Description: Homepage of the extensive website devoted to the culture, history, archaeology, landscape and traditional music of Ireland, dedicated to the memory of Father Michael O'Flanagan, priest, politician, hostorian and inventor. The website, which was started in 1998, is run and maintaned by Fáilte Ireland approved guide Martin Byrne and his wife Margaret, a pair of noted Traditional Musicians and Tour Guides based in the Father O'Flanagan History and Heritage Centre in the Old RIC Barracks in Cliffoney village, C
guided tours (419) traditional music (125) county sligo (6) w. b. yeats (2) rev. fr. michael o'flanagan (1) sligo abbey (1) martin byrne (1) margaret byrne (1) cliffoney village (1) equinox sunrise at loughcrew (1)
Sunset in late April 2022 viewed from The Kissing Stone , Dolmen Number 7 at Carrowmore , the great megalithic passage grave complex in County Sligo.The mountain in the distance, Knocknarea is capped by the massive neolithic cairn of Eoghan Bel and Queen Maeve . The Red Woman , an Irish mythological being who has been adapted by George R. R. Martin for his Game of Thrones series; his Melisandre is clearly based on Ella Young's Red Woman in her story, the Shining Beast.
This website began in the 1990's as a modest guidebook informing of the mysterious chambered passage-graves at Carrowkeel , a little-known neolithic complex of ancient monuments in the Bricklieve Mountains in the south of County Sligo. While the guide book has yet to be completed, the website, which turns twenty-five years old in 2023, has expanded well beyond Carrowkeel to embrace various aspects of Irish history and culture.
The website covers archaeology , particuarly Irish passage-graves, their art , astronomy and mythology , along with religion , history and music — in essence the remains left by the succeeding waves of colonists arriving in Ireland — which is one long, fascinating and interwoven story spanning thousands of years. The oldest monument discovered in Ireland so far is the causewayed enclosure at Magheraboy just outside Sligo, which has been dated to 4,150 BC.