Free Republic

A Canadian astronaut will be paying tribute to his Welsh heritage once more on his second mission into space. Dafydd Rhys Williams, whose father was from the valleys town of Bargoed, has already spoken Welsh in space and taken Gareth Edwards' rugby cap into orbit. Weeks away from his second trip on the space shuttle, Dr Williams told BBC Wales that a Welsh dragon would be watching over his mission notebook. The 14-day tour will see Dr Williams make three space walks. The former emergency room physician will be helping to build an extension on the international space station on...

<p>After a long hiatus because of a boating accident in which her fiance drowned, Loreena McKinnett is finally back with a just released CD, 'An Ancient Muse'.</p> <p>You can see streaming video footage of “Caravanserai” (from 'An Ancient Muse') performed live at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain (September 2006). It’s an exciting taste of the PBS Great Performances live concert TV special to come in March 2007, 'Nights from the Alhambra'.</p>

An apartheid society existed in early Anglo-Saxon Britain, research suggests. Scientists believe a small population of migrants from Germany, Holland and Denmark established a segregated society when they arrived in England. The researchers think the incomers changed the local gene pool by using their economic advantage to out-breed the native population. The team tells a Royal Society journal that this may explain the abundance of Germanic genes in England today. [Modern-day England has] a population of largely Germanic genetic origin, speaking a principally German language Dr Mark Thomas, UCL There are a very high number of Germanic male-line ancestors...

In the land of Spain in the Iberian Peninsula, there are groups of people who speak a language similar to Portguese called the Galicians. Galicians live in northwestern part of Spain, known as the "land of the 1000 rivers". It is one of Spain's official language besides Spanish and are refered as Gallegos. Galcians have migrated to other parts of Spain and Latin America. Galicians have their own autonomous region in Spain, like the Basque people. Galicians originally were Celtic people who migrated from the Pyrenees Mountain. The tribe called Galleci was established in northwestern part of Spain. Then around...

Boadicea may have had her chips on site of McDonald's By Nick Britten (Filed: 25/05/2006) Archaeologists believe they may have found the final battle site for the warrior queen Boadicea - on the site of a McDonald's restaurant. Having spent her life in fierce resistance to one empire - the Romans - her last stand is thought to have been overshadowed by another one, this time corporate. Having found ancient artefacts where new houses and flats are due to be built, experts have now asked the local authority to allow a full excavation of the area. Little is known about...

If you're Irish, you're familiar with the following words: shamrocks, claddagh and trinity designs, merino wool, Dresden and Belleek porcelain, Celtic music and crosses, bogwood, the Book of Cels, connemara marble, new grange spirals, “Erin Go Braugh” (Ireland forever) and “Cead Mile Failte” (one hundred thousand welcomes). As it is March and we Irish from the town of Victory are a proud lot, we would like to honor and remember one Irish family - the Martin/Wood/Houghtaling family. John Martin (future Revolutionary War veteran) left county Sligo, in the northern part Ireland in the 1700s and sailed to America to New...

Archaeologists Find Hoard of Celtic Coins Fri Jun 3,10:43 AM ET AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Archaeologists have uncovered 17 ancient Celtic coins in a field in the south of the Netherlands, the first hoard of such coins found in the country. Amsterdam's Free University excavated the site in April and will display the coins, which are made of silver and mixed with copper and gold, in the Limburgs Museum in the city of Venlo on Saturday. They are estimated to date from 20-50 B.C., shortly after Julius Caesar began the Roman conquest of the region. Leaders of local Germanic tribes "probably...

DNA shows Celtic hero Somerled's Viking roots IAN JOHNSTON SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT A HISTORIC Celtic hero credited with driving the Vikings out of western Scotland was actually descended from a Norseman, according to research by a leading DNA expert. According to traditional genealogies, Somerled, who is said to have died in 1164 after ousting the Vikings from Argyll, Kintyre and the Western Isles, was descended from an ancient royal line going back to when the Scots were living in Ireland. But Bryan Sykes, an Oxford University professor of human genetics who set up a company called Oxford Ancestors to research people’s...

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Fans at a Scottish Cup soccer game jeered during a minute's silence for Pope John Paul II on Sunday, forcing the tribute to be cut short. The booing by Hearts fans came before the semifinal against Celtic, which has mostly Catholic fans. Referee Stuart Dougal ended the memorial less than halfway through because of the noise. The game was televised in Britain and overseas.Hearts chief executive Phil Anderton criticized the fans' conduct and apologized to Celtic and the Scottish Football Association."It is disturbing that some Hearts fans failed to see the significance of this occasion," he...

