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Listen to the Land Speak: A journey into the wisdom of what lies beneath us
Our ancestors developed a uniquely nature-focused society, centred on esteemed poets, seers, monks, healers and wise women who were deeply connected to the land. They used this connection to the cycles of the natural world - from which we are increasingly dissociated - as an animating force in their lives.
In this illuminating new book, Manchan Magan sets out on a journey, through bogs, across rivers and over mountains, to trace these ancestor's footsteps. He uncovers the ancient myths that have shaped our national identity and are embedded in the strata of land that have endured through millennia - from ice ages through to famines and floods.
Here, the River Shannon is a goddess, and trees and their life-sustaining root systems are hallowed. See the world in a new light in this magical exploration into the life-sustaining wisdom of what lies beneath us.
In this illuminating new book, Manchan Magan sets out on a journey, through bogs, across rivers and over mountains, to trace these ancestor's footsteps. He uncovers the ancient myths that have shaped our national identity and are embedded in the strata of land that have endured through millennia - from ice ages through to famines and floods.
Here, the River Shannon is a goddess, and trees and their life-sustaining root systems are hallowed. See the world in a new light in this magical exploration into the life-sustaining wisdom of what lies beneath us.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published October 6, 2022
214 people are currently reading
2675 people want to read
About the author
Manchán Magan
17 books219 followersManchán Magan was a writer, traveller and television presenter. He grew up in Donnybrook, Dublin 4 and was the great-grandnephew of Mícheál Seosamh Ó Rathaille (aka: The O'Rahilly) He has made over 30 travel documentaries focusing on issues of world culture and globalization, 12 of them packaged under the Global Nomad series with his brother Ruán Magan. He presented No Béarla, a documentary series about traveling around Ireland speaking only Irish. He wrote a travel column for the Irish Times and his show The Big Adventure, on RTÉ Radio One explored adventure holidays. He has written two books in Irish, 'Baba-ji agus TnaG' (Coiscéim 2005) and 'Manchán ar Seachrán' (Coiscéím 1998), and his English travel books include ‘Angels & Rabies: a journey through the Americas’ (Brandon, 2006), ‘Manchán’s Travels: a journey through India’ (Brandon, 2007) and ‘Truck Fever: a journey through Africa’ (Brandon, 2008).
http://irishmedia.blogspot.com/2007/1...
Irish Times profile, 2007 by Róisín Ingle.
http://irishmedia.blogspot.com/2007/1...
Irish Times profile, 2007 by Róisín Ingle.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
January 13, 2023
I have never read a book before that felt like it was unlocking parts of my brain as I read it. Personally, having been raised (begrudgingly) as a Protestant, in one of the most unionist areas in Ireland, most of my early life was mentally committed to pulling at the thread of an illusion which was sold to me as protection. Most people who grow up in Ireland, or are from a Catholic background in the north of Ireland, feel like something has been taken from them, whereas I can only speak for myself when I say that it feels like things were being hidden from me. Irish was not taught at my school, history was pretty much restricted to World Wars “won” by the English and American history that, ironically given this book, erased the existence of indigenous people, and in my local area there are several orange halls and The Twelfth is a major event in the social calendar. Despite all this, I grew up in the countryside where I could wander around, due to the camaraderie with local farmers bestowed to me by my dad, and explore relics of the recent past that have fallen to dereliction, and this is also where I have spent much of the past 3 years becoming more irritated at the environmental destruction caused by farming, and the loss of community through capitalism.
In 2019, once I finished university I seemingly started learning Irish for no reason, or at least the reason for learning it has been lost on me, and from that I started learning more about the history both actively out of my own curiosity having left unionism behind me years ago, and passively as my social circle expanded southbound online and my friends and mutual acquaintances shared tidbits of their cultural identity, and through the anger they have toward the current political climate in Ireland where the government plans to erase, evict and gentrify anything that doesn’t make money.
From reading this book, it felt like I was reclaiming knowledge that I should have been taught, or at least been more popular - the pagan traditions, the folklore, the names for geographical features, the language, the place names, etc. But more than that, a lot of it just made sense to me, like I had been living alongside it or had heard fragments of stories that were finally being put together. After the first few chapters, I started to treat the book as more of a revelation when I visited Mussenden Temple, a place I have been many times before, and started to see the area differently, as from this viewpoint you can see the Lower Bann swooping into the North Atlantic on the right, and Tuns Banks to the left towards Derry; where one of three of the great waves of Ireland Tonn Tuaithe is said to reside, as well as the burial place of the sea god Manannán mac Lir and Tuag of Tara. Funnily enough, I had to be rescued by the RNLI in this same area the previous year after getting caught in the equinox waves.
Some of the criticisms for this book claim that the book assumes a pre-existing knowledge of many of these things, but I personally see the book as a springboard for further reading in areas that are much deeper than what can be covered in such a sprawling book, such as the Tuatha Dé Danann, and Manchán includes many avenues to explore these both physically (e.g. the bog body on Kildare Street), in journals and archives and even more novel places online (e.g. everyringfort). Most of the information in this book was unknown to me before reading, although I recently finished Ireland’s Forgotten Past by Turtle Bunbury. Plus, it’s 2023 and Google is still free to use and I genuinely wonder how people can get through any book without the compulsion to look things up out of curiosity. Even when reading this book I was lucky enough to be able to discuss it with people who know a lot more than me which has helped me to absorb the text more.
