Tír na nÓg - Folklore, Mythology, History and Art
This section is like a nursery section where links are grown before transplanting out to their own sections, where they would be put into context. The context that the Tír is working towards is that of Ireland from earliest times up to the Iron Age (with maybe the odd excursion into medieval).
Links here have caught my fancy. I leave it to others to attempt to maintain comprehensive lists. In my experience, the major search engines throw up most of what's available.
Poor devils (list-keepers) - the number of sites is constantly growing. Sites also disappear without warning.
Poor Devils (surfers) - Some sites that you may find are simply extensive lists of URLs (some of which are links to further lists) with no real description of the content they link to. Tír na nÓg will never be like that.
General
A good start-point for general information is Yahoo's section on Celtic culture
It is very general however. The ancient Celts can't be treated as an homogenous group. They share aspects of culture, but they are not a unit.
More Specific
The Tír's focus is pre-Celtic and Celtic Ireland, which would be up to the Iron Age. Given the lack of physical evidence available, a picture of society in those times can only be formed from a combination of archaelogical evidence and mythology. The Discovery Program adopts that sort of approach. This is one of the Irish governments more enlightened use of budget.
Mythology
Folklore and Seasonal Celebrations is a section of a larger Celtic site. Well worth a visit, this section carries most of the old Irish tales.
A to Z of Ancient Ireland might be expected to be dry and dusty. It's NOT!
This is a thoughtful piece with sparks of humour that establishes the author firmly as a man after my own heart. Required reading for all visitors to the cafe!
Celtic Studies Resources - From an Opinionated Digital Medievalist - are worth a visit :)
Dalriada Magazine has a Gopher menu of articles on Celtic Mythology
Animal Symbolism in Celtic Mythology is an interesting academic paper.
This glossary may help to sort out the men from the faeries
You've heard the story, you've read the books. Now walk the ground
If you are in Ireland, think about Legendary Tours. You can walk in the footsteps of the legendary figures and hear the stories from your guide.
This site carries the essentials on some of the locations and stories covered. It also has a set of links to related Web-sites.
Tales
Early history come to us via an oral tradition. Written history begins when Christian monks began to make a written record of that tradition (and perhaps a record edited to minimise conflict with Christian teaching).
Sometime this year, I'll produce editorial around this. For the moment, here are some pointers to the early annals
History
Earthlore - 9000 years of Irish culture This is a whirlwind tour.
The Celts are a European grouping (with the Irish sort being the best, of course)
The Short(er) History of Ireland gives a good chronology.
Art
Pictures from The Book of Kells are as slow as bejas... to download, but worth a look.
This link is to the home of the book at TCD, Dublin.
This one saves you the trouble of learning about gophers.
The Celtic Coracle is has both home-grown and reproduced Celtic art. Informative text supports the images.
The Celtic Lady is a Celtic illustrator who creates art for the computer (and will probably sell you things if you ask her nicely enough).
Historical Materials On-Line
Thesaurus Linguarum Hiberniae is a joint project of the Royal Irish Academy and University College Cork (CURIA)
to create an interactive on-line searchable database archive of literary and historical materials in the various languages of early, medieval and modern Ireland.
Go to Tír na nÓg
Created by ALIA