This was probably the best concert aired on PBS I've ever seen. From the link at the top (sorry, it is a "donation page" but I couldn't find a better one): Celtic Woman The program brings to the screen five exceptional new Irish stars in a spectacular performance recorded live at Dublin's prestigious Helix Centre. Performing some of the most beautiful and best-loved songs in the musical repertoire, the four singers -- 15-year-old Chloë Agnew, Lisa Kelly, Méav Ní Mhaolchatha and Orlagh Fallon -- and violinist Máiréad Nesbitt bring the Dublin audience to their feet over and over again. Normally,...

Irish, Scots and Welsh not Celts - scientists September 09 2004 at 08:15PM Dublin - Celtic nations like Ireland and Scotland have more in common with the Portuguese and Spanish than with "Celts" - the name commonly used for a group of people from ancient Alpine Europe, scientists say. "There is a received wisdom that the origin of the people of these islands lie in invasions or migrations... but the affinities don't point eastwards to a shared origin," said Daniel Bradley, co-author of a genetic study into Celtic origins. Early historians believed the Celts - thought to have come from...

Juvenal's claim was dismissed as poetic exaggeration until archaeological discoveries suggested that the Romans may, after all, have extended their power across the Irish Sea. In 1927 a unique group of burials was unearthed on Lambay, a small island off the coast of County Dublin... Irish archaeologist Barry Raftery plausibly suggests that the burials may represent Britons fleeing reprisals after the Romans crushed a revolt by the Brigantes in the year 74... At Drumanagh in County Dublin, trial explorations have revealed traces of a Roman coastal fort on a promontory jutting into the Irish Sea. The 40-acre site is defended...

Outrage over destruction of Celtic fort online.ie 2004-06-21 17:40:04+01 Heritage experts today condemned the destruction of part of a 3,000-year-old Celtic fort in Co Kerry. The 700 metres of earthen works that surrounded the ancient Dun Mor Fort on the Dingle Peninsula were levelled at the weekend by an excavating machine. An entrance and a standing stone with an ogham (Celtic writing) inscription were also removed. Heritage Ireland spokeswoman Isobel Smyth said it was a dreadful act. "This is a very important site and we want to see an investigation carried out," she said. The 80 acre Dun More fort...

Johnny Cunningham passed away on the evening of December 15th 2003. He died at home from a heart attack. He was embraced in Trisha's arms. To send condolences and commemorate his life, click here and send a note to be posted on this page.

HALLOWEEN: ITS ORIGINS AND CELEBRATION The celebration of Halloween has dual origins. The first is in a pre-Christian Celtic feast associated with the Celtic New Year. The second is in the Christian celebration of All Saints Day (Nov. 1st) and All Souls Day (Nov. 2). In the British Isles November 1st is called All Hallows, thus the evening before is All Hallows Eve. The Celtic FeastThe ancient Celtic peoples who inhabited England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Brittany (NW France) celebrated their New Year's Day on what would be November 1st on our calendar. Prior to their conversion to Catholicism these...

LANCASTER - The California Poppy is said to have inspired the nickname "La Tierra del Fuego," or "Land of Fire," by early visitors to the state inspired, perchance, by blazing hills of orange and yellow. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the poppy's designation as the state flower and favorable weather this winter and spring has brought forth bountiful blooms in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, a marked improvement over last year's paucity of poppies. To honor the poppy's centennial and the city of Lancaster, which hosts an annual springtime poppy festival, 36th District Assemblywoman Sharon Runner presented...

Celts call for return of artefacts 29.08.2002 By PAUL KELBIE in London A cultural coalition representing six "Celtic" nations are to press the British Government for the return of historically important artefacts held in some of the country's most prestigious academic collections. The Celtic League, an independent pressure group representing the indigenous people of Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Brittany, Isle of Man and Cornwall, is calling for an audit of museum collections around the UK and the return of Celtic exhibits to their "rightful" homes. Among hundreds of items are the ancient Lewis Chessmen, which were taken from Scotland to the...

Welcome! This website is a modest attempt to bring together documents and links related to the the history, theology and life of the Orthodox Churches of the British Isles — from their origins to their eclipse by the Norman Conquests of the 11th and 12th centuries, to their revival today. Please navigate through this site by selecting from the menu at the left. Rev. Deacon Geoffrey Ready Holy Trinity Orthodox MissionHistorical and Theological Studies of the Celtic and Old English ChurchesCeltic and Old English Saints of the Orthodox Church Saint Breandán (Brendan) the Navigator "When the Church in the...