The writing of the book is compelling, and it impressed me how Manchán is able to sequence each element of the book logically into chapters that feel more like breathers whilst introducing new stories and further contexts to previous stories, as if the topics were swelling like waves in a mostly linear way despite the argument in the book for viewing time in a non-linear fashion, as well as parsing anecdotes between facts and stories in a way that didn’t feel rigid, or indulgent. I also want to give credit to how Christianity was tackled in the book, in a way I have never encountered before even in an increasingly secular society which is to show how paganism was mutated or “borrowed” by Christianity. I found this most enthralling when Manchán examines how patriarchal the monotheist religion is compared to the more matriarchal polytheism of paganism (and even with references to Hinduism in the earlier chapters), for example, how in paganism Sionainn was said to have acquired the wisdom of Connla’s Well to become the River Shannon, whereas in Christianity she was said to have drowned for wanting more than what is expected of women.
Furthermore, the cover and the illustrations within the book are gorgeous.
I couldn’t recommend this book enough, especially to fellow Irish people and I promise it will change your perspective of the land in some way.
In 2019, once I finished university I seemingly started learning Irish for no reason, or at least the reason for learning it has been lost on me, and from that I started learning more about the history both actively out of my own curiosity having left unionism behind me years ago, and passively as my social circle expanded southbound online and my friends and mutual acquaintances shared tidbits of their cultural identity, and through the anger they have toward the current political climate in Ireland where the government plans to erase, evict and gentrify anything that doesn’t make money.
From reading this book, it felt like I was reclaiming knowledge that I should have been taught, or at least been more popular - the pagan traditions, the folklore, the names for geographical features, the language, the place names, etc. But more than that, a lot of it just made sense to me, like I had been living alongside it or had heard fragments of stories that were finally being put together. After the first few chapters, I started to treat the book as more of a revelation when I visited Mussenden Temple, a place I have been many times before, and started to see the area differently, as from this viewpoint you can see the Lower Bann swooping into the North Atlantic on the right, and Tuns Banks to the left towards Derry; where one of three of the great waves of Ireland Tonn Tuaithe is said to reside, as well as the burial place of the sea god Manannán mac Lir and Tuag of Tara. Funnily enough, I had to be rescued by the RNLI in this same area the previous year after getting caught in the equinox waves.
Some of the criticisms for this book claim that the book assumes a pre-existing knowledge of many of these things, but I personally see the book as a springboard for further reading in areas that are much deeper than what can be covered in such a sprawling book, such as the Tuatha Dé Danann, and Manchán includes many avenues to explore these both physically (e.g. the bog body on Kildare Street), in journals and archives and even more novel places online (e.g. everyringfort). Most of the information in this book was unknown to me before reading, although I recently finished Ireland’s Forgotten Past by Turtle Bunbury. Plus, it’s 2023 and Google is still free to use and I genuinely wonder how people can get through any book without the compulsion to look things up out of curiosity. Even when reading this book I was lucky enough to be able to discuss it with people who know a lot more than me which has helped me to absorb the text more.
The writing of the book is compelling, and it impressed me how Manchán is able to sequence each element of the book logically into chapters that feel more like breathers whilst introducing new stories and further contexts to previous stories, as if the topics were swelling like waves in a mostly linear way despite the argument in the book for viewing time in a non-linear fashion, as well as parsing anecdotes between facts and stories in a way that didn’t feel rigid, or indulgent. I also want to give credit to how Christianity was tackled in the book, in a way I have never encountered before even in an increasingly secular society which is to show how paganism was mutated or “borrowed” by Christianity. I found this most enthralling when Manchán examines how patriarchal the monotheist religion is compared to the more matriarchal polytheism of paganism (and even with references to Hinduism in the earlier chapters), for example, how in paganism Sionainn was said to have acquired the wisdom of Connla’s Well to become the River Shannon, whereas in Christianity she was said to have drowned for wanting more than what is expected of women.
Furthermore, the cover and the illustrations within the book are gorgeous.
I couldn’t recommend this book enough, especially to fellow Irish people and I promise it will change your perspective of the land in some way.
November 23, 2022
What a disappointing book! The premise, that ancient myths reflected in archaeological remains in our modern landscape have something valuable to tell us, and how this comes together in an Irish context, was exciting. The delivery on the other hand, was very poor. The book is really disorganised, with facts and stories blended in a mishmash with no logic to them. It often presumes a level of existing expertise by the reader, but even Irish readers may not remember what exactly the Táin Bó Cuailgne is. Explanations are only sporadic and partial.
The author tries to weave in science, geology and myth but doesn’t have the expertise to do a decent job. The book is riddled with unsubstantiated speculation and nothing is footnoted or referenced. The prose is florid, vague and fanciful, and he often fails to make any point. Really wish I hadn’t bothered.
The author tries to weave in science, geology and myth but doesn’t have the expertise to do a decent job. The book is riddled with unsubstantiated speculation and nothing is footnoted or referenced. The prose is florid, vague and fanciful, and he often fails to make any point. Really wish I hadn’t bothered.
October 14, 2022
Manchan Magan's book is a celebration of what is uniquely Irish in our landscape and our past. The ditches, bumps, hillocks, and lakes which we tend to take for granted, all tell stories from our remote past, stretching back to the times of the earliest neolithic settlers 10000 years ago, through the Bronze Age until the arrival of the Iron Age Celts in the middle of the first millennium BC. There is so much that is unknown, but as the author puts it in the title, the land speaks. Features of the land are often associated with ancient tales of Ireland's mythological heroes, some of which may be of Celtic origin, and some stretching much farther back than that. I found it particularly fascinating to read how the association of landscape, history, and mythology continued well into recorded history; Manchan gives the example of Gearoid Iarla, born in 1335 and said to be the progeny of the goddess Aine, whose father, Lord Maurice Fitzgerald (First Earl of Desmond) sneaked up on her after her bath at a place called Clochan Aine (Aine's stones.) Gearoid Iarla was a controversial character and although he contributed to the suppression of the Irish by enacting the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1367, there are many counter-tales of his charitable acts. The folktales that attached themselves to Gearoid may indicate a kind of reverence.
