient name of Slieve na Cailleach Bearra,

These are hills of the goddess Bearra. The is a beautiful story hill that links with the Cork and Kerry regions of Gougane Barra, Bearra Peninsula and Bear Island. It was from here, around 200 BC, that High King Ollam Fodhla give this entire land its first name, after his, "Fodhla" though it was not accepted by the Ulster king who preferred Banba and Munster king who preferred Erin. King Fodhla also commenced the first Feis at Tara as a gathering of the regions and clans supported by the bardic harpers of the regions.  

Emily Naper says they've "put heart and soul into Loughcrew for a lifetime now and it's time to let someone else take over and continue. It's such a spiritual and healing place, and important to so many, many people, that I know it will go on.

Considering Ireland's prices, 5.8 million is quite a bargain for what is being offered. the main house, its beautiful 17th century restored gardens that are open to the public with revenue from admission charges,  the 200 green acres or greens and farm that include the site of the Opera Festival, an 1840s groom's lodge, a stable lodge, two courtyard apartments that are used with their b&b packages, a number of large outbuildings such as coach-houses and stables and haybarn that are used for indoor farmer's markets, craft fairs, theatre performances and concerts . Included too are studio, offices, tennis courts with 16th century portico standing guard, and their very lucrative visitor's centre and cafe.

The current house was built from the 1820s, which is quite typical of Irish country houses to replace an earlier medieval castle. However, with Loughcrew house the medieval building was burned down. Unfortunately, the 18^th century house was largely destroyed by fire in 1964 but was restored when the Napers moved in to continue their family tradition.

As tour operators to the best of ancient sites in Ireland we have a natural concern about who will continue the stewardship there. Already there are challenges because of the rising popularity of Newgrange. Only a maximum of about 400 people a day are allowed to visit the Newgrange cairn yet often between 2000 to 5000 people will turn up in a day at the Bru na Boinne visitor's centre hoping to get some of the 400 tickets available, most of which are booked out more than 12 months in advance.

This means there is an overspill to Loughcrew, where the cairns are now managed by the OPW office at Bru na Boinne. The Napers do not have ownership of the cairns, even though they are on their estate but are employed as keepers. They have to abide by OPW rules. As the popularity of Loughcrew visiting has grown, so have the rules. Several groups desire time for themselves there for their rituals of meditation, but for much of the year this is neither possible or fair to the many people who wish to visit. There are now restrictions of how long visitors can be present in Cairn T. On quiet winter days this can be two hours but on a warm sunny summer's day down to around 10 minutes, like at Newgrange. The next overspill is to our own local Carrowkeel Cairns in Co. Sligo and I anticipate some kind of OPW controls arriving there soon due to their rising popularity. 

There are now not enough preserved passage cairns

There seems to not be enough to serve their rising popularity as places of silence, meditation and inner restoration.

I have experienced frequent heated clashes with the Napers over access to the Loughcrew Cairns, but their hands are tied with the responsibility of maintaining the OPW rulings. Despite these clashes the Napers have also provided us with wonderful service where they can. I admire and applaud their developments and initiatives in the spirit of country enterprise tradition that brings benefits to their locality.

Like the Napers, I hope their successors will continue good stewardship within local countryside enterprise traditions rather than the modern corporate imagery traditions like the OPW centres at Bru n Boinne and Cliffs of Moher, but this may be too much to expect.

At only 5.6 million euros Loughcrew could be developed into a large profit enterprise with developments within its accommodation services, catering services, publishing and tourism services. As this develops more people will be attracted to visit, and this will ultimately enforce severe controls on access to the Loughcrew Cairn L just like Cairn T is severely controlled today. Unfortunately, this will be essential for the preservation of the remarkable ancient art.

Even with this development I believe it is still possible to maintain a sense of ambiance, healing and creativity rather than the coldness of cooperate imagery. I sincerely pray that Loughcrew's new owners will develop the Loughcrew Enterprise where profit is balanced with spirit based stewardship.

To Find Out More

Check out Loughcrew's own beautiful web site 

If you are thinking of buying Loughcrew Estate and Enterprises

And, of course, supporting our own smaller but somewhat smaller enterprise to serve our local Carrowkeel Cairns and Keash Caves along with our Ceili Kitchen, Two Worlds Theatre and Labyrinth Garden

May I finish by announcing that this summer's Loughcrew Garden Opera will go ahead, this being "Donizetti's Don Pasqcinguale" performed on Friday and Saturday, June 27th and 28th.  www.loughcrew.com

I wrote this after endless days of visiting MySpace pages of exceptional talent but with pages that made me rush to the X button to close them as fast as I could.  Allow me to explain, as you may be surprised at what turns me off MySpace pages. 

