July 2026 "It was the ambition of every housewife that the store of food from the previous harvest should last until the new harvest was ripe." - from The Year in Ireland by Kevin Danaher From the outside July looks like the easy part of the year, with the long evenings (grand stretch) and the st...

July 2026 "A charm against sickness is an amulet worn round the neck, enclosing a piece of paper, on which is written the first three verses of St. John's Gospel." - Lady Wilde, Irish Cures, Mystic Charms and Superstitions July is the long middle of things, the stretch where the first push is spe...

5 July 2026 "the step from Charm to Prayer is a short and easy one." - Eleanor Hull, quoted in Charms, Charmers and Charming in Ireland July can be deceptively hard, because the light is strong and the days are long, so from the outside it can look like everything should be easier by now. This is...