In a disturbing chapter about the great hunger - An Gorta Mor of 1845 - (sometimes inaccurately referred to as a famine - there was, in fact, plenty of food available) Manchan talks of the abandoned and ruined landscapes, the mass graves, and the workhouses which have left scars on the landscape which have never properly healed. His reference to the psychological scarring of the Irish people caused by An Gorta Mor probably deserves another book.
In a disturbing chapter about the great hunger - An Gorta Mor of 1845 - (sometimes inaccurately referred to as a famine - there was, in fact, plenty of food available) Manchan talks of the abandoned and ruined landscapes, the mass graves, and the workhouses which have left scars on the landscape which have never properly healed. His reference to the psychological scarring of the Irish people caused by An Gorta Mor probably deserves another book.
April 2, 2024
Another beautiful book from Manchán Magan that makes you want to pick up your walking stick and start exploring all the hills, mounds and ancient history around you that you never even knew existed before.
This is a lovely, slightly meandering collection of what it means in Ireland to have a history and culture so deeply connected with the land around us. Every chapter in this book really had me marveling about how truly ancient our land in Ireland is, and how wondrous and lucky we are to know so much from all those years ago and how amazing it is to walk the same hills and pathways as ancient heroes and heroines from the stories.
I do think it lost its way slightly in the middle but I also think this deviation, that came about through pure enthusiasm on other subjects by the author, is part of what gives this kind of books its charm. It's not a book to be read cover to cover in one evening; instead it's one you pick up, read a chapter and think about it and the next night read another chapter and so on. It's one to cherish and to be taken on a literal and figurative journey with.
I also can understand some people's critique of Manchán's frequent mention of colonialism and how our ancient stories and history have been changed and warped because of this and the rise if Christianity in Ireland but I also think this was worth saying and repeating it because no matter where you turn, in Ireland or in other colonised countries, we have to face up to the fact that our ancient history and culture was warped by the Catholic church, and free-spirited goddesses suddenly became pious saints in stories, and blood-thirsty heroes became forgiving followers of Christ. And Manchán details only a fraction of all of that in this book.
I also loved learning about parts of Irish folklore I wasn't aware of before, and it's really sparked something in me to keep educating myself in this area, and explore more and I'm looking forward to that!
This is a lovely, slightly meandering collection of what it means in Ireland to have a history and culture so deeply connected with the land around us. Every chapter in this book really had me marveling about how truly ancient our land in Ireland is, and how wondrous and lucky we are to know so much from all those years ago and how amazing it is to walk the same hills and pathways as ancient heroes and heroines from the stories.
I do think it lost its way slightly in the middle but I also think this deviation, that came about through pure enthusiasm on other subjects by the author, is part of what gives this kind of books its charm. It's not a book to be read cover to cover in one evening; instead it's one you pick up, read a chapter and think about it and the next night read another chapter and so on. It's one to cherish and to be taken on a literal and figurative journey with.
I also can understand some people's critique of Manchán's frequent mention of colonialism and how our ancient stories and history have been changed and warped because of this and the rise if Christianity in Ireland but I also think this was worth saying and repeating it because no matter where you turn, in Ireland or in other colonised countries, we have to face up to the fact that our ancient history and culture was warped by the Catholic church, and free-spirited goddesses suddenly became pious saints in stories, and blood-thirsty heroes became forgiving followers of Christ. And Manchán details only a fraction of all of that in this book.
I also loved learning about parts of Irish folklore I wasn't aware of before, and it's really sparked something in me to keep educating myself in this area, and explore more and I'm looking forward to that!
April 14, 2025
DNF'd at just under 50%
I was so looking forward to this book, it sounded right up my alley, but it was extremely disappointing. It's very meandering, and some meandering is to be expected from a book that is at its core about a landscape, but it doesn't seem very well put together or organised? Points get half made and then abandoned without elaboration, the author goes on tangents about his travels in China that have very little to do with the point being made, and he hops from landmark to landmark with, for the most part, little to no connective tissue tying any of it together.
I also found some of the claims he makes... based very much in loose speculation? At best.
Like I'm sorry but I am taking all the claims with a huge grain of salt as soon as the author alleged that "the grip that Christianity has had on the country was really only a post-Famine phenomenon" as though Ireland wasn't a major Christian seat from the 5th Century. Irish missionaries re-Christianised the north of England?? Iona, famously, was a pilgrimage site. Hell, Ireland's monasteries as a whole were world-famous as fonts of learning and people flocked to them, and missionaries and scholars out of them. The Book of Kells was written in Ireland and is one of the finest and oldest extant illuminated manuscripts. It's... a LITTLE bit older than the Famine.
I dunno, it's not the only claim I take issue with (what do you MEAN "some sources claim that the fairies are lingering energetic resonances" WHAT sources. Get back here and explain what you mean. No footnote no elaboration he simply moves on to something unrelated. What do you MEAN.) but it was one of the first things I was like "oh that's... wrong."
Frustrating. It reminds me quite a lot of Amy Jeffs' books which have similar problems (for me) of being meandering, bringing up points only to immediately discard them with little to no elaboration or cause, and having come to a conclusion first and then making things fit it by hook or by crook. I also did not like any of Jeffs' books. Wild coincidence.
I was so looking forward to this book, it sounded right up my alley, but it was extremely disappointing. It's very meandering, and some meandering is to be expected from a book that is at its core about a landscape, but it doesn't seem very well put together or organised? Points get half made and then abandoned without elaboration, the author goes on tangents about his travels in China that have very little to do with the point being made, and he hops from landmark to landmark with, for the most part, little to no connective tissue tying any of it together.
