Friday, April 12, 2024. A storytelling event not to be missed!! If you see only one storytelling show all year, this is the one to see! Go to the end of this post to see short previews of two of the stories.

Tales from the Hedgerows is a weaving of Irish history, myth, song and poetry  with some insights and inspirations for our own trying times. William Kennedy Hornyak’s program will include the Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), which has been called “the greatest story in Irish mythology”, about an epic battle that started as a simple argument between Queen Maeve and her husband. Also featured is the story of The Daghda’s Harp, about the magical healing instrument of the king of the Tuatha de Danann, (kings, queens, druids, bards, warriors, heroes, healers and craftsmen who have supernatural powers).

During the 1700s the teaching of Irish language, history, music, tradition and worship were outlawed by the British Crown. Barred from political office, reduced to tenants on their own soil, denied access to education and economic opportunities, the Irish culture was rendered threadbare. During those times men and women known as hedgerow teachers traipsed dark and lonely trails, braved fines and imprisonment to keep the flame of learning alive in the shelter of hedgerows, barns and botheys.

William Kennedy Hornyak brings the spirit of a late-night Irish hedgerow gathering  to life with stories, songs, poems and toasts in honor of those who educated and inspired the minds and hearts of the people during the brutally repressive era of the Penal Codes (1695-1771).

William Kennedy Hornyak is fiery, captivating, and a master of the storytelling craft. His stories wrap you up, and take you deep into the human experience. He has performed on the main stage of the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tennessee.  More often than not though he can be found in schools, pubs, prisons, churches, colleges, community centers and puttering around his own backyard in Milwaukie, Oregon.  “Storyteller par excellence…endless wit…boundless imagination…transports audiences young and old into an amazing world of imagination.”  The Oregonian

Details

Location: Olympic Theater Arts, 414 NE Sequim Ave., Sequim, WA 98382. For this event the theater will be transformed into the Tir na Nog pub, named for the mythic Irish land of eternal youth and rejuvenation beneath the seas.

Time: 7:00 – 8:30pm. Doors open at 6:30.

Tickets: $20. Advance purchase is highly recommended, his show last year was sold out and many people were turned away at the door. TICKETS FOR IRISH STORYTELLING

Adult beverages (Guinness, Irish whiskey, Irish Cream, and more) available.

For mature audiences, 14 yrs and older.

Tasters

Opening moments from two of the stories that William will share in this program.

The story of the magical harp of the god Dagda, which could overcome warriors and restore them after battle.

The Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley), which has been called the greatest story in Irish mythology, or the Irish Illiad.