For social exchange I prefer Facebook to MySpace any time, but I see these two different worlds. Maybe its because I was in music, theatre and film making before the internet was open to the public but I do feel it is important to use internet services as tools to enhance real world physical activity and not become a world unto itself.

From this vision I see and use MySpace as an extension of showcasing work like we do at exhibitions or side stands at conferences and festivals while Facebook is an expression of the bar or the cafe across the road from the showcase.

To what level should we showcase on MySpace?

Now I am not attempting to write this blog as a marketing "guru" but in response to my frustration in visiting pages of many people on MySpace. Most MySpace pages just do not seem to be maximising the potential of MySpace, even and often especially those showing 1000s of "friends".

What many are doing with their MySpace pages is instead of maximising their potential for attracting clients, fans, customers and contacts they are maximising how many utilities they can use on their MySpace Page. These utilities can cause 1000s of friends to become listed, but are these truly friends, fans or even contacts who actually know who you are?

I do not spend much time on MySpace myself, just a quick visit most days and out. I think that's really enough for anyone who is truly working their music, theatre, filming and craft well. 

Every time I open my MySpace administration page there's a long list of many "friends" requests but I do not automatically "approve" them but visit their MySpace pages first. This is what I find frustrating. The people are not frustrating but their MySpace pages are. I once thought this was because I was on slow dial up connection but now I have fast broadband I find nothing is really different.

Today, for example, I had a friend invite from a yoga teacher, who seemed like a nice person, probably is, so before clicking "approve" I clicked MySpace page. There i was blasted with a loud embedded YouTube video clip, a scrolling background animation, and text in a zillion different formats …. so I rushed my mouse to the X to close the page. Phew! some yoga teacher!

This is not a finger pointed at yoga and self improvement people or to musicians, film makers and everyone else on MySpace but a question on why do people create MySpace pages like this?

Lately spammers have found their way through my scrambled web site forms with ridiculous "hey, you can't keep me out, and by the way do you want some viagra" type of crap. Being blasted by video, audio, flashing text, animations etc. before I can even read the title of a MySpace page has the same effect on me as those spammers doing a "pie in the face" through my web site forms.

Before MySpace there were Dynamic Web Sites

Web Designers and Web Marketers are definitely two different people with two different intents. The web designer's job is an art, a goal to make the most original, most dramatic, most beautiful awesome web sites. The web marketer does not care what the web site looks like as long as it sells services and products. In short, beautiful web sites do not sell the most products, but it does need a "good" web site to sell products and services. "In your face promotions" no longer work.

Marketing is now like training a horse. You cannot often go up and pet a horse and demand acceptance or you might get a bite or kick, but if you go in the same field as the horse and just site down the horse is likely to approach you and be very gentle and friendly with you. This has to be the horse's idea  ……. but if you are holding horse nuts in your palm it goes a long way to encourage that idea.

Designers used to try and turn web sites into TV channels and now this trend seems to be passed onto MySpace. You switch on a TV and it immediately blasts out visual and audio. We expect that because we do not turn on the TV anymore to find something out. We switch on TV as we have decided its time for some entertainment. Nowadays we have already been sold the entertainment through our subscription to dish or cable services.

We have not sold anyone anything to look at our web site or MySpace page so why waste time making it like a TV channel?

Maybe I'm not mainstream with this, but see what you think …

My work, as you may know, is providing entertainment and learning streams for exploring ancient Celtic traditions and celebrations through visiting ancient sacred sites and sharing music, folk drama, poetry, storytelling and ancient crafts. I also encourage and provide services for people to journal these things through writing, photography and video to let these ancient traditions inspire their own creative arts and crafts.

To do this I have set up a set of online tools to accompany my offline activities and clearly define what each of my online tools should do. This is done in the spirit of realizing that a hammer is not much good for sawing wood. DIY people might mumble "idiot" to that idea but its just the same as trying use a web site or home page as a TV channel or even a MySpace page as a web site home page.

I am very happy with my online response as its much easier and much cheaper than what I used to have to do before the internet was made public in the late 1980s and did not really have good tools until 1995.

The link to all that I do offline is my web site, not MySpace

I still believe there's still nothing out there to replace having your own independent web site hosted by a company that is in the business of hosting web sites and your own personal and individual domain name. Mine is CelticWays.com as you may know.

I like to keep my web site coded simple so search engine spiders can access and understand it easily and folks looking for info can decide in seconds if they have come to the the right place for what they want at that moment.

If folks decide I have info and services they could use then I provide links to in-depth articles, photo galleries, maybe some audio and some video clips. Visitors can then decide what to look at and how long to stay. At each depth there is a call to action, a question to make a decision and a utility to make a further inquiry or place an order.