I also found some of the claims he makes... based very much in loose speculation? At best.
Like I'm sorry but I am taking all the claims with a huge grain of salt as soon as the author alleged that "the grip that Christianity has had on the country was really only a post-Famine phenomenon" as though Ireland wasn't a major Christian seat from the 5th Century. Irish missionaries re-Christianised the north of England?? Iona, famously, was a pilgrimage site. Hell, Ireland's monasteries as a whole were world-famous as fonts of learning and people flocked to them, and missionaries and scholars out of them. The Book of Kells was written in Ireland and is one of the finest and oldest extant illuminated manuscripts. It's... a LITTLE bit older than the Famine.
I dunno, it's not the only claim I take issue with (what do you MEAN "some sources claim that the fairies are lingering energetic resonances" WHAT sources. Get back here and explain what you mean. No footnote no elaboration he simply moves on to something unrelated. What do you MEAN.) but it was one of the first things I was like "oh that's... wrong."
Frustrating. It reminds me quite a lot of Amy Jeffs' books which have similar problems (for me) of being meandering, bringing up points only to immediately discard them with little to no elaboration or cause, and having come to a conclusion first and then making things fit it by hook or by crook. I also did not like any of Jeffs' books. Wild coincidence.
January 25, 2024
An eloquent sequel to his fine study of the literal impacts of the Irish language on its indigenous landscapes, this 2022 book extends Manchãn Magan's life's work of surveying parts of our fragile planet which our ancestors revered but which many around us today sever from our human roots. This unfolds organically as he narrates how the island began, gradually adding features of the earth which emerged thousands of years ago in many cases, and whose patterns, traces, and buried legacies may inspire us now and catalyze a turnaround from the current destruction that first the Church, then the colonizer, and nowadays the real estate developer and agribusiness bulldoze and plow under, the living heritage.
A previous reviewer claimed that the results were hard to follow, while complaining that the author expected his audience to recall the seminal Old Irish epic Tãin Bó Cualinge. As this is the most famous of ancient Hibernian stories, it's difficult to think of a reader for this of all books who wouldn't welcome the deft summaries, thoughtful speculations, and erudite wisdom Magan, in typically modest fashion, shares from his roaming. You get, after all, succinct parenthetical asides as to the meaning of any Gaeilge, and Magan's always aware of his role as seanachie as he takes you on a vividly described tour of Ireland from the ground up, or occasionally on clear days, the top down from the mountain vista.
I read this via Kindle. A suggestion: maps. Likely many who could benefit from the lore gathered, this would've eased the circumnavigations.
A previous reviewer claimed that the results were hard to follow, while complaining that the author expected his audience to recall the seminal Old Irish epic Tãin Bó Cualinge. As this is the most famous of ancient Hibernian stories, it's difficult to think of a reader for this of all books who wouldn't welcome the deft summaries, thoughtful speculations, and erudite wisdom Magan, in typically modest fashion, shares from his roaming. You get, after all, succinct parenthetical asides as to the meaning of any Gaeilge, and Magan's always aware of his role as seanachie as he takes you on a vividly described tour of Ireland from the ground up, or occasionally on clear days, the top down from the mountain vista.
I read this via Kindle. A suggestion: maps. Likely many who could benefit from the lore gathered, this would've eased the circumnavigations.
July 13, 2025
A devastating but also poetically hopeful reminder of who we are and what we stand to lose, in Ireland and beyond. Big up the bogs.
December 26, 2024
Surprisingly a real page turner - forgot to review this one earlier! I remember my Irish pride and passion for the the land being reignited, and a curiosity of Irish mythology being born. I also really like this guys podcasts as he has a very calming voice
August 10, 2025
changed my friggin life
August 26, 2025
Yet another book from Manchán Magan that is a joy to read. In this cross of geography, topography, mythology, and history, the reader travels the rivers, forests, hills, and ring forts of Ireland. From folktales to famine workhouses, this book breathes life and awe into the Irish landscape. Be warned - If you have any curiosity in your soul, it will make you want to explore every nook and cranny of this island. ❤️📚
October 17, 2025
What a profound book that explained exactly how I felt when traveling to Ireland. The land felt like it had a soul I felt so spiritually connected to it like it had a power like I could truly feel the closeness of nature and humanity. This book dives so deep into the intertwining of history and ancient folklore so much so that the lines often blur.
It surely scratched my itch of the two and at the same time so devastating learning in much more detail about the great hunger and disease of Ireland rather than “potato famine” from 1845-1851. So much death is buried beneath the land in mass unmarked gravesites no wonder I felt so much emotion there. Workhouses dotted the landscape providing more of a prison than anything else for poorer people without access to food, however they were overpacked and breeding grown for disease, killing over 200,000 people.
Favorite parts :
1. Samhain- the beginning of a period of darkness , emphasizing the darker months as a journey to reconnect, “take time off to reset ourselves and replenish our stores, hearts, and minds
“We can allow ourselves the luxury of turning inward to the timeless, internal realm, where we can be far more than the sum of our daily activities
3. The great power that women are given in Irish folklore, specifically Áine - the divine female figure who represents the animating life force of nature
4. The history within the bogs, bodies that never decay, fingernails hair and clothes are left intact even after 4,000 years…
5. The power of Fairy forts, over 35,000 of them that remain preserved and built around thought to cause a curse on those who tamper with it
It surely scratched my itch of the two and at the same time so devastating learning in much more detail about the great hunger and disease of Ireland rather than “potato famine” from 1845-1851. So much death is buried beneath the land in mass unmarked gravesites no wonder I felt so much emotion there. Workhouses dotted the landscape providing more of a prison than anything else for poorer people without access to food, however they were overpacked and breeding grown for disease, killing over 200,000 people.
