On St. Patrick’s Day, celebrate the ongoing story of our Earth Walk
John O’Donohue was born in 1956, into a native Gaelic speaking family, on the farm inhabited by previous generations in the Burren Region of County Clare, Ireland. As the oldest of four children, he learned to work alongside his parents and uncle, developing a close kinship with the wild landscape, framed by an ethereal view of a limestone valley and the beckoning waters of Galway Bay. This valley was the shell of John’s soul, forging a deep and powerful connection with the elements shaping him. He was educated at the local primary school, alternating his studies with the farm chores of tending livestock, raising crops and carving peat for fuel, in his youth. John later described the profound influence of his childhood home as, “A huge wild invitation to extend your imagination…an ancient conversation between the land and sea.”
John O’Donohue Website
The theme this year is “spréach”, the Irish for spark, which could manifest itself as “the glint of craic in the eye that is so familiar to Irish people” or “the light of innovation and discovery so present throughout our history”, examples in the official festival literature suggest.
The Irish Times, St. Patrick’s Day Parade
My family and I have roots in Ireland on the Feathers line of our family tree. I have in my heart a strong pull of both imagination and need to be there to soak up that which my relatives lived and to understand the forces that ultimately spurred immigration to America. John Feathers settled in Albemarle County, Virginia in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
Susan Feathers 