““By going deeper into myth, I go deeper into love, and when I go deeper into love, innately I find morality; I locate a True North in my own heart.”

― Martin Shaw ”

Fire in the head

The Inuit say there was a time when words were like magic. That what you spoke could take dynamic shape and influence your relationship to a wider earth. That speech was a kind of wealth. Join storyteller Martin Shaw and comedian Tommy Tiernan and as they sit down and talk about their art forms, lives and relationship to wildness, spontaneity and curiosity.

We were thrilled to host master storyteller Martin Shaw, widely regarded as one of the most exciting teachers of the mythic imagination in conversation with the great Irish comedian Tommy Tiernan in Dublin. We partnered with our friends Cista Mystica to present this very special evening at The Fumbally Cafe on October 03. Tickets are €30 Euros with doors at 7:00pm. This was Martin’s first time in Ireland and we are over the moon that this special event finally happened after a few years of patiently waiting for the stars to align….

“I'm coming to beloved Ireland at last, from Dublin over to a wild and devotional final evening in none other than W.B. Yeats's Tower, Thoor Ballylee. It's long been a delicious dream of mine to tell stories here.”

Martin Shaw is an acclaimed teacher of myth and one of Britain’s best-loved storytellers. Robert Bly describes him as “a true master” and Madeline Miller best-selling author of Circe and winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, “a modern day bard”. Thirty years ago, Shaw was hurled into the world of Irish myth and poetry by the work of W.B. Yeats. He is glad to say he has never recovered. He is delighted to be coming to perform in Ireland for the first time in October when he will visit Dublin and Thoor Ballylee, Co. Galway. In these intimate events Shaw will celebrate Irish myth with electrifying stories of Diarmuid, Ossian, Grainne and even Fionn mac Cumhaill himself. In troubled times, it was a traditional role of the storyteller to rouse beauty and vocation. In fiery oral tellings, Shaw brings myths and stories that remind us of love, grief and the mysteries. That provoke our humanity. Shaw will also be talking about his new book, The Night Wages, (Cista Mystica Press, 2019), a rumination on the vitality of ancient stories in modern times. “The Night Wages is Shaw at his vanquished best. A credible medicine man takes the dust of what couldn't last into his hands, flings it up into the light,” Stephen Jenkinson, author of Die Wise. “Pin drop wonder,” John Densmore, The Doors.

About Martin Shaw

Dr Martin Shaw is a writer, mythologist and storyteller. Author of the award-winning Mythteller cycle, recent books include: The Night Wages, Wolf Milk, Courting the Dawn: Poems of Lorca (Cista Mystica Press, 2019); Myth in Real Time an essay and conversation on myth and migration with Ai Weiwei, (Marciano Arts Foundation, 2019). Cinderbiter, his collaboration with the late poet Tony Hoagland on Celtic poems and stories, is released by Graywolf Press in 2020. Shaw’s translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in Orion Magazine, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Poetry Magazine and the Mississippi Review. Shaw has performed alongside and sometimes with Sir Mark Rylance, Hilary Mantel, Madeline Miller, James Hillman, Coleman Barks, David Abram, and Robert Bly.

Creator of the Living Myth and Oral Tradition programmes at Stanford University, Shaw spent four years living on a succession of English hills exploring remaining pockets of British wilderness. He is the director of the West Country School of Myth, currently in its fifteenth year. Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide for twenty years, introducing thousands of women and men to mythology and how it penetrates modern life.

 The Night Wages is a leap into the mysteries, a deep conversation between father and daughter, a ragged travelogue of a night sea journey to the temple of Aphrodite. Released in February 2019, it has quickly gained cult status among Shaw’s readership. The Into the Marvellous book tour launched at Ted Hughes’ college, Pembroke, Cambridge. It has sold out venues in London, Brighton and across the south of England, and a ten-week sellout American leg of the tour. https://cistamystica.com/shop/the-night-wages/

What people say about Martin Shaw

“No other writer since Ted Hughes could have even imagined writing this book…Martin Shaw makes you lose your head then find your heart.”

Mark Wormald, director of studies for English, Pembroke College, Cambridge

"Martin Shaw is listening to myths, dreams, the earth itself, the animals. He is a true shaman."

Coleman Barks, author of The Essential Rumi

"Eloquent and elegant. Shaw offers an irresistible invitation."

Malidome Somé, Dagara elder and author of Of Water and the Spirit 

 "A web of wild intelligence."

Rosie Boycott, The Independent

"An outrageous piece of magic."

David Abram, author of Becoming Animal  

"Magnificence of soul with a deft acuity of intellect."