Favorite parts :
1. Samhain- the beginning of a period of darkness , emphasizing the darker months as a journey to reconnect, “take time off to reset ourselves and replenish our stores, hearts, and minds
“We can allow ourselves the luxury of turning inward to the timeless, internal realm, where we can be far more than the sum of our daily activities
3. The great power that women are given in Irish folklore, specifically Áine - the divine female figure who represents the animating life force of nature
4. The history within the bogs, bodies that never decay, fingernails hair and clothes are left intact even after 4,000 years…
5. The power of Fairy forts, over 35,000 of them that remain preserved and built around thought to cause a curse on those who tamper with it
April 21, 2024
This book has a really strong message about a forgotten fact through industrialisation and modernisation that we, humans, are always connected to our land and should nurture it in our turn. I, however, want to state immediately that I realise I was not the intended audience for this book, even though I love Irish mythology. This story is rather written to the citizens of Ireland who are out of touch with their own roots and history, following the traumatising Famine, and I trult support the message of the book. Nevertheless, I felt like the narrative was all over the place, constantly trying to cram as much as possible on one page. This was also followed by some very lyrical and thought-provoking passages, but not enough so for me to like this book.
January 6, 2025
the beginning was a bit slow for me hence why i ended up reading basically half of this book in the last two days. the chapters about bogs and the great hunger where definitely the best part. i dont think i would recommend this to someone who wasnt irish, doesnt live there or doesnt have an irish parent (or at the very least traceable heritage). i thought the folklore section would be more interesting for me than it was, but i think if i grew up around the areas mentioned it would have meant more. but i just love bogs. the great hunger and work house and graves are definitely must reads for people who care about being irish, its not something i havent heard before of course but its nice to see the different phrasing and i thought this was very impactful.
December 19, 2025
Could really benefit from an actual bibliography! There are many instances where the line between conjecture and actual research is blurred. I would also like more sources purely so I can actually do further reading about the archaelogical sites and mythological traditions described here. The organization of ideas feels a bit unfocused as well, but I think Magan is at his best when relating historic structures and landscape to mythic history (which is tacitly what the thesis of this book is, though it frequently strays). Really appreciate his language revival work but I don't think he was playing to his strengths with this one.
February 13, 2025
Informative look at the Irish landscape from a mostly historical viewpoint. The explanations offered for importance of features such as hills and rivers are always insightful and start to give a holistic picture of the lands. I'd give it 5 stars but for the speculation about magnetic solar fields at the end which I think is just plain wrong. The human mind is great at drawing correspondences and synergies and I'm glad a new understanding of our place in the natural surroundings is being advocated for. The Irish mind and experience (and the author) has much to offer here.
March 3, 2025
A very interesting and not overly esoteric take on Ireland's connection to language and land. As an Irish speaker (not a very good one) I thoroughly enjoyed this, I also liked that I could see places I know in another light. Fascinating read really, partly a bit unstructured but that's ok. 3.5 stars
June 28, 2023
I will do a much more in-depth review of this book later, but for now, suffice to say that after I finished transferring highlights of notes and quotes from this print book over to my readwise.io account, I have 70 quoted sections. 70. It's that good and that thought provoking.
October 16, 2024
The chapters about the Famine and its aftereffects are required reading for anyone who wants to understand the Irish psyche. Brilliant book which mixes mythology, biology, history, geography and travel writing with panache. Manchán Magan is a national treasure!
December 17, 2025
More of a 3.5-4 stars. Very interesting book about the Irish landscape and the people’s connection to it throughout the years. I especially liked how things linked to folklore and mythology. Definitely a little hippy-esque sometimes but not surprising from Manchán!
April 12, 2023
Very interesting, I learned a lot about Ireland and its folklore. Not very gripping though, its more of a coffee table book. His writing style is very jumpy and a bit messy. Would give it 3.5 stars.
September 4, 2025
“All life is unified and interconnected. We cannot survive beyond our surroundings. We are part of the land, and the land wishes to communicate with us”.
August 13, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed Thirty-Two Words for Field, which is a fascinating glimpse into the ancient knowledge and forgotten connotations of a language intimately tied up with folklore, mythology, and pre-history. My biggest complaint about that book is that it is woefully short and touched only fleetingly on so many facts and topics that I hoped would be explored in more detail in Listen to the Land Speak. In this book, Magan appears to set out on a related exercise, which is to tie elements of the Irish landscape, rather than the Irish language, to ancient mythology, religion, custom, and life. This had the potential to be just as if not even more interesting than his first book, but unfortunately it falls flat.
The best parts of this book are Magan's brief encounters with the fascinating and understudied fields of geomythology and archaeomythology - the study of myths as possible records of real geological and historical events, such as comet impacts, the end of the Ice Age, or the disappearance of landmasses and even civilisations (perhaps the most famous example of which is Atlantis). For example, he establishes that the archaeological evidence pointing to the date of Lough Neagh's flooding closely matches the date given in the lake's mythological origin story down through the oral tradition. Unfortunately, he makes only cursory references to these ideas and explores none of them in any detail. He explicitly chooses to ignore the discovery of a 33,000-year-old carved reindeer bone in Ireland, which demolishes the accepted theory that the island has only been inhabited for 6,000 years, because he does not know what to make of it. He also makes no reference whatsoever to the extraordinary fact, mentioned in his previous book, that the people who built Newgrange have been found to be genetically discontinuous with the modern Irish population, strongly suggesting that not only is the structure much older than previously thought but that there may have been waves of settlers as yet unaccounted for in the historical record. The potential implications of these and other findings are enormous and there was a much more interesting book which could have (and still should be) written about these things, offering us a new understanding of our past and a new significance to our present.