Fortunately, there are now some nice, often free, services out there we can embed into our web sites to replace and better serve us than previous paid hosting services of similar services

For articles, its worth using a blogging service like Blogger

For photos we can now link and embed Flickr or Picasa

For audio I recently discovered and like Liberated Syndication

For Video clips there's YouTube, that I still like better than the MySpace video service

Not only are Blogger, Flickr, Picaso, YouTube etc. free and inexpensive but they also help with search engine ranking and positioning. More important, they also act as additional funnels to attract more people to your web site through their own search and friend subscription facilities.

In short, I use my web site as an essential hub to to several services like MySpace, YouTube etc that serve as lead attraction funnels, yet these same services now also act a deeper information providers for the people who come to my web site.

The important thing is that my personal web site is central to all online activity, but my web site is not my business 

From my web site people eventually come and see us in Ireland, share what we do, buy some services, buy some products, and everyone had added something to their lives. This is all enjoyed offline, but it took an online journey for them to find, discover and book to join in what we offer offline.

Is your MySpace Page  "MeTV" or a genuine personal invitation?

My suggested message here is that I feel it must be very hard to sell your music, films and crafts on MySpace if you try to make it your web site, or even worse, your main media station and player.

I visit and treat MySpace like I treat Exhibitions and side stalls at Conferences and Festivals. I want to see things that I can see and understand in seconds and then take away business cards and literature, and maybe ask one or two questions while I am there. I rarely buy anything at these places. I'm in and I am out.  I bet most visitors to MySpace, even if they have pages there, are like this. If a MySpace page is complicated, I'm out of there before reading anything. 

I leave messages around MySpace like "this is interesting please email me" or "please visit my web site where I have a contact form". I only do this when MySpace pages have clear indication of how to get to personal web sites. I click these web page links for a quick visit and leave my contact details on their web site subscription boxes. I might save the web site link in MyFavourites, but that is not so good for the web master.

Your email address gathering box, usually for a newsletter, is still the most valuable thing online you could ever have!

Likewise when I arrive home from exhibitions etc. I start visiting the stand holders web sites, write emails and then might order one or two things based on the quick contact I made at the exhibition.

I cannot seriously consider MySpace as a social site any more.

Facebook is much better for that, and I rarely do real business from Facebook. I use Facebook for fun, mainly with family, established friends and established clients and people I network with. It a great place to share jokes, talk family, share good experiences and even a shoulder to share some challenges, just like a pub or cafe. Yahoo 360 including Yahoo Groups is good for that too, I find.

Meanwhile on MySpace I can say, this is who I am, where I live, what I do, list keywords to attract people that I think may be interested in what I do, and attract people I can help too.

Don't forget the attitude of "help" as MySpace is a great place to network two ways. We are all both sellers and buyers, not just living to collect money from sales. For money to work it always has to be buying. Even if we stash money in a savings account your bank immediately uses your money to buy and sell things while you are not using it.

However, I do not think MySpace serves us best as a place to do business.

I do find MySpace is much more profitable as a tool to funnel people to our personal web sites, to attract people to our web sites, where business can then take place.  If find it is through my web site I feel I am well positioned to build a true network of friends, clients, customers and contacts in a very solid, ethical, personal and even environmental way. This is what has happened for us. We are delighted.

So I invite you to look at your MySpace page again and consider if it is a "MeTV" kind of place or whether it is a "glad you popped by, would you like to look closer at what I do" kind of place that guides people to your web site and invites people into your creative "home".

On the other foot, if you have a web site but do not have a MySpace page yet, then you are missing out on attracting a chunk of wonderful people to your web site, which I now believe is far more powerful for attracting people than through Google. Note how Google is slowly changing from being a keyword linking and listing site into a video introduction and linking site.

Careful with that intro video, though, if you go that way. It should still not be "MeTV" but some brief simple opening invitation.

When was the last time you opened a TV guide and watched the whole movie before turning on your TV?

I suggest treating your MySpace page as an entry page, like an entry in a TV guide. MySpace is great for showing us what's out there but do leave the pleasures of your "MeTV" productions to the unique experience of your web site. Even there, also ensure that your web site is also a gateway to your performance and products as your web site can never and should never have the power to replace who you are and what you do either. 

Yes, some web sites are now successful broadcasting channels with heavily subscribed audio and video broadcasts but these are an end product.

You'll sell a lot of music, films and crafts, whatever you do, if your MySpace is simple and funnels people to your web site that has levels starting from simple to more depth. Even all of your web site should serve as a gateway for people to eventually experience you and your products in a way no online service can do. 

That's how you will make real friends, real fans through MySpace. 

I feel I have lost a lot of potential good friends on MySpace because they attempt to undress themselves before I can even read their MySpace title. The barrage of audio and visuals make me run for the X button.

Do more of you feel the same as this?