Poros the brosed fro you drooping owners. Welcome to the blind by podcast. If this is your first podcast,

maybe go back and listen to an earlier episode. I have a wonderful treat for you this week.

Returning to the podcast is the magnificent Mankan Magin. He's a documentary maker, he's a writer,

he's a folklorist, he's an etymologist of the Irish language, and he's someone I just adore

speaking to. I love speaking to Mankan because we're both curious about the exact same things

and I love checking in with Mankan every six months or every year and finding out what he's

been up to and what adventures he's been on and I always come away learning something new

and also Mankan is someone I check in with when I'm reading about Irish mythology or Irish folklor

and I check in with him because of his understanding of the Irish language. I don't speak the Irish

language unfortunately. Had a bit of a shitty time in school when I should have been learning it

and I just haven't found the time as an adult to re-learn the Irish language. So Mankan does

speak the Irish language fluently and because of this he has an understanding of Irish mythology

and Irish folklor that goes far beyond what I can grasp by simply reading English translations.

He goes right back to the words and what they mean and the roots of words. So we had

we had a free-form conversation. We had a conversation about Irish mythology,

folklor, the relationship and importance of Irish mythology with the ecosystem with the environment

with forests and also Mankan recently spent time in Australia where he was welcomed by

Aboriginal Australian people so that they could exchange knowledge between Irish folklor

and Aboriginal folklor and to find the commonalities between the two. Mankan has a new book

common out in September which is called Wolfman and Waterhounds and it's about the myths,

monsters and magic of Ireland. I think it's directed at younger readers but check out any of Mankan's

books like 32 words for field or banshees, fingers and other Irish words for nature

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