Sadly Magan, much moreso than in the previous book, far too often turns his attention away from deepening our understanding of Ireland's past and its traditions and towards making barbed polemical remarks. Over and over again he repeats strange laments for the loss of Pagan rituals in favour of Christianity (despite admitting, albeit hesitantly and begrudgingly, how plainly violent, unpleasant and superstitious many of them were). It's one thing to be saddened by the widespread ignorance of Ireland's pre-Christian history and folklore, and another thing to raise them up as the only valid element of Irish culture, and everything else as a foreign-born 'oppression' of some kind or another. Magan runs through the usual recycled finger-pointing at the British for everything wrong with Ireland and the Irish psyche today, and makes the usual errors of referring to pre-20th Century Ireland as 'colonised' and 'occupied,' neither of which is accurate no matter how badly brutalised the population was, nor how many of their old traditions lost. Having done this, he can then lazily borrow the tropes of 'postcolonial' literature and apply them clumsily to modern Ireland, no matter how much of a stretch this becomes. Every criticism rightly directed against successive Irish governments concerning the preservation of the nation's heritage is instead chalked up to the 'legacy of oppression,' whether religious, political, or cultural, and the inevitable effect that has on the blameless autonoma who are left behind once the evil colonial masters have left. This analysis is selectively applied, completely ignoring how Catholicism, supposedly the original 'oppressor,' was itself suppressed by the English for centuries. Magan fails to say anything original in this regard beyond slapping postmodernist and feminist ideas on the ancient past, as if our distant ancestors were just modern people with simpler technology and strange clothes.
Despite making his views abundantly clear in this respect, Magan never quite explains his own position on Ireland's old Pagan religion. Sometimes he seems to flirt with conjuring up interpretations which would allow him to genuinely believe it without coming across as a lunatic in the modern world, while at other times he seems to think it simply contains values contrary to our Enlightenment worldview of 'measurement and control' which can be rescued for the benefit of environmental causes or the like (this despite the fact he regularly appeals to the scientific output of that Enlightenment worldview to inform his assessment of Paganism and myth).
The best parts of this book are Magan's brief encounters with the fascinating and understudied fields of geomythology and archaeomythology - the study of myths as possible records of real geological and historical events, such as comet impacts, the end of the Ice Age, or the disappearance of landmasses and even civilisations (perhaps the most famous example of which is Atlantis). For example, he establishes that the archaeological evidence pointing to the date of Lough Neagh's flooding closely matches the date given in the lake's mythological origin story down through the oral tradition. Unfortunately, he makes only cursory references to these ideas and explores none of them in any detail. He explicitly chooses to ignore the discovery of a 33,000-year-old carved reindeer bone in Ireland, which demolishes the accepted theory that the island has only been inhabited for 6,000 years, because he does not know what to make of it. He also makes no reference whatsoever to the extraordinary fact, mentioned in his previous book, that the people who built Newgrange have been found to be genetically discontinuous with the modern Irish population, strongly suggesting that not only is the structure much older than previously thought but that there may have been waves of settlers as yet unaccounted for in the historical record. The potential implications of these and other findings are enormous and there was a much more interesting book which could have (and still should be) written about these things, offering us a new understanding of our past and a new significance to our present.
Sadly Magan, much moreso than in the previous book, far too often turns his attention away from deepening our understanding of Ireland's past and its traditions and towards making barbed polemical remarks. Over and over again he repeats strange laments for the loss of Pagan rituals in favour of Christianity (despite admitting, albeit hesitantly and begrudgingly, how plainly violent, unpleasant and superstitious many of them were). It's one thing to be saddened by the widespread ignorance of Ireland's pre-Christian history and folklore, and another thing to raise them up as the only valid element of Irish culture, and everything else as a foreign-born 'oppression' of some kind or another. Magan runs through the usual recycled finger-pointing at the British for everything wrong with Ireland and the Irish psyche today, and makes the usual errors of referring to pre-20th Century Ireland as 'colonised' and 'occupied,' neither of which is accurate no matter how badly brutalised the population was, nor how many of their old traditions lost. Having done this, he can then lazily borrow the tropes of 'postcolonial' literature and apply them clumsily to modern Ireland, no matter how much of a stretch this becomes. Every criticism rightly directed against successive Irish governments concerning the preservation of the nation's heritage is instead chalked up to the 'legacy of oppression,' whether religious, political, or cultural, and the inevitable effect that has on the blameless autonoma who are left behind once the evil colonial masters have left. This analysis is selectively applied, completely ignoring how Catholicism, supposedly the original 'oppressor,' was itself suppressed by the English for centuries. Magan fails to say anything original in this regard beyond slapping postmodernist and feminist ideas on the ancient past, as if our distant ancestors were just modern people with simpler technology and strange clothes.
Despite making his views abundantly clear in this respect, Magan never quite explains his own position on Ireland's old Pagan religion. Sometimes he seems to flirt with conjuring up interpretations which would allow him to genuinely believe it without coming across as a lunatic in the modern world, while at other times he seems to think it simply contains values contrary to our Enlightenment worldview of 'measurement and control' which can be rescued for the benefit of environmental causes or the like (this despite the fact he regularly appeals to the scientific output of that Enlightenment worldview to inform his assessment of Paganism and myth).
October 23, 2022
Solid book looking at the relationship between cultural traditions, people, and the land to which we’re connected. Machán does a great job of putting in his own personal experiences and linking it to a greater discussion of how we relate to the natural world and each other.
Only criticism is that it can be a bit much at times, and without some basic prior knowledge of certain mythological aspects/places it can make you lost.
Despite that, I agree with the assessment that “The book just makes you want to go sit in a tree for a few hours.”
Only criticism is that it can be a bit much at times, and without some basic prior knowledge of certain mythological aspects/places it can make you lost.
Despite that, I agree with the assessment that “The book just makes you want to go sit in a tree for a few hours.”
March 2, 2025
“All life is unified and interconnected. We cannot survive beyond our surroundings. We are part of the land, and the land wishes to communicate with us.”
How does one deeply listen to the land? What does it say, scream, laugh and cry? Magan does not answer these questions definitely, but runs with them, grappling with the rich but often difficult history of resilience, magic and colonialism engraved within the Irish landscape. Myths are maps, tracing both the contours of the more-than-human land and our relationship to it. To understand the land and by extension ourselves and contemporary politics, we must first listen. And once we listen, we will hear the rich stories, myths, histories, and ecological wisdom that was right under our noses.
How does one deeply listen to the land? What does it say, scream, laugh and cry? Magan does not answer these questions definitely, but runs with them, grappling with the rich but often difficult history of resilience, magic and colonialism engraved within the Irish landscape. Myths are maps, tracing both the contours of the more-than-human land and our relationship to it. To understand the land and by extension ourselves and contemporary politics, we must first listen. And once we listen, we will hear the rich stories, myths, histories, and ecological wisdom that was right under our noses.
October 30, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed delving into Ireland’s past through this book. From the Shannon, to the scared Hazel, the legends of Lough Gur, the tales of the Fóidín Mearaí, Bog Bodies, and Ring Forts, I came away with a deeper appreciation of my Irish heritage & our enduring closeness to the land. Through every word, Manchán Magan conveys his deep reverence and passion for Ireland, lifting the veil on the forgotten myths and legends that lie beneath. Though he has sadly passed, he leaves behind words that serve as a quiet call to protect our land, our language, and our past.
January 8, 2023
A beautiful, evocative description of mythology/history of the land in Ireland.
December 6, 2022
A really interesting look at the history ensconced in our landscape and what it tells us of ourselves and our people. I would have loved more footnotes and referencing if only to facilitate further reading.
April 17, 2023
5 stars for premise and content.
4 stars for execution and flow.
2 stars for editing or lack thereof.
Great book which will particularly those interested in our Irish heritage, mythology and language, but also one accessible for those with less or no knowledge on these topics.
Magan interestingly weaves Irish mythology, local stories, personal experience, archaeology, geography and more together in a delightful narrative about our spiritual and cultural history.
Unfortunately, the standard of the final product is not very high. Often throughout the book I experienced a sense of deja vu, as if I was reading something word for word that I had already read. Much to my dismay, all too frequently my suspicion was proved correct as a quick scan through the previous two/three paragraphs would reveal that I had in fact read the exact same sentence or portion of a sentence less than 2 minutes prior.
Overall if one can look past this need for further editing, there is a lot to be admired and celebrated about this book. It serves as a reminder that our history, culture and heritage are embedded deep in the land, and that in fact we are in some way far more deeply intertwined with the world around and beneath us than we tend to think.
4 stars for execution and flow.
2 stars for editing or lack thereof.
Great book which will particularly those interested in our Irish heritage, mythology and language, but also one accessible for those with less or no knowledge on these topics.
Magan interestingly weaves Irish mythology, local stories, personal experience, archaeology, geography and more together in a delightful narrative about our spiritual and cultural history.
Unfortunately, the standard of the final product is not very high. Often throughout the book I experienced a sense of deja vu, as if I was reading something word for word that I had already read. Much to my dismay, all too frequently my suspicion was proved correct as a quick scan through the previous two/three paragraphs would reveal that I had in fact read the exact same sentence or portion of a sentence less than 2 minutes prior.
Overall if one can look past this need for further editing, there is a lot to be admired and celebrated about this book. It serves as a reminder that our history, culture and heritage are embedded deep in the land, and that in fact we are in some way far more deeply intertwined with the world around and beneath us than we tend to think.
February 19, 2023
A wonderful follow-up to ‘32 Words for Field’, this time taking a different slant that focuses more on Ireland’s relationship (or increasingly, a lack thereof) with the landscape and what our natural surroundings and ecosystems have to tell us.
Magan is a magician with words and has a way of presenting even the most seemingly mundane information in a captivating way. I found his chapters on Ireland’s bogs, trees and roads particularly fascinating and frequently had to pause reading to do a deep dive online into some of the landmarks and stories he mentions, which is exactly the kind of curiosity that Magan set out to evoke in his readers.
While this book did feel slightly disorganised compared to ‘32 Words for Field’ and some of the segues between ideas felt a little clunky, ‘Listen to the Land Speak’ has fundamentally altered how I see the natural world I walk among on a daily basis and has really opened my eyes to the fascinating, far-too-often overlooked details in our history, folklore and culture it can reveal to us once we take the time to really pay attention to what’s around us.
Magan is a magician with words and has a way of presenting even the most seemingly mundane information in a captivating way. I found his chapters on Ireland’s bogs, trees and roads particularly fascinating and frequently had to pause reading to do a deep dive online into some of the landmarks and stories he mentions, which is exactly the kind of curiosity that Magan set out to evoke in his readers.
While this book did feel slightly disorganised compared to ‘32 Words for Field’ and some of the segues between ideas felt a little clunky, ‘Listen to the Land Speak’ has fundamentally altered how I see the natural world I walk among on a daily basis and has really opened my eyes to the fascinating, far-too-often overlooked details in our history, folklore and culture it can reveal to us once we take the time to really pay attention to what’s around us.
August 24, 2023
On this isle, river goddesses distribute lifeblood to soil that would otherwise be barren. Bodies rise from under the spongy peat—the likes of which resemble the present as well as our most ancient past. And Áine’s light will always pass through the stone circles at the summer solstice. Ireland’s landscape is a flourishing pattern of history and legend woven so tightly together they are indistinguishable from one another. In a masterwork of creative non-fiction, Irish writer and historian Manchán Magan gifts readers an odyssey through the wondrous and complex lands of Ireland. He narrates folklore, religion, mythology, history, archeology, and his own personal memoir of Irish cultural landmarks to demonstrate the many ways in which Ireland has both drifted from its cultural past and remained ever faithful to it. Not unambitiously titled, Listen to the Land Speak: A Journey into the Wisdom of What Lies Beneath Us is a comprehensive guide that succeeds in informing us of the past, and how we might hear its whispers for ourselves.
Listen to the Land Speak is divided into forty-two distinct chapters that can be enjoyed separately or together, each chronicling a separate part of the Irish landscape, whether it be a single monument, such as Lough Gur, or a feature that is common throughout Ireland, such as the boglands that litter the country. Some even detail the celebration of certain festivals or holidays. The chapter on Samhain, for example, explains the rituals and importance of the festival that celebrates the end of harvest. People gather at raised hills with ceremonial firepits and interpret omens that predict the coming year. Finding a ring in a barmbrack foretells a marriage, a dried bean a single life, and a stick an unhappy marriage. Magan is consistently mindful of Ireland’s colonial past and the cultural genocide perpetrated against it, without which a history of Ireland’s land would be incomplete and unnuanced. The conflict between the traditions of the Irish people and the oppressive cultures of Britain and the Vikings play out on the page as the landmarks and centers of the Irish religion are forever changed by colonization.
Where Magan’s narrative is particularly potent is in his talent for placing the reader at the time and place in which the aspect of the landscape would have been in use, or, in some cases, still is. His descriptions of ancient peoples and the metamorphizing of the land over time are rich with imagery and a humanity we do not often associate with our landscape in the modern mind. The chapter on Onweynagat, known to be the Morrigan’s dwelling place (the Irish goddess of war who foretold warrior’s deaths) and a sacred cave where rituals were held, is particularly lush as Magan recounts the initial discovery of a cave claimed to be the site. His consideration of the carved walls of the tunnel, barely big enough for a single person to shimmy between, and the experience of ancient peoples as they would take the same journey down, without light, into the stomach of the earth, is rife with thoughtful imagery and a patient contemplation of spirituality.
By recounting the storied history of Ireland’s land, Magan successfully retrieves memories the traumatized Ireland may have forgotten or chosen to put aside in order to focus on moving forward and continued industrialization. The rivers of Ireland still show evidence of retreating glacial ice, in addition to the trauma of famine and cillíní (unmarked burial grounds for those the Church considered unworthy of a proper burial, such as unbaptized infants and women who died in childbirth). Celtic religion and mythology are pulled to the present by the only constant Ireland has, its land. It may change, transition, and injure, but it retains all that it is given. In Magan’s eyes, Ireland is the sum of all that it has endured. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of historians and archeologists, there are those artifacts that have been destroyed or lost to time. The lower half of Old Croghan Man, the bog body recovered in co. Offaly, or the destroyed ancient roadways, called tóchar, that used to through co. Westmeath, are both artifacts that would provide poignant context to a time and a place that so many attempted to erase, had they been recovered. However, while these decayed people and constructs will most likely never be found, the land still remembers their shape, and what it was like when all was new. We may never know what exactly happened to Old Croghan Man or how his body came to rest in the bog that preserved him, but because the bog itself made room for him, we can guess as to his height, when he was killed, and how, which in turn allows us to speculate about who he was and why he ended up in such a place, an opportunity not afforded to many tales of history we are told.
Listen to the Land Speak is a work of creative non-fiction, meaning that it both informs as well as tells a story, which is usually some kind of memoir or personal narrative, and this work is no different. Magan includes his perspective as a documentary presenter and as a writer who has traveled the globe, returning to his place of birth and rediscovering its mysteries. Each site is one he has visited himself and he writes of his specific experiences, even going so far as to discuss how close some of these sites were to his home and how he never knew about them until the writing of Listen to the Land Speak. These moments of personal observation are of interest but are not always as well presented as other aspects of the novel. Sometimes tangling confusingly with the folklore and history, these pieces of memoir provide necessary context and a personal touch to a narrative that otherwise could have been quite dry, however, they do not always successfully communicate the author’s feelings towards the rediscovery of his native Ireland. Had this angle been more explored and firmly balanced against the scholarly content, perhaps it might have felt more in step with the rest of the narrative, as the research and dedication to unearthing archeological sites outshine what personal memoir that is included.
Listen to the Land Speak: A Journey into the Wisdom of What Lies Beneath Us endeavors to bring to the forefront the intricate history of the Irish landscape. Filled with interdisciplinary details, bogs and rivers and circles of stones become something other, something grander and connected to the root of all things, particularly the questions that humans always have and always will ask. While the shaky memoir is, at times, distracting and disorganized, it can be overwhelmed with luxuriant descriptions of the land that both native Irish and international audiences will be intrigued by. Magan manifests an Ireland both ancient and terrifyingly modern, each fighting to overshadow the other in a battle marred by colonialism and industrialization. What magic Magan wrings, in spite of the imbalances, comes from the land and the people who walked it in the beginning, a way of contemplating a culture as it once was and as it has come to be: scarred, but ceaseless.
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